Hawaii: Island of the Mysterious Academic Conference

or, more importantly – who cares?

 I am sure someone in Texas or Arizona is working on a methodology to assure this doesn’t happen again.

This is a great program.  I’ve been a donor to the program since it’s beginning and I am thrilled that it has been so succesful and made such a profound impact on these students lives.  Best money I ever spent.  

What a feel good story! But the only aspect that wasn’t correct is the author’s conclusion in the title: “Why Odalis Polanco’s SAT Score Didn’t Matter.”  The Northeastern program was great for English as a Second Language applicants, especially immigrants, because the SAT (even the Math word problems) discriminates against such applicants. However, that does NOT justify doing away with SAT exams for everyone else. The SAT was designed to reduce the preferences toward high income families built into the application process. Optional SATs is even worse because it makes SAT medians skewed high (those with lower scores won’t take the exam).

Good for Mr. Polanco! 

A must-read for any academic professional–thanks for the positive article, Eric. 

As a first-generation-in-my-family Irish American FT evening college student of 30, I had no SAT angst.  I simply enrolled!  But as someone who automatically aces every standardized test (e.g., 98% percentile on GRE), I think Northeastern is wise to have several means of assessing student potential.   Some students are not good at tests, but flower in other settings. 

After I graduated from a top Chinese university, I found that the only ”inventing” going on in the higher education of that nation is in cheating.  Chinese students never go to class, copy papers off the internet, and even sometimes pay to have their papers written by other, more hard working students.  I am not sure what  ”inventing of new forms of higher education” you are talking about.  Have you actually stepped foot in a Chinese university?  The international students at my university (American, Russian, Korean, European, etc) were the only ones writing their own papers, attending classes, and discussing the topics after class.  The chinese students spent most of their time playing video games or Majiang. 

With that being said, it would be wise for both the US and Australia to be careful where they do their cooperation and where they recruit students from.  There are, or course, many high quality students within China.  But, you can’t be blinded by fake Chinese statistics; you have to realize that the majority of Chinese students are not what they are hyped up to be.   There is no “history turning” going on in higher education, especially involving China.  And, as we have seen with campuses like Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University cooperation, we find that the quality of Johns Hopkins has to lower itself to the standards and lack of academic freedom of the host nation. 

Therefore, in response to the article, I believe that American Universities are learning their lessons.  They are going to China continuously seeking out the best cooperation, while Australia seems to be seeking out any cooperation regardless of the results. Australia seems to be easily fooled by the Chinese idea of “face.”   

Competition for influence and reputation-driven partnerships in China will certainly increase over the next decade.

I, too, feel a certain loss.  Technology is great – required in my business so I try to keep up.  Technology is ever changing.  My sense of loss comes from experience. What happens when technology changes, your Kindle or Nook dies, and you can’t replace them and can no longer read (or re-read) those books?  Are those companies going to convert your ebooks to the latest greatest reader?  Do you still own a record player, cassette tape player, or (gasp) an 8-track player? Do you still own any records, cassettes, or (gasp again!) an 8-track tape?  Unless you buy new, it is lost to you. Actually, I still have a turntable and a cassette player but I finally gave up my system in 2006 that had an 8-track on it.   I can read a book easily – just need light and my glasses.  I might get a Nook but I’m keeping my 600+ collection of paperbacks, old college textbooks (some from the mid-70′s), and reference books …. just in case.  :)

Mmm, what happens when the power fails?  Is there not a mild paradox in a seemingly intelligent species having so blind a faith in technology?  I’d recommend the novel, ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’.

I scanned my own books into PDF files a couple of years ago, using industrial cutters to off bindings and industrial scanners that scanned hundreds of pages both sides in a minute or less.  zuuuup–one book gone, zuuup—another book gone, zuuuup—a third gone.   Tens of thousands gone in weeks of a few hours a day.   

RESULT—-wow—ALL my books ALWAYS around, all I do is type in keywords and bingo all the paragraphs in all those books with it, appear listed (it took days, however for the computer to originally build the index for that).    Wow—-every paragraph from tens of thousands in seconds listed.  Wow wow wow.    And my WIFE—-no rooms filled floor to ceiling with books and dust and shelves, no boxes to move and label filled with books.   Wow.   

AND AND the new big screen cellphones—-I can read entire pages so easily ANYWHERE—so after about a year of NOT reading for some reason—satisfied, I think knowing everything was find-able—after that gap, I gradually started DOING A CHAPTER, here and there and a dozen then two then three dozen times a day.   I AVERAGE, this week so far, 40 chapters a day = about 3 entire books a day.    ALL in interstices—waiting for this, waiting for that, especially during faculty meetings (naishyoku  it is called in Japanese—pretending to take notes while doing worthwhile work in meetings).   WOW 

The issue of NOTE taking—add on software allows attaching notes to each page read—so I now SUMMARIZE each page as I read it (in the robust sense of someone my age–having read tens of thousands of books, about 80% of every book I read in fields I like, I already know, so I first scan pages for the 20% new stuff and summarize THAT.   Wow–better access, a body not weighed down lugging books, more reading daily, more detailed notes—wow wow wow

Technology is rarely such a pure good.   I love the feel of paper I do not love the weight of five books and the hassle of their size to hold—Galaxy II phones are just the right size.  Admittedly I am helped by being able to read 4 point fonts without squinting or eye strain—a frek density of eye neurons given me by my mom (probably unintentionally).   

Strange sentiment when you think that fascists loved to burn books.  You can try to burn an ebook, but as long as one copy exists you can create infinite more copies, and quickly.  It is much easier to hide digital information from the authorities as well and there is not an individual ebook company or technology that could be used to control it all. So I’m puzzled why it would make it easier for fascists to control.

I’ve grown up with books, and a room without bookshelves looks empty.  Another nice thing about books – one can tell something about the occupants of a house just by looking at whats on the bookshelf.  For all the many advantages of e-books, I’d still like some books around.  

I’m also still worried about that mid 20th century invention that I wish would go away – I.E. the atomic bomb.  All those e-books – foof – gone in a microsecond.

Oxford Round Table Redux.

Heard here! I will never forget as a new provost when I summarily dismissed a pair of funding requests from faculty who (with perfunctory dean approval) had been “honored to receive invitations from the Oxford Round Table to present, discuss, etc.” at no small expense to our dwindling academic travel budget.

Much like the author, I had already done my homework (i.e actually had it handed to me by a once-bitten faculty chair at a previous institution), and when I presented my rationale for denying the request at my new university home, eyebrows raised, tempers cooled, half-drafted grievances were withdrawn, and alternative conference venues were sought. The ORT was added to the “Um, no.” list.

Hey, Mr. Bartlett, why not dig a little deeper–we’ll all help–and make a top 5 list on this very topic? You’ve two already. Here’s a third: http://www.conferencealerts.com/seeconf.mv?q=ca1shh3h

All aboard! (Full disclosure: I denied it too.)

This article reminded me of a Saturday Night Live skit that was performed by Billy Crystal and the rest of the SNL crew a number of years ago about a school called “Winston University.”  It was very funny and can be viewed here:  http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2121505817/  enjoy!

That goes to show that there is a lot of entrepreneurial spirit
out there waiting to prey on faculty who are desperate to meet their “scholarship
requirements”.  What universities ought
to do is to continue to nurture and create opportunities for creative
scholarship that are anchored with their mission and supported through faculty
development initiatives. There is no reason for faculty members to go out solo
and desperately find a way to survive this sink or swim situation because they
are expendable and replaceable by a reserved army of adjunct faculty. This is probably
the biggest stimulus fund created by universities who minimize the contributions
made by their “teaching faculty”.
 

How do these spamferences differ from many of our “legitimate” academic conferences?

Should we still consider conferences presentations as part of our promtion & tenure process?

Note that I have attended many conferences over the years and have seen a marked decline in their quality. Individuals now only show up, if that, at their own presentation. Often the attendees are only the graduate student co-authors. Hence, they are not making presentations in front of a faculty audience that might have some say in hiring. Chairs and discussant, when they show up, have not done any preparation and offer no suggestions.

Of course, I do luck out and attend some “old fashioned” conferences where you actually have an intellectual exchange and get introduced to an inte-rgenerational group of people who treat one another as colleagues. 

My native Russia has been plagued by stuff like that since the Soviet times, but after I started my Ph.D. in the US, I learned that this seems to be a more or less universal phenomenon… I wonder if someone picked up on this in in Science and Technology studies :)

Aloha,

We at the HUIC have refrained from responding to
this blog for quite some time as we respect opinion and freedom of speech.
However, there are a lot of confusion as to who we are and what we do.

As stated in our website (http://huichawaii.org):

“We are proud to present and provide
exciting conferences here in Honolulu, O’ahu, Hawaii, the Island Paradise of the
Pacific.  O’ahu which means ‘the gathering place’, appropriately becomes one
of the best places to hold conferences and meetings.  

 Honolulu offers an outstanding opportunity and
environment for your conference experiences.  The serene beauty and the
cultural of these islands provide a great setting that enhances the
experience of academic accomplishments. With this in mind, a perfect climate
and place, we are able to attract participants around the world from academia,
research, practitioners as well as colleagues in cross-disciplinary fields.  No greater location can offer attendees such an opportunity to
share knowledge and experiences in this academic setting.

 Complementing your quest for knowledge, personal
fulfillment, this is your conference to enable you to stay current, and to join
with colleagues, researchers, experts and academics in a dynamic learning and
networking environment.  We
welcome you!”

We were contacted by Tom Barlett a few weeks before
our Arts and Humanities Conference and were asked in a very accusatory tone
specific questions about our organization. Questions regarding the internal business
propriety, day to day operations and current resources which are of course confidential
information.

In the interest of clearly stating our purpose we
would like to address several issues that this article (or blog) have brought
to the attention of the participants of our conference.

First, although we have only started the
organization in 2008 (not a year ago as Mr. Barlett has indicated) it does not
give credence to the suggestion that we are a “spamference”.

Mr. Barlett narrates:

“I tried and failed,
over several days, to get in touch with anyone from HIC. E-mails went
unanswered, phone calls unreturned. I did, however, speak with Ray Aubrey, who
identified himself as the president of HUIC, the upstart with the creative
grammar. Aubrey is also the founder of Electronic Resources, which, according
to this article, provides
background music for various local establishments.”

Our conference which was held January 8, 2012 is our
main priority. There were a few hundred submissions made to our conference. Processing
and addressing the people who sent them (answering calls and emails) is our
main concern. We did however, gave Mr. Barlett some time on the phone as he
indicates on his blog (refer the quote above).

Second, Mr. Barlett was never in one of our
conferences and could not attest to what we actually do in our events. He basis
this entire article on a bias phone call, the fact that we have only recently “set
up shop” and a few emails he made to our previous attendees.

It is interesting that Mr. Barlett himself gave
credence to our organization by indicating thus:

“HUIC has hosted just
one previous event, a math and engineering conference held last year. I
exchanged e-mails with a couple of attendees who said real academics had been
there, giving actual presentations. Indeed, the list of presenters for the arts
and humanities conference includes scholars from many prestigious institutions,
including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, California State
University at Northridge, Boston College, Lewis and Clark College, Scripps
College, and plenty more.”

We have received very positive feedback from our
presenters and participants whose identities are confidential. Mr. Barlett however,
is free to come and attend our next conference and see for himself. It is one
thing to report on something he has actually personally seen and it is another
to ‘talk’ about what maybe happening. This kind of behavior is damaging and is
an affront to true journalism.

Next, Mr. Barlett ‘revealed’ the potential ‘earnings’
of our organization without thought on how and where we hold our conference. We
have used the Alamoana Hotel in Oahu, Hawaii twice in our conferences and made
sure that all necessary equipment needed for the participants are present. We have
also provided tech support to make sure all the participants had help with the
equipment. We have organized reviewers (which are double-blind peer-reviewed)
and panel members and we have also corresponded with them to make sure all
submissions qualify. Again, if there is a question of whom they are then we
encourage people to come personally to our conference and find out for
themselves.

Lastly, Mr. Barlett ends his article with a subtle accusatory
tone that we do not facilitate an academic purpose:

While questions about
the conference may linger, no doubt everyone who attends will have a terrific
experience—especially if their institutions are picking up the tab. As the Web
site says: “Join us here in Hawaii for the most comprehensive conference, and
learn with us in an inspiring atmosphere our beautiful Islands provide [sic].”

If Mr. Barlett has attended our conference he would
have heard the speakers and attest to whom they are and what they are about. It
is an insult to these fine professors and teachers who attended our conference
for an article as this to insinuate that they have attended a ‘false’
conference while their respective Universities have paid for it.

To Mr. Barlett who has written this article we
suggest a less bias approach, and strongly advise him to attend our conference
before writing an article of this nature.

To those who have been jaded or have been led to
believe our legitimacy please refer to The Library of Congress to confirm our
publication. We also like to invite you to our next conference (which will be in
the summer) to see for yourself what we are about.

To our attendees we thank you for coming to our
conference and hope you join as next time.

Mahalo nui loa,

Ray Aubrey,

President

Hawaii University International
Conferences