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Huntsville Amarillo Pampa Paris Yates Bluegrove Izoro Rockport Texline Hillsboro Decatur Abilene Yturria, Canton Alvin Lufkin!  

Ex-Casino Executive Gets 1 Year and 1 Day in Prison in College Admissions Scheme [New York Times]

 The flava:

A former casino executive was sentenced on Wednesday to a year and a day in prison for participating in a conspiracy to secure his daughter’s admission to the University of Southern California as a Division I basketball recruit even though she did not make the varsity team in high school, prosecutors said.

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/us/varsity-blues-sentence-gamal-abdelaziz.html

Merger with USF Charts New Direction for San Francisco Art Institute [KQED]

The flava:

The San Francisco Art Institute and the University of San Francisco announced this month that they’re planning to merge. Under the agreement, USF will acquire the cash-strapped 151-year old arts college and offer a program called SFAI@USF in the fall. The move is reminiscent of Northeastern University’s acquisition of Mills College in September 2021 as small colleges and arts schools deal with financial pressures compounded by Covid. We’ll talk about the implications for SFAI’s students and adjunct faculty, as well as for the broader arts community of the Bay Area, and look ahead at a new era for the irreverent contemporary arts school.

The podcast episode:

https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887741/merger-with-usf-charts-new-direction-for-san-francisco-art-institute

Bookstore Woes, from Wombat of the Copier

I need advice.

Before COVID we had nearly 1000 students in our service courses, so we use an online homework package.  It's pricey but it comes with textbook access.  I felt that for what the students pay for it, we shouldn't just thoughtlessly throw some random problems at them - but we should make the absolute best use of it.  I devoted an entire winter break a few years ago to testing all of the bells and whistles and coming up with a new course design that, for the same price they were already paying for run of the mill problem sets, could be used to give them a great, interactive, experience where things done in one part of the course (lecture, lab, peer workshop...) would work synergistically with other parts.  I made self-assessments that students could use with flow-charts to help them figure out if they've nailed a topic, or need more practice, and if so, what part of the program should they try next etc.  I even watched upwards of 50 hours of supplementary videos and played with supplementary animations/simulations/manipulatives etc. to provide students with descriptions and time stamps of what each of these features were.  If we're going to tell them we'd like them to buy a $100 access code - I wanted to make sure they got $200 worth of education out of it.

But our bookstore manager is the worst.  Every fall until Nov and every spring until April, I have students getting the run around about "back ordered" course codes.  A few years ago me and a few colleagues put the publisher link in our course outline and bookstore manager sent us aggressive cease and desist orders claiming we have a contract and that we're violating it.  HE violates it by not providing the students with course materials.  He claimed it was a communication issue and my department fails to tell him to order an adequate number of codes.  Every year we increase the request by 10% of what we asked for the last semester - and since covid our enrollment is actually down (like everywhere else) and he STILL runs out of codes before the first week.  I wouldn't mind but there's more.  He still lets the bookstore take orders - he continues to take money from the students and tells them they'll get a call when the codes come in.

But he never calls them.

We have 2 reps from the publisher and they tell me this is all bullshit in the first place.  There is no such thing as being "backordered".  There isn't some ship in the middle of the Suez holding all the cards.  If the bookstore manager calls and requests more codes, they hit a button, a computer generates a few dozen more codes, and they send them instantly.  

They've even told me "stay by your e-mail - we're sending codes to your bookstore right now and we'll let you know when your students can get them on campus" and STILL when the students show up he claims they're "backordered".

So I've pleaded multiple times with my chair to take this to the University and every semester he says ok next semester.

I wouldn't mind that he can't provide the codes if he didn't threaten me - but now I'm afraid - I try to be covert about it but it gives me massive anxiety.

If this is how he runs the bookstore can I really be sued, as he claimed?  I can't get my chair to talk to the university about what is actually in that contract - I'm SURE the bookstore voids the exclusivity by not being able to provide the course materials.

What would you do?  Any advice?  

I mean in what universe do students actually work this hard to get their materials?  They usually blow it off - and I've managed to convince them that they should try to use the recommended course materials.  I'm actually pretty proud of what I've done with this course - and this guy is just screwing the students and lashing out at the faculty.  I am just very frustrated and hoped someone might have a good idea.  

--Wombat of the Copier