Some faculty have all the luck.

". . . cardboard box. . . full of $50 and $100 bills bundled in paper bands, totaling $180,000."

"A portion of his salary was deposited in a Chinese bank account and the remainder — an amount he estimated as between $50,000 and $100,000 — was paid in $100 bills, which he carried home in his luggage."

Journal retracts 122 papers at once [Retraction Watch]

 The flava:

A SAGE journal has retracted 122 papers because of “clear indicators that the submission and/or peer review process for these papers was manipulated.”

The article:

https://retractionwatch.com/2021/12/15/journal-retracts-122-papers-at-once/

A professor told me [youtube]

 

Reese's Just Launched a University for Peanut Butter Cup Fans [Food & Wine]

The flava:

For peanut butter-based candy, the Reese's name reigns supreme thanks in no small part to their enormously popular peanut butter cups. Now, the Hershey-owned brand wants to bring that expertise to the masses (kind of) with the launch of their new eponymous Reese's University.

Admittedly, Reese's repeatedly cites their own lawyers as saying "Reese's University is not a real University," but the concept remains the same: a fictional institution of higher education, albeit one with a real nickname, the Fighting Cuppies, and a real mascot with a giant peanut butter cup head. The school also boasts an insanely high 99.99-percent acceptance rate.

The article:

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/reeses-university

#UATX ?

"I left my post as president of St. John’s College in Annapolis to build a university in Austin dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth."

--Pano Kanelos

https://www.uaustin.org

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/we-cant-wait-for-universities-to 

University of Florida bans professors from giving expert testimony against state [yahoo! news]

 The flava:

The University of Florida barred three of its professors from serving as paid experts in a Florida voting rights case - sparking outrage within academia and in the news media. The university said allowing its professors to testify against the state was at odds with its interests. Critics say the move puts politics ahead of academic freedom. Here, George Justice, an English professor and former college dean, offers insight into the dynamics at play in the controversy. . . .

The article:

https://news.yahoo.com/university-florida-bans-professors-giving-122531055.html

End Racial Preferences at Colleges? [John Stossel]

 

60 Minutes visits Deep Springs College

 

The College Admissions 'Melt' Down [NPR]

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/27/1041011021/the-college-admissions-melt-down

University must rehire transgender professor, says 10th Circuit [Reuters]

 The flava:

A U.S. appeals court on Monday ordered an Oklahoma state university to reinstate with tenure a transgender English professor after she won her lawsuit claiming she was denied tenure and ultimately fired after transitioning from male to female.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Southeastern Oklahoma State University's claim that the hostility created over six years of litigation between the school and plaintiff Rachel Tudor, and the school's concerns about her scholarship, made her reinstatement untenable.

The article:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/university-must-rehire-transgender-professor-says-10th-circuit-2021-09-13/

Amicus briefs filed by the following:

• NATIONAL WOMEN’S LAW CENTER, 
• A BETTER BALANCE, 
• ALLIANCE FOR A JUST SOCIETY, 
• AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN, 
• AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, 
• ATLANTA WOMEN FOR EQUALITY, 
• CALIFORNIA WOMEN LAWYERS, 
• COLORADO WOMEN’S BAR ASSOCIATION, 
• COLORADO ORGANIZATION FOR LATINA OPPORTUNITY AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, 
• DC COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, 
• END RAPE ON CAMPUS, 
• GENDER JUSTICE, 
• GIRLS FOR GENDER EQUITY, 
• IF/WHEN/HOW: LAWYERING FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE, 
• IN OUR OWN VOICE: NATIONAL BLACK WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE AGENDA, 
• LAWYERS CLUB OF SAN DIEGO, 
• LEGAL AID AT WORK, 
• LEGAL VOICE, 
• NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN WOMEN’S FORUM, 
• NATIONAL CRITTENTON, 
• NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS ASSOCIATION, 
• NATIONAL LGBTQ TASK FORCE, 
• NATIONAL NETWORK OF ABORTION FUNDS, 
• NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN FOUNDATION, 
• NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR WOMEN & FAMILIES, 
• NATIONAL WOMEN’S POLITICAL CAUCUS, 
• OKLAHOMA COALITION FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE, 
• SARGENT SHRIVER NATIONAL CENTER ON POVERTY LAW, 
• SISTERREACH, 
• THE WOMEN’S LAW CENTER OF MARYLAND, 
• WOMEN’S LAW PROJECT, 
• WOMEN’S BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, and 
• LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATION FUND, INC.

College-Admissions Scandal to See First Trial Next Week [WSJ]

 The flava:

The nationwide college-admissions scandal is returning to the spotlight next week, with the first trial in the sprawling case involving two parents accused of bribery-and-fraud conspiracy in an alleged scheme to get their children admitted to the University of Southern California as athletic recruits.

Forty-six defendants, including Hollywood TV stars, business titans, Division 1 coaches and SAT test proctors, already have pleaded or agreed to plead guilty. The federal criminal proceedings, which came to light in 2019 as “Operation Varsity Blues,” have highlighted how gaining entry to selective colleges amounts to a bruising competition in many affluent pockets of the U.S. and have exposed how parts of the admission process have been ripe for exploitation.

In total, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts charged 57 people in the case. Newport Beach, Calif., college counselor William “Rick” Singer has admitted to leading the scheme, which entailed rigging SAT and ACT scores or bribing coaches at the University of Southern California, Stanford University, Yale University and other schools to fraudulently present teens as recruited athletes. Being tagged by coaches as even non-scholarship players all but guarantees entry at some schools.

Several defendants have maintained their innocence. . . .

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-admissions-scandal-to-see-first-trial-next-week-11630575001

Provo, still, you know?

Brigham Young has banned most types of facial hair for decades. One emeritus professor at the university is leading the charge to change that.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/style/beards-brigham-young-university.html

And a classic....

"moral atrocity" [Jeremy Fischer]

 

https://dailynous.com/2021/08/17/philosophy-professor-resigns-to-protest-universitys-covid-19-plan/

Stanford to reinstate weekly COVID-19 testing requirement, regardless of vaccination status [The Stanford Daily]

 The flava:

Stanford will require all students living on campus, living in University-sponsored off-campus housing, or coming to campus to be tested for COVID-19 weekly, regardless of vaccination status, starting on Aug. 15, according to a Wednesday email from Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole.

The reversal follows the University’s July elimination of the testing requirement for fully vaccinated students — a decision that was soon followed by seven fully vaccinated students testing positive for the virus. It also comes as Stanford continues to tighten on campus restrictions amid the surge in cases of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Stanford may be the first university in the Bay Area to enact such a requirement, though it is in good company — East Coast peer institutions like Harvard, Princeton and Brown are also requiring weekly testing for vaccinated students.

The article:

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2021/08/11/stanford-to-reinstate-weekly-covid-19-testing-requirement-regardless-of-vaccination-status/

Krabby Kathy recommends a blog post about an article about stinky master's programs

Krabby Kathy recommends a Naked Capitalism article that praises a WSJ article about stinky master's programs.  

The flava:

The Wall Street Journal has done a terrific job of reporting in a new article, ‘Financially Hobbled for Life’: The Elite Master’s Degrees That Don’t Pay Off. Even though it discusses a general phenomenon, that of too many students of modest means acquiring student-debt-funded graduate degrees where the prospects of the borrowers paying off their obligations is practically nil.

The Journal documents that Columbia is the outlier, both in the ratio of “untenable if you don’t have rich parents paying for them” master’s degrees, and the particularly dreadful cost/earnings ratio (proxied by the debt/income ratio) of two programs, drama/theater arts and film.

The article:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/07/wall-street-journal-fingers-columbia-as-leader-in-grad-students-whose-student-debt-leaves-them-financially-hobbled-for-life.html

I'm Rubber, You're Glue [from Wombat of the Copier]

Wombat's Colleague:  "The students just don't want to learn anything they don't already know, even if it means sticking with inefficient, unsophisticated or immature methods that actually make everything harder for them in the end."

Also Wombat's Colleague:  "Here's my part of the course outline for the class we're teaching together."  [sends Office '97 document]

Mills College Enters Negotiations to Become Part of Northeastern University [SFist]

 https://sfist.com/2021/06/17/mills-college-enters-negotiations-to-become-part-of-northeastern-university/

If Texas A&M University can have a campus in Qatar, then perhaps it's not so strange for Mills College to merge with Northeastern University?

Big Hungry

Seriously, has anyone gotten anything meaningful done this year (besides stay alive)?

Vartan Gregorian, 1934-2021

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vartan_Gregorian 

Cheating Is Easier Than Ever For Online College Students [TODAY]

 

:-)

Houston Austin Plainview Plano Yoakum Brenham Ingram Rockdale Texarkana Harlingen Dallas Alpine Yorktown, Corsicana Abilene Lockhart.

Great Lakes Greta submits a note of yearning.

 Is someone actually maintaining Zooze the Horse? 

Man, I hope so.

love, 

great lakes greta

How Public Universities Became So Expensive [Wall Street Journal]

 

letter to editor in Wall Street Journal -- February, 22, 2021

 

Trump Pardons Miami Investor Charged in College Admissions Scandal [NY Times]

 The flava:

How Mr. Zangrillo came to be pardoned is unclear. Representatives for two people the White House listed in support of its action — the billionaire investor Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a close friend of Mr. Trump’s and a U.S.C. trustee, and Sean Parker, a co-founder of Napster and early president of Facebook — said that they had not been involved.

“Mr. Barrack had nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Zangrillo’s pardon,” a spokesman said. “He never intervened and never had discussion with anyone about it. All reports to the contrary are patently false.”

A spokesman for Mr. Parker said he did not know Mr. Zangrillo, had not advocated for him, and did not know how his name had ended up on the White House’s list.

Mr. Zangrillo has not donated to Mr. Trump and does not have a long history of political contributions.

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/trump-pardon-robert-zangrillo-varsity-blues.html

How the pandemic is impacting college students' mental health [PBS NewsHour]

 

WHO SPEAKS AND WHO LISTENS: Revisiting the Chilly Climate in College Classrooms [Mccabe & Lee]

Abstract

Almost 40 years ago, scholars identified a “chilly climate” for women in college classrooms. To examine whether contemporary college classrooms remain “chilly,” we conducted quantitative and qualitative observations in nine classrooms across multiple disciplines at one elite institution. Based on these 95 hours of observation, we discuss three gendered classroom participation patterns. First, on average, men students occupy classroom sonic space 1.6 times as often as women. Men also speak out without raising hands, interrupt, and engage in prolonged conversations during class more than women students. Second, style and tone also differ. Men’s language is assertive, whereas women’s is hesitant and apologetic. Third, professors’ interventions and different structures of classrooms can alter existing gender status hierarchies. Extending Ridgeway’s gender system framework to college classrooms, we discuss how these gendered classroom participation patterns perpetuate gender status hierarchies. We thus argue that the chilly climate is an underexplored mechanism for the stalled gender revolution.

Jennifer J. Lee, Janice M. Mccabe. WHO SPEAKS AND WHO LISTENS: Revisiting the Chilly Climate in College Classrooms. Gender & Society, 2020; 089124322097714 DOI: 10.1177/0891243220977141

Pandemic's toll on higher education leaves some institutions fighting for survival [PBS NewsHour]