Monday Magic in December

What would make higher education wonderful in 2019?

Money Money Money Money

Free college is now a reality in nearly 20 states
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/free-college-is-now-a-reality-in-nearly-20-states.html

"Free" community college is great marketing, questionable economics
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Free-community-college-is-great-marketing-13485544.php

A Guarantee of Tuition-Free College Can Have Life-Changing Effects
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/life-changing-effects-free-college/577831/

Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_Union_financial_crisis_and_tuition_protests

Facing Enrollment Declines, Colleges Seek Out New, Creative Ways To Make Money
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676534628/facing-enrollment-declines-colleges-seek-out-new-creative-ways-to-make-money

https://www.nacubo.org/Press-Releases/2018/Average-Freshman-Tuition-Discount-Rate-Nears-50-Percent

A Fifth of Private Colleges Report First-Year Discount Rate of 60 Percent, Moody’s Says
https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Fifth-of-Private-Colleges/245092

Northern New Mexico College offers deal on classes to older adults
https://www.krqe.com/news/news-briefs/northern-new-mexico-college-offers-deal-on-classes-to-older-adults/1665004411

65 or Older? In Texas, You Can Go to College For Free
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/if-youre-over-65-years-old-in-texas-you-can-go-to-college-for-free/

Wear a Christmas sweater for free admission to TJC basketball
https://tylerpaper.com/sports/college/wear-a-christmas-sweater-for-free-admission-to-tjc-basketball/article_fe13d940-f823-11e8-bbd5-4722d5095175.html

23 WAYS TO EARN EXTRA CASH FOR CHRISTMAS
https://thecollegeinvestor.com/17164/23-ways-to-earn-extra-cash-for-christmas/

two years

Today is the second anniversary.

Johns Hopkins continues to lead in research spending among the nation's universities [baltimoresun.com]

The flava:
Johns Hopkins University spent more than a billion dollars more on research and development than the next big spender among research universities to top the National Science Foundation’s annual list for the 39th consecutive year.

The article:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-hs-university-research-spending-20181217-story.html

Does your school have a meaningful mission? Do you?

Do you have a vision for what you do?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (the algorithm needs help) [from Wombat of the Copier]

I could get through email more efficiently if the text prediction were a little tighter. I need it to check the calendar, and screen for ".edu" endings, then give me these auto-complete one-tap options throughout December:

1. "That's irrelevant." 
2. "No."
3. "It's too late."
4. "I can prove you're lying; please don't make me."

--Wombat of the Copier

Allen Iverson describes being a 19-year-old college student entering the Villanova Pavilion to play a game [theplayerstribune.com]

There were four men, making some noise way up in the stands. And they all had on handcuffs….. and chains..…. and orange jumpsuits. Those kinds of orange jumpsuits. And I remember the sign they were holding up — clear as day. It said:

ALLEN IVERSON: THE NEXT MJ

But then it had “MJ” crossed out. And they had markered in “OJ.”

You have to understand….. I mean, I’m a grown man, now, writing this. But at the time??? I was 19. That’s near a child’s age. And it’s not like I was embarrassed about my past, or about where I came from — NEVER that. But on the same token, it was just, like, Damn. Damn!! Can your boy start fresh, like, ONE time?? Can I just go to college like a normal kid, and play some ball? I’ll tell you this: there isn’t a luxury in the world like being carefree. All these people, they’ll be out here chasing money, and happiness, and this that and the third. But there’s nothing on this earth better than carefree. And that’s the one thing that I realized some of these people out there were never going to let me be.

And what made Coach Thompson so special is he knew that, man. He knew that. Coach knew……. and he could see my heart just sinking in that moment. He knew he couldn’t protect me from everything that was in this world.

But he sure tried.

Here’s what Coach Thompson, MY coach, did for me on that night: He didn’t ask for their sign to be confiscated. He didn’t yell and shout and make a scene. No. See, what Coach did is he calmly walked over to us, player by player, and told us that — don’t worry about our things — we were leaving the floor. That’s it: We were leaving the floor. No big drama. Heads held high. We were there…. and then we were gone.

And then once we were off that floor, and it was just Coach back on the court? He calmly told those refs, he said, “Hey, no disrespect. No disrespect to y’all. But here’s what’s going to happen: If you don’t get those four pieces of sh*t outta here, and I’m talking immediately — we’re gonna be forfeiting this game. Understood?”

They understood, man.

Source:
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/life-and-times-of-allen-iverson

How's finals week going? [a micro-playlet with Dr. Jekyll and Prof. Hyde]

Prof. Hyde:  Say, Jekyll, how is your finals week going?

Dr. Jekyll:  The only thing that keeps me sane is laughing at the ridiculousness of some students.  Here, I created what the young people call a "meme" to illustrate.

Prof. Hyde: I guess that's why they call him "Scumbag Steve".

big hungry

Have you ever gone out on a limb to help a colleague who is facing devastating challenges?

For safer schools, we need more hugs, not more guns [by Andre Perry]

The flava:
"The problem isn’t that schools aren’t safe enough, but that students don’t feel secure enough in school communities. Emotionally healthy, well-adjusted youth don’t tear through their classrooms armed with weaponry. And we can do our part in keeping schools safe by giving out hugs like candy on Halloween, helping kids feel a sense of belonging, of welcome, and making them feel safe enough to seek help when they need it. (Of course, we can also do our part by making guns harder to access, but that’s a whole other column.)

"This feeling of security is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls “school connectedness,” which it defines as “the belief held by students that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals.” When students feel more connected to school, the CDC says, they are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors and succeed academically."

Source:
https://hechingerreport.org/for-safer-schools-we-need-more-hugs-not-more-guns/

Stanford to go 100 percent solar by 2021 [Stanford press release]

"A new solar generating plant – Stanford’s second – announced today, will enable the university to use 100 percent renewable electricity in three years, more than two decades ahead of California’s goal of a carbon-free grid by 2045."

Applications to Michigan State drop after Nassar, sexual assault scandals [ESPN]

The flava:
Undergraduate applications to Michigan State University fell by 8.3 percent over the past year amid the scandal involving former Spartan physician and associate professor Larry Nassar and the school's handling of sexual assault allegations involving athletes.

MSU's applications for the fall of 2018 dropped by about 3,000, to 33,129 -- a contrast to rising higher-education applications nationwide and among most of MSU's peer institutions in the Big Ten Conference.

Ahead of the Nassar sexual assault allegations first appearing in the media -- in an Indianapolis Star article in 2016 -- applications to the university had increased steadily for seven years, according to an enrollment report released in October. But applications for fall 2017 showed a 3.6 percent decline.

The article:
http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/25430618/applications-michigan-state-university-drop-larry-nassar-sexual-assault-scandals-espn-lines

Harvard University sued over single-sex club crackdown [BBC]

The flava:
A number of sororities and fraternities filed lawsuits on Monday challenging a policy Harvard adopted in 2016.

Under the policy, students who join single-sex clubs cannot receive endorsement letters from college deans for postgraduate fellowships.

Harvard said the aim was to help end practices of exclusion at the school.

The article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46431278

"Politics does not have to be mean." --GHWB