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U.S. Approves Transfer of 435 Tri-Valley Students to Other Institutions

October 25, 2011, 1:47 pm

Of the more than 1,000 Indian students who had enrolled in Tri-Valley University, a California institution that was closed by government authorities after being accused of exploiting federal regulations to commit visa fraud, the U.S. government has approved the transfer of 435 students to other American higher-education institutions, according to a Press Trust of India report published in the Business Standard newspaper. Tri-Valley University  was raided and shut down by authorities earlier this year. After examining each of the 1,000 students’ cases, authorities denied transfer to 145 students and issued Notices of Intention to Deny to another 145 students, the Indian embassy in Washington said. Indian officials urged the United States to view the cases of the students with “understanding” as they have suffered because of the closure of the university.

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  • jffoster

    Found the NYT article but not the original paper, so I don’t know the context of the observation or conclucion “that much academic research “has few tangible benefits.”
    But taken as a statment by itself, I’d be hard put to argue that it is false.

  • bizdean

    It’s not necessary to say it’s false. One should, though, note that it’s overly broad and misses the point.

    In fact in the case of, e.g., the output of the university’s philosophy department, the statement is completely null: New ideas are never “tangible.” If an idea makes someone happy or inspired, is that benefit “tangible”?

    Even if we allow Mr. O’Donnell to misuse the word “tangible” to mean “of immediate economic benefit,” then we must point out to him that this has never been the primary purpose of the university and he’s dopey to pretend that it is. Companies are just now using the fruits of research my PhD advisor published 30 years ago.

    More generally, university research into, e.g., the roots of our culture, serve to strengthen that culture and indirectly make us more productive. But these indirect effects are hard to measure and easy to overlook. We’d miss them if they were gone, though. “We never miss the water ’till the well runs dry.”

  • jffoster

    How much more “research” into “the roots of our culture”, or the like should the public purse be required to pay for? How much culture strengthening is apt to result from yet more things like literary “theory”, postmodernist prattle, er, perusings, ponderings, and publishings, and their ilk. And how much released time from teaching should public universities be expected to provide? Again, I haven’t read the original paper so don’t know the context of the original comment, but that may have been what the gentleman was getting at.

  • mjw13
  • eajmtp2

    There is more to the story than the quote indicates. Since there are questions about his salary and the circumstances of his hiring as well. According to The Texas Tribune “O’Donnell’s $200,000 annual salary and his hiring, which was not announced publicly, have set off some alarms — among lawmakers grappling with the state’s huge budget shortfall and among higher education observers who fear that the choice represents a precarious new direction for the UT System that could threaten its flagship university’s elite status. The hire comes just months after the Texas A&M University System was criticized for implementing reforms recommended by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative research group that advocates an approach that departs radically from the traditional research-driven model of academia.”

    What does Texas want to do with its education system?

    By the way what were the tangible benefits of Bell Labs invention of the laser during the 1960′s? The only reason it and the transistor became important was that both had to be put in the public domain, just as university research traditionally has been. The creation of knowledge for its own sake has little to do with tangible benefits, and everything to do with long term development. Basic research is just that – the base on which other achievements may eventually be built.

  • midevilprof

    Anybody who supposes that public universities are fully supported by “the public purse” has been misled. Many public universities get less than 20% of their revenues from “the public purse” in the form of direct state support. Much research is, it is true, funded by federal agencies such as the NSF and NEH, but then again it is part of the mission of those agencies to fund such research as may bear fruit in just the kind of ways bizdean suggests.

    I think lots of people don’t really understand a) the nature of public university funding, or b) the true mission of a research university. As for a): If someone gave me less than one-fifth of my income, I’d do his bidding less than one-fifth of the time. And for b): They are called “research universities” for a reason, after all. Perhaps there are too many, or perhaps too many smaller, regional, state schools aspire to be research universities when they should not. But part of the reason college and university faculty do what they do is so that they can participate in research that adds to the collective base of knowledge and understanding, whether of dolphin mating habits or a gendered reading of Chaucer. If someone can call upon bits of such “arcane” research findings collected during the course of a college education, that person will be poised to see the world in an enhanced way and be positioned to bring about positive change.

    I teach at a small, private, liberal-arts college where faculty prioritize teaching undergraduate students. If “the public” wants colleges that emphasize undergraduate educations, they should look more carefully at these institutions. But I still do what I do so that I can continue to be an expert in my field. Why should someone pay money to learn from me if I don’t continue to learn myself? How can I teach critical thinking, research and writing in my field if I don’t think critically, conduct research and write it up myself?

  • robert_wyatt

    I know a way he can “improve educational quality while lowering costs” by about $200K.

  • huff0104

    C’mon, folks. This is 21st century Texas. So long as Governor-for-Life Rick Perry appoints the governing boards of the Texas university systems, such as the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems, cronies arguing for sound “business” practices will infest the top positions in Texas higher education. And no matter how deep the cuts in spending for higher education, there will always be public funds to pay for advisers who see no “tangible benefits” from research except cash in someone’s pockets. As for the $200,000 salary, Texans should be glad Mr. O’Donnell is being called “special adviser” instead of “Coach.”

  • commentarius

    Perry’s crony attack on Texas A&M last year is indicative of what can be expected at UT. 1) Impose ludicrous and burdensome requirements on faculty, such as a ranking by their supposed “net worth” to the institution in raw dollars. 2) Get rid of academics in top admin positions and replace them with rich right wing cronies who will be more eager to do his bidding; which Perry has already done with all regents. 3) Demand that tuition plummet to nominal levels, and be capped, while supporting the gutting of all state funding that is left. (The delusional ‘$10,000 bachelor degree’). 4) Claim that the destruction of top tier universities is “reform” which was direly needed and demanded by voters. 5) Be re-elected by a landslide in 2014 by voters too stupid to care, so long as the football teams keep winning. Perry is not dumb. His master plan is to keep the population ignorant and poor, because those are the people who, if they vote at all, vote Republican, at least until they die for lack of health care.

  • missoularedhead

    So, someone who has, in the past, essentially dismissed the role of research at the university level is now ‘advising’ the people who make decisions on how universities are run (in Texas)? Um, no offense to the people of Texas — of whom I know quite a few — but what the hell were you thinking?

  • davi2665

    For tangible evidence of accomplishment, peruse the IP portfolios and royalty revenue of many of the top state-supported and private universities. Obviously, the marketplace would disagree with O’Donnell’s ill-founded statement. In addition, inventions achieved through federal funding must provide an unlimited but non-exclusive license to the federal government to use that invention royalty-free, including as a platform for further development.

  • sand6432

    What are the “tangible benefits” we can expect from us Texas taxpayers coughing up $200K for this guy’s salary? We’re paying him this much to make stupid statements? Gov. Perry wants us to fire hundreds of hard-working K-12 teachers and yet thinks it’s ok to pay a flunky this kind of money? Guess this shows where Perry’s true values lie. —-Sandy Thatcher, Frisco, TX

  • willynilly

    I don’t believe That Mr. O’Donnell is opposed to university research, per se; he is opposed to certain types of research. I believe there are many of us who feel that some of the research that has been conducted, at public expense, is utter nonsense.

  • mateo_luiz

    reading this report, all i can say is “wow”…… as a non-tenure/research track faculty member at a UT System medical center who has also taught basic science courses in an adjunct position at an undergraduate campus, everything is SO true…..I too made the tuition income calculation for my class of 100+ students and wondered where the money was going since <10% went to the instructor (me). Until we Texans/Americans generate some downward pressure on tenured-faculty salaries (and physician salaries for the same reason), it will remain untenable….. i can see why liberal tenured faculty don't like this report.

    i will file this paper with the excellent Bloated Administration, Blighted Campuses one:
    http://mtprof.msun.edu/Win1992/berg.html

  • haohtt

    Tri-Valley, was not a “university,” but was a diploma mill that existed so that foreign students could use the F-1 studednt visa program to ome to the U.S. and obtain full-time jobs, while the diploma mill awarded “credits” and “degrees” for work in place of study.  Tri-Valley used the unique and confusing system of U.S. accreditation to deceive students into think that it was approved by the State of California, which was equivalent to approval  by the Ministry of Education in the students’ native country.  Certainly, some of the students knew what they were doing and came seeking high paying full-time jobs without having to bother with academic study, while others were duped into thinking that this was a legitimate program.  Let’s hope that those who are being allowed to transfer are the latter, honest students, because the former will only do the minimum amount of work (or less) to keep their jobs.

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