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"Some college administrators seem so distracted with fund raising, academic infighting, and community initiatives that they set up their emergency communications departments very poorly. Training is poor to nonexistent, secretaries are pressed into service with tremendous responsibilities for running 'notification systems' 24/7 and on weekends because no one else knows how to do it and the administration won’t pay for additional staff. Procedures are seat-of-the-pants and dependent on HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion), except when something like Virginia Tech happens and there is some sort of scramble to do something different." --Donna
Most Colleges Avoid Risk Management, Report Says
Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges
Speaking at a Unesco conference in Paris, the vice president’s wife stressed the importance of two-year institutions to the nation’s educational goals.
Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement
Administrators are scrambling to plug holes in their course schedules for fall, with most expecting to do so by hiring more adjuncts or increasing class sizes.
U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show
The two were among five with houses on property where the university plans to build new academic facilities.
New Allegations in Admissions Controversy at U. of Illinois Suggest Ex-Provost Played a Role
Linda P.B. Katehi, the incoming chancellor of the University of California at Davis, has insisted she knew nothing of the admission of politically connected applicants at Illinois.
Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member
The foundation will be forced to issue fewer scholarships in the 2010-11 academic year because of a diminished endowment, a university official said.
College Suspends Student for Working in Gay Pornography | 58
President Obama's Visit to Notre Dame Carries Barely a Hint of Controversy That Preceded It | 58
Drug Sting Nabs 21 Students at U. of Illinois | 57
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July 6, 2008
Canadian Panel to Investigate University's Halting of Controversial Research
The Canadian Association of University Teachers has set up a blue-ribbon panel to determine whether Kwantlen Polytechnic University breached academic freedom by halting a professor’s study of assisted suicides. Russel Ogden, a professor of sociology at the institution’s Surrey campus, in the Vancouver area, had obtained an ethics board’s approval of his right-to-die research project, but the university later told him that he could not observe assisted suicides, according to the National Post newspaper.
“I’m not aware of any university in North America giving permission for research and then stopping it,” James Turk, the faculty association’s executive director, told The Chronicle. “It certainly appears to be a flagrant violation of academic freedom and has serious implications for controversial research on any campus.” Mr. Turk said the university’s ethics board and vice president for research had signed off on the project and its protocol. “Although assisting in a suicide is illegal in Canada, it is my understanding that observing illegal behavior is not forbidden by law,” he said.
The university says it changed its mind about allowing the research after getting two legal opinions that stated there were “real and unacceptable legal risks,” The Surrey North Delta Leader, a local newspaper, reported.
Mr. Ogden, who has championed the right of researchers to protect the privacy of people involved in assisted suicides, has told news organizations that he would like to speak publicly about the latest controversy but cannot because it would jeopardize his job. —Karen Birchard
Posted on Sunday July 6, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Very interesting. Perhaps the unacceptable legal risk is not merely the observation of a criminal act, but that he quite likely could become a witness in prosecutions — publicity the school may wish to avoid. Or they may be concerned that arranging to be present, rather than incidentally observing a criminal act is problematic. It would be informative to see the legal opinions and understand what the problem(s) may be.
— babylawyer Jul 7, 10:45 AM #
I have to say that—unusually for me—I’m with the university on this one. If it made a foolish mistake in initially signing off on the project and then had second thoughts, that lends support to the adage that second thoughts are generally wiser ones. To take one example of the doors that Prof. Ogden’s methodology might open: would it be acceptable for a professor of criminology to attach him- or herself to a street gang setting homeless people on fire in doorways, provided that he or she merely took notes upon rather than participated in the attacks?
— Gustave Jul 7, 12:57 PM #