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July 5, 2005, 3:30 pm
Computerized library records may have rendered card catalogs obsolete, but librarians at the University of Iowa are trying to give their retired cards a second life. Through a new project, the university plans to send about a million of its old catalog cards to schoolchildren, writers, and artists in Iowa. The recipients will be asked to turn the cards into works of art and then send them back, so the library can turn its old files into a public art project.
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An application that allows Facebook users to "enemy" people is meant to make us think critically about social media, its creators say.
The MIT Press and other critics say proposed legislation to limit public access to the results of some studies would work against the open exchange of ideas.
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9 Responses to Degas Decimal System
physioprof - November 13, 2011 at 7:52 pm
That’s pretty baddeasse that you’ve got former provosts guest-posting on your blogge!
Michelle Moravec - November 14, 2011 at 6:21 am
as a tenured prof at a private four year non profit college I can only say YES YES YES. I’d love to see more efforts to explain to students at a 2 year college why some might well benefit from transfering to a small liberal arts college (I do believe we do something quite different than the larger schools, be they public or private), but only if we can figure out how to accept every darn credit they earn AND accelerate time to degree. Sadly it seems possible that the small privates will continue to falter and fold.
Guest - November 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Usually I strive to be a pain in the ass on these Chronicle blogs, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t find anything to disagree with or push the author on, with his fantastic blog. Claire and Judith, you are doing an invaluable service in forcing higher ducation to look at itself the way we expect other industries like banking and health care to soul-search. Keep up the good work.
susanda - November 14, 2011 at 10:04 pm
I teach at a public R-1, and I’ve already seen the pressure around transfer credits and time to degree. Under-resourced public institutions can’t always offer enough classes. Students eager to save money take too many credits at once. (For example, I have a good student this semester taking 24 credits, so she’ll graduate in 3 years. But she’s not working up to her ability because she can’t track everything.)
Putting on my historian’s hat, I wonder if it would be useful to think of the period between about 1960 and 1980/90 as the exception, and what we are seeing now is a return to the norm for most of the past 500 years, when the educational system was sharply stratified, and served as an engine of mobility for a relatively small group of men. I think one of the stresses of the current discussion is that many of us still hold to the fantasy that education is an accessible engine of social mobility, while confronting a system that provides more resources to those who already have the most.
Bonalibro - November 14, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Should we adapt ourselves to it? Get out the pitchforks and stand against it? Or organize the 99% through social networking into new, self-financed political parties that will throw all the bums out of power? I would opt for the latter myself.
susanda - November 15, 2011 at 10:42 am
Personally, I’m most interested in the organizing, though a bit of standing with the pitchforks is worth it.
glorenzo - November 16, 2011 at 8:54 am
Hi: You may be interested in this report on transfer and articulation from 2-year to 4-year institutions at http://www.edpath.com/transfer.html
_perplexed_ - November 16, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I don’t think this post quite fully recognizes what is happening to state support of higher education: Within 20 years, it is quite likely that state support for the educational (as opposed to capital) costs at public universities will be essentially zero. There will be no difference in tuition between public and private non-profit universities.
judithcbrown - November 16, 2011 at 10:15 pm
I am painfully aware of the huge cuts in state funding that are being made at public universities and at public two-year colleges. This is why I mentioned that time to degree and tuition increases, particularly at public institutions, have occurred in response to declining state government support for higher education. The canaries in the mine, even more than public universities are the two-year colleges, which have suffered immensely. All the more reason why we have to use whatever resources we have as well and as creatively as we can.
This is not to say that we shouldn’t at the same time fight for more public financial support. I would hate to see the privatization of public colleges and universities, which perform a great public service and are among our greatest public assets. But given that I agree with you that the chances for increased public funding in the future look bleak, we have to do all we can to gain greater support by demonstrating that we use our resources well.