= Premium Content

  • Monday, May 28, 2012

The Global Ticker

Previous

Next

Liberal Party Proposes Billion-Dollar Student-Aid Program in Canada

March 30, 2011, 12:41 pm

Four days into Canada’s  federal election campaign, the opposition Liberals unveiled their first major platform policy plank which promises $1,000 a year to students now enrolled at a university or college, or $1,500 to low-income students. Calling it “revolutionary,” Michael Ignatieff, the party’s leader, says the billion-dollar Canadian Passport to Learning will also contribute the same amount for four years to every high-school student’s Registered Education Savings Plan, which he hopes will encourage them to to go on to higher education. This  plan is a new idea for Canada, one the Canadian Federation of Students says has some flaws, such as not addressing inevitable tuition increases, but the federation says it will work with the party to “iron out the kinks.” All the major political parties are expected to discuss higher education during the 36-day campaign. The governing Conservatives last week proposed a number of smaller initiatives to foster research and internationalization in their now-defunct budget.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

  • Print
  • Comment
  • jomaha

    I liked la_profesora’s response… there are many reasonable explanations for these red flags (I also agree w/ darrcity that “poison pill” is not the best metaphor for what’s going on here).

    It should be an opportunity for a search committee to ask a good question… “You’ve moved around a lot over the past eight years… can you provide some insight into that?”  Many of the moves academics and administrators make are due in large part to partner and family considerations (which we cannot ask about unless they are devulged). 

  • 22008306

    The red/yellow flags in a person’s CV are often the reasons for a 2-page (or longer) cover letter. There are many reasons to move from one job to another that may not be apparent in a CV. And I have rarely listed former supervisors as references as I have either lost touch with them following their retirements/moves, they have passed, and one is in jail.

    Next topic: The dangers of confusing one’s metaphors in public.

  • 22185161

    Thanks for pointing this out, la_profesora. As someone who has changed jobs a bit more than the norm throughout her career, I feel I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to do so. I was heavily headhunted from 1990 to 2008, and every position I took reflected upward mobility in responsibility and authority. I would not trade those experiences for anything. I am now in a position I intend to be at until retirement and am very happy. My employer is very happy with me as well – precisely because I had all the experience my multiple previous experiences provided to me.

  • reineke

    Having been in academia for 26 years and served on many search committees for faculty and administrators (president, vice presidents of every stripe, etc.), at my institution the following tends to be the common practice.   In humanities area disciplines, we expect 2 1/2- 3-page letters from our tenure-track applicants (or a statement on teaching that would account for one of those pages).   Administrative applications throughout the university are typically at least three pages but should never be longer than five pages.  Criteria listed in a typical administrative job description take an applicant at least three pages to address.  At least three years in a position before moving is a general rule – regular changes at the two-year point do raise questions.  It takes a year to learn an administrative job, a year to start making progress, and a year to see at least some of those second-year initiatives reach fruition.  If you are in the market in your second year or just after completing two years, the first year was probably not a pretty picture.  Also, the writer of this post seems to have missed the “You have to move down to move up” truism for higher education.  Although some applicants for administrative positions do make lateral moves (moving from dean to provost at a like-ranked institution), the most typical pattern in higher education is for a dean to become provost at an institution ranked just below the institution where the candidate is currently dean.   There are some exceptions:  a particularly talented candidate can move up a notch but moving up more than one notch usually brings the “they’re trying to jump into too big a pond” comment from a search committee.  That said, the old truisms do get set aside, on occasion, in the quest to hire a compelling candidate who is being sought by multiple institutions. 

  • jamesebryan

    I think that probably depends on your discipline and the amount of exposition expected in it.

  • missoularedhead

    Ah, but geography and weather can work both ways, particularly if the institution is in a small town or rural area, where attracting and keeping talent can be a challenge. We don’t have ‘big city’ opportunities, so we want someone who likes the area, the small town life, and the weather.  Otherwise, the first time it tops 100 in the summer, or they realize they have to drive 100 miles to get to the airport…well, they’re looking.

  • pflady

    My (late) grandfather-in-law seemed to exemplify the latter portion of your comments.  He began his academic career as the president (!) of a very small college, then became dean at a larger state school, and finally ended his academic career with a 25-year stint as professor at a highly-regarded small private college.  The most unusual academic career I’ve ever encountered!

  • jamesebryan

    If moving down in the prestige scale is a problem, how are second- and third-tier institutions ever to find staff, and how are all the graduates from first-tier institutions ever to find work?  I thought it was expected that unless you were a really dazzling star you would move down a notch or two from where you were educated.  And let’s not even go off on tangents about the vagaries, imprecisions, and injustices of levels of prestige, or how a university that is regarded as among the best as a whole might not in fact be all that great in certain disciplines.

  • pennyu

    Another reason for the red flag of frequent job change that should not be a poison pill is marriage to a member of the armed services. NPR did a feature this week on the difficulty faced by military spouses who are forced to move constantly. This group’s level of education, motivation, organization, and achievement is higher than average, yet they face the diffidence of employers who see “instability” in their resumes. Especially in academic teaching, where so many jobs are non tenure-track, such diffidence makes no sense.

  • march_hair

    Yes, thank you!  As PhD candidate at a first-tier institution, I was wondering that myself.  I’m not a dazzling star; I don’t have any desire to be.  I enjoy research, but I wouldn’t enjoy having to maintain the level of productivity the faculty in my department are expected to maintain.  I believe that I’m competent and am receiving excellent training, and my superstar adviser seems pleased with my work.  That said, I know enough about myself to know I’d be miserable if I were expected to publish three articles a year, which is the expectation of faculty in my department.  This doesn’t mean my research is of lower quality than those who do find satisfaction in this type of work; it just means I am aware of what kind of life that level of productivity requires (constant work, constant stress, unusually good self discipline), and I’d rather have more opportunities for social interaction (I’m including teaching here), work-life balance, and a stress level that doesn’t put me at high risk for a heart attack at 50.

  • v8573254

    I  have always had issues with the word “gifted” in relation to schools and programs.  Too many gifted programs offer opportunities and classroom settings that would benefit EVERY student.

  • mbelvadi

    Many people, and unfortunately many school programs, confuse “gifted” with “high achieving”. Unfortunately, due to  a complex mix of factors, many poor minorities who are gifted are also low-achieving (usually called “underachieving” when they’re gifted). If the “gifted” programs are only designed for “gifted high achievers” then the minorities will be left out. It’s ironic, because they are exactly the students who can benefit the most from them, the ones who fail to cope with being ill-challenged in the regular program, as compared with the high achievers, who by definition cope well and just hit the “ceiling” on the regular programs.

  • 11144703

    So Eric, the world is the privileged white people versus oppressed black and Latina peoples?  Have you ever heard of Asian people?  Of course there is a need to “expand the definition of merit to a whole new level.”  It’s caused by ASIAN dominance as seen in Stuyvesant High School (and other high schools) in which a purely merit based test equals a class 67% Asian.  Asians outperform the white people, have higher incomes than the white people, etc.  Yet you’ve totally erased the Other, i.e. Asians, from your article as if they don’t exist.  It’s important that you do this so that people of color are seen as merely the oppressed.  Asians are upsetting your narrative–so ignore them.  Correct me if I’m wrong, please.    

  • erichoover

    11144703 – I don’t have a “narrative,” nor did I “erase” anyone. I was just directing readers to an interesting article that has implications for readers in higher education. And it’s true: summaries of articles often don’t cover all the details in nuances contained in those articles.

    Eric Hoover 

  • 11144703

    Eric,  I certainly understand (and thank you for your perceptive response).  However, I think your analysis requires you to more than merely passively pass off an article.  I’m still surprised you didn’t note that it erased Asians, although it’s perfectly understandable in the self-styled progressive media since Asians disrupt / transgress the progressive narrative (not your narrative, as I now realize) of the oppressive, perpetually privileged white people versus the long suffering, perpetually oppressed people of color.  No diversity, there.

  • cwinton

    The decision to play the last 3 games, whatever the motivation, at least fits with how teams that have been placed on probation are treated (although some might argue this case rises to the level of the one at SMU, where the NCAA required the school to shut down its program).  PSU will be bowl eligible, so the real proof in the pudding will be how they handle possible post season games.  To my thinking the school should announce it will not play beyond already scheduled games (which also means they would not contend for the Big 10 championship).  The argument that you would be punishing innocent players doesn’t wash, since infractions by one or more players can lead to the same kind of outcome.  Isn’t that one of the lessons teamwork is supposed to teach?

  • moehnandasc

    Perhaps this might be considered. Play the reaming scheduled games as to cancel them will hurt not only Penn State, but the Universities they are playing. Accept a bowl bid so as not to hurt the players that have worked so hard, but donate all the proceeds from the bowl game to an orginiztion that helps protect and heal victims of this type of abuse.
    Just a thought

  • sand6432

    If the incidents had involved a currently employed coach and been recent events, then cancellation might have been appropriate. But to take such a step in response to an incident involving a nonemployee occurring nearly a decade ago seems extreme. But I do like the idea of donating any bowl game profits PSU makes to child abuse charities (to the extent that Big 10 revenue sharing allows).—Sandy Thatcher

  • victorl

    Penn State is only beginning to learn what the actual “costs” are to arrogance and contempt toward the truly vulnerable.  The students at Penn State who feel they had “nothing to do” with the priority given to sports over other issues are learning that there really is a price to pay for keeping one’s head in the sand (or bleachers, or sky boxes).  Penn State should not just bemoan their fall from grace (if that is how they consider what’s gone on), but reflect on what else might have fallen by the wayside with this coordinated lack of oversight of the university’s athletic program.  If such a horrific and egregious disregard could be sustained for so many years at such an high administrative level by so many, can this truly be the only crime, abuse, etc., that has been brushed aside in the name of leaving the school’s image (and sports profits) untarnished?  An ethical lapse like what’s gone on at Penn State did not emerge from nowhere.  This is a culture of “no-higher-priority” athletic prominence.  I’ll be surprised if it were the only instance we learn about. 

    In part, this ethos gets sustained by pandering to what your “customers” (students) want, rather than what faculty, educators, administrators, etc., must understand a university to be.  They’ve proven that they know how to run Penn State as a business, and can show a profit, and can please their share-holders, advertisers, and sports alumni.  It might be nice if they could come round to a sense of what a non-profit educational organization should be doing, and how this is so very different from big business, or, as we’ve seen, a “winner-take-all” athletics contest.  It will be interesting to follow the trajectory Penn State’s trustees chart as the school moves forward.  Will there be any reprioritization?

  • academicvalues

    FYI Penn State is a fine academic institution.

  • 12080243

    “If the incidents had involved a currently employed coach and been recent events, then cancellation might have been appropriate. But to take such a step in response to an incident involving a nonemployee occurring nearly a decade ago seems extreme…” This quote portrays quite aptly limited sympathy. 

    Sympathy seems appropriate for all those at Penn State except “one individual and the failure of a few others.” Then thoughts occur whether they’re consciously sought. For example, you’ve seen the screaming, enthusiastic crowds at Penn State football games (and at other such events, in other environments, too.) It’s quite overpowering. It’s also quite empowering to Penn State leaders or to other university leaders, too. Now, remember the pictures of the screaming, enthusiastic crowds at Hitler rallies. That thought occurs whether we bid for it consciously or not. They’re facts. Do the screaming, enthusiastic crowds provide license to Hitler, to other tyrants, or to, by comparison the lesser but just as disgusting, criminals at Penn State, or to other amoral leaders at other universities? How do you control this license? How do we control the crowds? And the leaders that feed on them? The crowd can’t walk away as innocents, can they? The crowd is made up of individuals. Are individuals at Penn State innocents? We all contribute to our rah-rah PR deceptions our leaders perpetrate on students and the public. We know that. We professors know that. None of us is ignorant of this reality. But we let it slip by. We, faculty, allow Penn State type leadership, whether it is at Penn State or my school, the University of Southern Mississippi. My guess is that all individuals at Penn State will, directly or indirectly, pay the price for their participation in the child-abuse scandal. Associative guilt? That’s a fact whether you like it or not, or whether I like it or not. The question is are you blameless as a fan of “Joe-pa” sports? If you’re blameless, then stop the mindless crowds and the license they give the Joe-pas around the country. Worry about controlling the license you grant to Joe-pas. It may be your son or daughter or religion that is ————–. You fill in the blank.

    Chauncey M. DePree, Jr., DBA, Professor, School of Accountancy, University of Southern Mississippi and Editor, usmnews

  • jffoster

    1. The NCAA’s jurisdiction here is doubtful.  They’re putting their oar in because they are becoming increasingly ineffectual and irrelevant, even as some of their rules get stupider and stupider.

    2. The Penn State youth and child seduction scandal is only incidentally connected with football, or with sports in general.  It could as easily have happened in a College of Music with a preparatory department and thus children around a lot with college personnel and other faculty having easy access to them. (Note: I know of no such instances.).  Would the NCAA presume to chime in then? I doubt the AGO, AAUP, or Musician’s Federation would.

  • pianiste

    The “youth and child seduction” part of the Penn State may be only “incidentally connected with football” (although it’s not just incidentally connected to coaches in a variety of sports, re the other recent scandals in gymnastic, swimming, tennis, etc.*), but the coverup is very much connected with football.

    Jerry Sandusky went on with what he’s accused of doing for as long as he did because Joe Paterno–either proactively, or because he deliberately turned a blind eye, or because he simply refused to believe one of his own could be involved in such deeds–protected him. Paterno was the most powerful man on the Penn State campus. The president of the university and the AD tried to get him to step down in 2004, and he refused, probably because he–how ironic!–wanted to get to victory no. 409 and be remembered as the winningest football coach in D-1 history.

    In this scandal, the AD and a vice-president did little or nothing about Sandusky, and when the scandal broke, the president inadvisedly said he stood 100 percent behind them. This is probably because nobody wanted to go against Paterno, and nobody wanted to go against Paterno because he was the powerful man on campus, and he was the most powerful man on campus because of football–$70 profit, 100,000 in the seats for home games, etc.

    If you include–as with Watergate–the coverup as part of the Penn State scandal, then it is indeed directly connected to football.

    * Veritable worship of young bodies, close approximation to them, locker rooms, showers, etc.

  • jffoster

    If, as seems at least plausible if not probable, that there was a cover up, then I think you’re correct that the motivation for it was certainly related to the peculiar circumstances of football at Penn State.  NCAA’s jurisdiction is still doubtful, and of course they’re considering trying to change the rules to allow them to assert jurisdiction.

  • 12080243

    Piansite, your comments need to be repeated over and over to offset the misrepresentations college sports advocates repeat over and over.

  • ndkchk

    It’s difficult to argue that the coverup was limited to just football when the president of the university also heard about Sandusky and did nothing. Sure, what Joe Paterno heard was far more damning, but it’s also a problem that Graham Spanier heard some version of events and did not act – likely due to the university attitude towards big-time sports.

  • katisumas

    You’re so right!

    But how could these people refer to rape and molestation as “child seduction”????? 

  • pianiste

    Other than having a football coach with a long, long tenure, how “peculiar [are the] circumstances of football at Penn State” compared to those at Auburn, Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Oregon, Tennessee, etc., etc.?

  • Socratease2

    He does repeat them over and over.

  • Socratease2

    I agree Paterno’s position at Penn State was unusually powerful and influential but to say he was powerful because he brought in money and fans and therefore no one would touch him. Well, I don’t know about that. No university gets rich off athletics not even Penn State. Their athletic department may be self-sustaining or turn some profit but FB merely funds all the olympic sports and athletic dept. staff salaries. By the time you get done with the AD debit-credit ledger, I seriously doubt the money remaining, if any, put Paterno in a position to dictate much. It wasn’t money that gave him power. Plus, to say that you have to believe that administrators at all levels at Penn State (Admissions, Registrar, Student Affairs, etc.) hav zero professional ethics or backbone and would simply do anythng he said. I don’t believe that for a second.

  • Socratease2

    Apparently the gods can be deposed pretty easily then.

  • Socratease2

    That is one of the few things I can agree with here. You are right with each passing second. Right about what, I have no idea.

  • 12080243

    Good to hear from you, again, Socratease2.

  • pianiste

    As does Socratease2 his thinly disguised advocacy for bigtime college spectator sports.

  • riffusa

    “No university gets rich off athletics not even Penn State.”

    Really I think what you’re saying is, how do you quantify the revenue the prestige of a successful athletics program brings to your school? 

  • Socratease2

    Hi 12080243. I can’t reply to pianiste but you were close by. I really am not an advocate of big time spectator sports. Personally, I like college and NHL ice hockey and that is what I watch. I detest March Madness, was thrilled the NBA season was almost cancelled and am not a big FB fan. But I do love sports and competition in general and I was a student-athlete who ran cross-country and track in college. So I was not lavished with big time sports love believe me. I think athletics, if conducted with the right principles, has a place in a university and  that is a far different statement then I am a closet advocate for spectator sports. If I profited off sports in any way, my position might be more cynical, but I don’t. What is my payoff to support big tiime college sports? None, so, for those who think otherwise…whatever. So, once again, all I am saying is things are bit more complex than “college sports are all corrupt and demean the university.” That is just not true and I will continue to argue against sloppy analysis. The media coverage (and associated $$) of college sports is what has changed so quickly and is the ultimate cause of much that is wrong with the current system. The money is what allows the “arms race” in building new trainining facilities, stadiums and in financing the balooning salaries for coaches. Sports themselves are not the issue so I think people should target curing the disease not kill the patient.

  • 12080243

    Good to hear from you, Socratease2. I have to say, the topic is like salty potato chips. So here goes: The challenge is to identify “the right principles” and show that it works on university campuses. Folks have developed rules, and modified them again and again to address the misconduct and corruption of big-money sports for decades and the results are that big-money sports is incompatible with universities. [I’m not referring to the nitpicking blather from the NCAA.) We, academics, are not equipped to control big-money sports on our campuses. Just as we are not equipped to prosecute criminals among us. You can’t have big-money sports, football/basketball, on universities without the hundreds of thousands of fans and wealthy donors. They are symbiotic. Can’t have one without the other. And, they want winning teams. So, control their enthusiasm for winning teams. Control their insistence on having winning teams. Put forward “the right principles” to accomplish control that will change human nature to the point that big-money sports is not corrupt.

  • Socratease2

    All true, I know it is easy to say, “if done correctly and with integrity….” when that is the very issue at hand and I have no idea how to bring all the ducks into a row so that boosters, alumni, athletes, coaches, faculty make the enterprise defendable.  I know I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of what college sports can produce and I guess I still have some optimism but the NCAA needs to create reform with a big R instead of the middling proposals I read today. I still say the kids are generally ok, it is the adults around them that need to do better.

  • 12080243

    Well said. Have a wonderful weekend.

  • dtroop

    This just in from Johns Hopkins: http://web.jhu.edu/thankyou

  • http://twitter.com/sacredheartuniv sacredheartuniv
  • dtroop

    And from Lehigh U.: http://www.lehigh.edu/holiday2011/

  • davi9187

    A short, but cute holiday greeting from the Pirates at Southwestern University:
    http://www.facebook.com/SouthwesternUniversity

  • http://twitter.com/daless14 Anthony D’Alessio

    Merry Christmas from Newman University!
    http://www.youtube.com/user/newmanuniv?feature=mhee

  • http://www.facebook.com/erinedlund Erin Edlund

    Check out ours: http://dctc.edu/go/holiday/

     

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Scenic-Rentals/100003550291359 Scenic Rentals

    Panama City Beach Condo Rentals Your edition is awesome.well done for that.I have watched your videos too.You guys arr really cool.Carry on the good job.All the best for your future.

  • TruthGuardian

    I do agree with everything you say on degrees and on the refusal to renew the lease being the impetus, in the early 1980s for the UK government to have to come up with a strategy for the return of HK, rather than anyone “shrugging off” colonial rule.

    The only area where I disagree is that the UK left the people of HK to their fate (pom is fair epithet :-) The treaty provided for 1 counrty 2 systems and a Basic Law that has, by and large, of course with some exceptions, been adhered to. You also are spot on that, with the exception of the housing bubble burst, HK has thrived. Not sure there was much more the UK could have done.

    I am a proponent of the 3 year degree. One big area for this is law. Those who will go to the UK for an undergraduate law degree complete in 3 and then can receive 1 year of advanced standing on a JD. The whole thing (with two law degrees and an international experience) can be completed in 5 years and at much lower cost. As the cost of education goes up and up people do need to re-evaluate. Not saying the liberal arts degree has no place, or value, it does, just not for all people.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rita-Thissen/100001536284634 Rita Thissen

    Very interesting, and a topic worth exploring.  The authors might have added a couple additional common barriers, some of which are noted in the comments already posted. Some of African students’ difficulties can be traced to the under-developed nature of their countries.

    Challenges include
    - the dependency of application forms on the availability of reliable and fast internet service, which is challenging for areas using 2G or 3G networks, cyber-cafe connections, and intermittent electricity
    - the barriers presented by US universities for the authentication of transcripts, requiring signed sealed copies by paper-mail, from countries where mail service is minimal, unreliable and expensive

    - the US Immigration Service’s high rejection rate of college-age singles in visa applications
    - language barriers

    The
    comments about math are interesting. Apparently many of the
    schools have tracked curricula that start early, and large numbers of
    students take little or no math due to not being on a science or
    engineering track.  And as the article points out, the branches of math
    that are emphasized differ: set theory and logic may be taught more than algebra
    and geometry.

  • grandim

    I am an African who did his GRE and passed with flying colors
    and got admitted in American universities where I did my graduate studies and successfully
    completed both Masters and PhD in record time. My experience in America makes
    me understand why other Africans are not keen on pursuing their studies in
    America.  To put it mildly, I would state
    that America has become an unfriendly destination for immigrants especially Africans
    in the recent years. Those of us who came here within the last 10 years have
    had to endure an immigration regime that deems foreigners as criminals until
    proven otherwise. Further we have to deal with Americans who think if you are
    an African even one with doctoral degree you are a charity case. The nature or
    racism that is deeply embedded in America even among the so called tolerant
    liberals in universities is totally dehumanizing to Africans. In my current
    university which is in the South where I am a faculty member I have endured total
    misery.  Why would anyone who understands
    what happens in America seek to join such place even for studies? Africans are
    being rational. The idea that African culture is anti-math as claimed by the author
    is total hogwash. We have heard these stereotypes since the days of
    colonialism. Whenever any African in Africa contacts me seeking more
    information about attending graduate school in America I give them the facts as
    they are.  Many of them end up in other
    destination. Luckily the world has changed so much although there are those who
    still think they are the destiny’s only gift to humankind. 

  • mutapa

     You are spot on Rita. The internet situation has improved greatly let me speak of East Africa (Kenya). I would not consider the internet as big a problem as say GRE fees. When I came to the US I already had a masters and I would not have paid for GRE ( a friend of mine offered to foot the bill for me that’s what most of us do for our colleagues back in Africa). The transcript verification issue is a real problem and African institutions do not help a bit because getting transcripts from these institutions can be exhausting.
    My guess is the math problem may be with people in the humanities not the sciences because GRE math to Kenyans is pretty close to high school math.
    The decline in applications could very well be the fact that more institutions of higher learning in Africa are opening up to Africans: South Africa is a big draw to African students. The Physics Dept. I was in Kenya has had close to 4 PHDs graduating from South Africa. US universities are doing a better job at recruiting students from Asia (India, China,S. Korea etc) and it is paying off. I would even say that Asian students face quite some competition in Asia so going to Grad school and College in the US is a lot easier if they have the money.  

  • elen3124

    There are many barriers, both academic and cultural, for any non-native American to overcome in the current American university system. One possible solution that I think has worked for many is to attend an international college such as the UWC system (which has colleges all over the world) which helps secondary students to develop into people who can be reasonably at home in any university system. This system has the added advantage of teaching first-worlders a little bit of what the world beyond their national boundaries is like through getting to know students from all over the world and visiting them in their homes.

    As far as graduate school programs go both American and international students could benefit from courses that address incoming deficits in subjects such as statistics as well as academic writing. They are after all not hard-wired into the student but without help they can construe a real drag to progress. Also, academic mentors are NOT chosen for their ability to help underrepresented or international students but for their subject expertise. It is essential for specialist advisors who can address the problems of these groups to be available to them right through their program, through the thesis and/or orals and dissertation processes.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.