Some Universities Are About to Be “Walking Dead” [Amanpour and Company]

The Environment Within Which Our Students Attempt to Learn and Our Faculty Attempt to Teach

The Future of College Is Online, and It’s Cheaper [says Hans Taparia]

"The pandemic provides universities an opportunity to reimagine education around the pillars of access and affordability with the myriad tools and techniques now at their disposal. It could make them true pathways of upward mobility again."
     --Hans Taparia, clinical associate professor, NYU

The opinion piece is here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/opinion/online-college-coronavirus.html

The value of this op-ed by Professor Taparia might be less in the piece itself than in the wide variety of attendant comments which range from bafflingly ignorant to well-informed and enlightening.  Regardless of where on the spectrum comments might fall, they nevertheless oftentimes reveal valuable insights into the thoughts of people who are somehow invested in the current endeavor to teach/learn online.

For those readers who do not subscribe to the New York Times, effective ways to get around the paywall--and thus read the comments--have been described on many websites (e.g., https://medium.com/paywall-hacks/how-to-bypass-virtually-every-news-paywall-705602c4c2ce).

Teaching Behind Plexiglass? Colleges Wrestle With Details of Resuming In-Person Classes [EdSurge]

The flava:
As more than half of U.S. colleges plan to resume at least some online teaching in the fall, details are beginning to emerge about what classroom teaching might look like in a time of social distancing.

Perhaps the starkest image emerged from Purdue University. Its president, Mitch Daniels, told CNN that some professors will be lecturing from behind clear partitions.

The article:
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-05-22-teaching-behind-plexiglass-colleges-wrestle-with-details-of-resuming-in-person-classes

Did Lori Loughlin just plead guilty because she thinks the pandemic is a get-out-of-jail-free card? [Toronto Star]

The flava:
Last year, the college admissions scandal seemed shocking. But now? It seems ridiculous. It is utterly impossible for most of us to get bent out of shape about the affluent gaming higher education when our kids can’t even go to school and the economy is teetering toward catastrophe. Funneling mental energy into Operation Varsity Blues at this moment in time is like worrying about losing a button when you’re getting mauled by a bear.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton did not instantly accept the guilty pleas from Loughlin and Giannulli, saying he needed to review presentencing reports. Good for him. He should also consider the possibility Loughlin and Giannulli are playing a cynical virus game right now: we’ll agree to go to jail expecting to never go to jail.

The article:
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/opinion/2020/05/22/did-lori-loughlin-just-plead-guilty-because-she-thinks-the-pandemic-is-a-get-out-of-jail-free-card.html

How the Pandemic Could Transform Higher Ed [Wall Street Journal]

Colleges Are Deluding Themselves [The Atlantic]

The flava:
American higher education was in crisis long before the coronavirus showed up at our doors. For what feels like an eternity, our sector has been criticized for being too slow to respond to changing realities. Student debt in the United States totals more than $1.5 trillion. Alternative credential providers are nipping at the heels of degree-granting schools. Unfavorable demographic trends suggest that the number of college students will decline. In this environment, we face fair questions about higher education’s business model, cost, and long-term prospects—and about whom higher education ultimately serves. Do we serve the students and families who appear at our doors each fall full of hope and faith? Or does self-preservation come first?

The pandemic makes those questions more urgent than ever. . . .


The article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/colleges-that-reopen-are-making-a-big-mistake/611485/

By Michael J. Sorrell, President of Paul Quinn College

big hungry about books

Which book was important to you when you were 20 or 25 years old, and still is important to you?

Or is there not one?

University of Arkansas professor arrested on federal wire fraud charge [KNWA]

The flava:
A University of Arkansas professor was arrested for wire fraud.

According to Charlie Robbins, spokesperson for the Western District of Arkansas Attorney’s Office, Simon Ang was arrested on a federal criminal complaint for one count of wire fraud.

The complaint charges that Ang had close ties with the Chinese government and Chinese companies, and failed to disclose those ties when required to do so in order to receive grant money from NASA.  These materially false representations to NASA and the University of Arkansas resulted in numerous wires to be sent and received that facilitated Ang’s scheme to defraud.

The article:
https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/university-of-arkansas-professor-arrested-on-federal-wire-fraud-charge/

'New Schools of Thought' by The Economist Intelligence Unit