Colleges advise some international students to return to U.S. before Trump takes office [ PBS NewsHour ]

The Scientists Versus Dartmouth: Inside a Sexual Harassment Scandal That Shook Science to Its Core [ Scientific American ]

On aging and wisdom

Personal note from Frank Bruni's newsletter today:

I was told I’d be wiser. I heard that all the time. When I grew older, I’d more accurately judge people and more quickly size up situations. That’s what adults in their 40s said when I was in my teens and what retirees said when I was midcareer. And they were mostly right.

I was told I’d know myself better, and indeed I do, but that seems to me an unimpressive function of simple arithmetic: I’ve had more years with the person in question and collected more evidence of his triggers and tics. He was a haiku to me at 13, a short story at 24, a novella at 35. He’s “Middlemarch” now. I guess he’ll be an encyclopedia in the end. I hope it’s the kind with illustrations and artful fonts.

I turned 60 this year — on Halloween, to be exact. That was hardly the main thing about my 2024 but it was a thing, milestone-wise. Days later I went to the movies at a multiplex where, I discovered, I qualified for the senior-citizen discount. I’ll consider that a silver lining to go with my increasingly silver hair.

But while I’ve matured in many ways, I feel less different than I thought I would, and I don’t mean physically. (On that front, the passage of time is palpable.) I mean emotionally.

Whatever wisdom and self-knowledge I’ve gained pale beside the lingering gremlins in my head and stubborn butterflies in my gut. I’m still needled by so many doubts, roiled by so many fears. At some point, I thought, I’d get a break.

There are moments when I’m 60 going on 16, and none of my elders ever told me about that. They never explained that a certain inextinguishable tremulousness isn’t an affliction of youth but an affliction of being alive, and that “forever young” is at once an aspiration and a curse. If turning 60 taught me anything, it’s that the magnitude of clarity and degree of confidence that I’ve long craved aren’t the rewards of aging, waiting for me if I just hung on. They’re pretty myths.

Campus D.E.I. Programs Under Fire After Supreme Court Ruling on Race [ TIME ]

Texas professors self-censor for fear of retaliation, survey found [ The Texas Tribune ]

The flava:

University professors across the political spectrum in Texas are preemptively self-censoring themselves for fear of damaging their reputations or losing their jobs, according to a new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group. . . . 

The article:

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/12/texas-university-survey-self-censor/

University of Michigan leader speaks out after home is targeted by vandals [ WDIV ]

Meet Khanmigo: The student tutor AI being tested in school districts [ 60 Minutes ]

US College Closures Set to Soar Amid Prospective Student Slowdown [ Bloomberg Television ]

About college football

"The violent character of football is not limited to cases of immediate fatality. Studying American football players, Boston University researchers have found that every 2.6 years of participation in football doubles the chances of contracting the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and that football players have a 61% higher chance of developing Parkinson’s disease compared to other athletes. These consequences have been and will be suffered by participants in college football. And they are unquestionably a form of violence, even if one we seem all too willing to endorse."

--Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva, co-authors of “The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game”

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-12-07/football-college-ohio-michigan-fights

DHAKA UNIVERSITY: Beyond the Books | Documentary [ Dhaka University ]

William Hague elected new Chancellor of Oxford University [ Channel 4 News ]

How I Survived China's Top University as the Only American [ Oriental Pearl ]

Fighting Fat Discrimination in Higher Education [ Montclair State University ]

The flava:

When Montclair State University student and staff member Stephanie Spitz encountered classroom furniture that couldn’t accommodate a larger student’s body, it sparked a graduate research project addressing weight-based discrimination. Now, her work is driving meaningful change in higher education.

“Anti-fat bias has surpassed discrimination based on race and gender and sexuality, so it’s the most prevalent form of discrimination out there,” Spitz says. Yet, “there are no legal protections for fat people.” . . .

The P.R. article:

https://www.montclair.edu/newscenter/2024/11/25/fighting-fat-discrimination-in-higher-education/

UATX says it fights college censorship culture with a focus on free speech [ 60 Minutes ]

At 17, She Just Passed the State Bar of California [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

Sophia Park, 17, and her family huddled around her laptop one evening this month as she entered her
details onto the State Bar of California’s website and clicked “Check pass list.”

Sophia’s smile grew as she read the results: She passed the July 2024 general bar exam, a requirement to be licensed as a practicing lawyer in the Golden State. Her family clapped and hugged her.

“I am very happy and excited,” Sophia said in a video that the family uploaded to YouTube.

The California bar is among the most difficult licensing requirements exams in the country, and just under 54 percent of the 8,291 people who took it in July passed.

But Sophia’s accomplishment goes beyond that. At 17 years and 8 months old, she is believed to be the youngest person to pass the state’s bar exam, besting the previous record-holder: her older brother, Peter, who passed the exam in November 2023, when he was 17 years and 11 months old.

Sophia achieved this feat while taking advanced courses online from home, enabling her to graduate from high school, college and law school in about four years. . . .

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/us/california-bar-exam-sophia-park.html

St. Louis Community College soccer star who wants to be a nun [ KSDK News ]

Black University of Alabama students, parents outraged after getting racist text message [ WVTM 13 News ]

Moriarty from Midland emails a thought

Election Day is here on campus. The Student Affairs employees are aroused. Many of the students seem giddy. The faculty are keeping their heads down, somewhat. I'm wondering whether or not my anxieties should be high. What will tomorrow bring?

--Moriarty from Midland

Being a College Athlete Now Means Constant Travel and Missed Classes [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

Playing football this season for the U.C.L.A. Bruins means being a frequent (and distant) flier. The team began the campaign in August with a win at the University of Hawaii. Their next road games sent the Bruins to Louisiana State, then Penn State, and back across the country to Rutgers. Then, a trip to Nebraska on Saturday and a jaunt up to Washington.

Such is the life of the modern-day college athlete, with U.C.L.A. moving into the Big Ten Conference, the erstwhile standard-bearer for Midwest football that now stretches from Piscataway to Puget Sound.

In all, the Bruins will travel 22,226 miles this season — nearly enough to circumnavigate the globe. It is the equivalent of 33 round trips to the Bay Area to play Stanford or U.C. Berkeley, U.C.L.A.’s former rivals that have moved to a newly bicoastal league of their own. . . .

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/us/college-football-conference-realignment.html

Fewer Black men are attending HBCUs | All Things Considered [ NPR ]

tension

Academic Sexual Misconduct Database

https://academic-sexual-misconduct-database.org/

Far-Right Pastor Wants False Sexual Assault Reports to Be Punishable by Death

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/far-pastor-wants-false-sexual-141959467.html

You can fool yourself

You can cheat until you're blind

You can cut your heart

It can happen

Clemson frat opens its arms to student with special needs [ CBS Sunday Morning ]

Must-read books for 1st-year college students [ Good Morning America ]

Tracking college closures [ The Hechinger Report ]

The flava:

College enrollment has been declining for more than a decade, and that means that many institutions are struggling to pay their bills. A growing number of them are making the difficult decision to close.

In the first nine months of 2024, 28 degree-granting institutions closed, compared with 15 in all of 2023, according to an analysis of federal data provided to The Hechinger Report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association or SHEEO.

Earlier this year, our colleague Jon Marcus reported that colleges were closing at a rate of nearly one per week. The Hechinger Report has created a tool to track these changes in the higher education landscape. Readers can search through the archive of colleges that have closed since 2008, and we will update it periodically with the latest shutdowns. . . . 

The article:

https://hechingerreport.org/tracking-college-closures/

Retractions: On the Rise, But Not Enough [ online talk via UC Irvine ]

In 2000, there were about 40 retractions from the scholarly literature. In 2023, there were more than 10,000. That is a dramatic increase, even accounting for the growing number of papers published per year.

In this UCI Libraires sponsored talk, Ivan Oransky, M.D. will explore the reasons for the increase, why it is good news, and why the real number should be even higher. Dr. Oransky will tell the stories of the sleuths who are finding problems in the literature, drawing on more than a decade of experience at Retraction Watch.

The webinar presentation is open to attendees interested in tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process, open access to information about scientific corrections and retractions, and ethics in publishing.

Registration is required. Click link to begin registration:

https://spaces.lib.uci.edu/event/13138327

colleges around the world. . .

California Bans Legacy Admissions [ KQED ]

https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101907480/california-bans-legacy-admissions

Starting next fall, public and private universities in California will no longer be allowed to consider an applicant’s relationship to alumni or donors in admissions decisions. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill last month banning the practice, known as legacy admissions. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly,” Newsom said in a statement. We’ll examine what the California ban on legacy admissions could mean for students and for colleges across the country.

Guests:

Nanette Asimov , Higher Education Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle

Jessie Ryan, President, The Campaign for College Opportunity, a non-profit policy and research organization that advocates for Californians to attend and succeed in college.

Phil Ting, Assembly member representing California's 19th district encompassing parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties

Catharine Hill, managing director of the nonprofit Ithaka S+R and a former president of Vassar College

Billionaires Back a New ‘Anti-Woke’ University [ WSJ ]

The flava:

Billionaires frustrated with elite colleges are banding behind a fledgling school in Texas that boasts 92 students. 

Trader Jeff Yass, real-estate developer Harlan Crow and investor Len Blavatnik are among the high-profile people donating to the University of Austin, or UATX. The new school has raised roughly $200 million so far—including $35 million from Yass—a huge sum for a tiny school without any alumni to tap.

Crow, a major GOP donor, was an early backer. “Much of higher ed today seems to want to reject Western accomplishments and the accomplishments of Western civilizations in their entirety,” he said. “Many people think that’s a bad idea.” Crow said he expects UATX to encourage ideological diversity. . . . 

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/billionaires-back-a-new-anti-woke-university-fefd0c40

The one regret from high school that I still think about all these years later [ Lawson Wallace ]

Why many college students are forced to spend more on housing than tuition [ PBS NewsHour ]

What went wrong with federal student loans? [ Brookings Institution ]

The title:

What went wrong with federal student loans? 

The abstract:

At a time when the returns to college and graduate school are at historic highs, why do so many students struggle with their student loans? The increase in aggregate student debt and the struggles of today’s student loan borrowers can be traced to changes in federal policies intended to broaden access to federal aid and educational opportunities which increased enrollment and borrowing in higher-risk circumstances. Starting in the late 1990s, policymakers weakened regulations that had constrained institutions from enrolling aid-dependent students. This led to rising enrollment of relatively disadvantaged students, but the increase was primarily at poor-performing, low-value institutions whose students systematically failed to complete a degree, struggled to repay their loans, defaulted at high rates, and foundered in the job market. As these new borrowers experienced similarly poor outcomes, their loans piled up, loan performance deteriorated, and with it the finances of the federal program. The crisis illustrates the important role that educational institutions play in access to postsecondary education and student outcomes as well as the difficulty of using broadly-available loans to subsidize investments in education when there is so much heterogeneity in outcomes across institutions and programs and in the ability to repay of students. . . . 

The authors:

Adam Looney and Constantine Yannelis 

The report:

https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.38.3.209

or

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240829_TPC_Looney_WhatWentWrong_1.pdf

US Naval Academy trial over practice of considering race in admission process resumes Tuesday [ WJZ ]

Chief Justice Clarence Thomas? Some say it's time to require civics in college [ Associated Press ]

San Jose State launches new college to focus on tech, AI [ NBC Bay Area ]

Why a ruling against the Internet Archive threatens the future of America’s libraries [ MIT Technology Review ]

The flava:

I was raised in the 1980s and ’90s, and for my generation and generations before us, the public library was an equalizing force in every town, helping anyone move toward the American dream. In Chantilly, Virginia, where I grew up, it didn’t matter if you didn’t have a computer or your parents lacked infinite money for tutors—you could get a lifetime's education for free at the public library. A ruling from the US Second Circuit against the Internet Archive and in favor of publisher Hachette has just thrown that promise of equality into doubt by limiting libraries’ access to digital lending.

To understand why this is so important to the future of libraries, you first have to understand the dire state of library e-book lending. . . .  

The article:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/11/1103838/why-a-ruling-against-the-internet-archive-threatens-the-future-of-americas-libraries/

Historically Black colleges and universities fight to make up funding deficits [ CBS Mornings ]

PandaCams

UTSA offers influencer degree [ Texas Public Radio ]

The flava:

The University of Texas at San Antonio is launching a college degree program in becoming a digital social media influencer.

The UTSA bachelor’s degree in digital media influence is designed for aspiring content creators. The university’s promotional materials explain, “Unlike other digital media degrees, this program focuses on the psychology of media and teaching persuasion that can move an audience to action. Students work closely with faculty to curate projects and coursework to their chosen audience, offering a customized learning experience.”

The emergence of digital social media influencer degrees is a direct response to the growing demand for skilled professionals in this rapidly evolving field. As businesses continue to rely on influencers to reach and engage with their target audiences, the demand for individuals with the necessary skills is expected to remain strong. . . .

The article and podcast episode:

https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2024-08-25/utsa-offers-influencer-degree

Two Bodies Found in Rice University Dorm Room in Possible Murder-Suicide [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

Two people were found shot dead in a dorm room at Rice University in Houston, the university president said on Monday, in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.

One was a female student who had lived in the dorm room in the Jones College residential hall, Reginald DesRoches, the university president, said at a news conference. The other was a man who was not a university student and who had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said.

The university identified the student as Andrea Rodriguez Avila, a junior.

She appeared to have been in a romantic relationship with the man, Clemente Rodriguez, the university police chief, said. . . . 

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/us/rice-university-shooting-homicide.html

What Can a University President Do?

Being a university president these days sounds quite a bit like the description of being the mayor of Baltimore in The Wire: each constituency you must serve brings you a giant bowl of shit each day, and your job is to eat them all. . . .

--Michael C. Dorf, Dorf on Law

Sesame Street guests, 1972 & 1989

The Misery of Leading Columbia University

On Wednesday Nemat Shafik resigned as president of Columbia University after little more than a year. Her resignation letter began by describing her “immense sadness” in stepping down, understandable given the prestige and opportunity of an Ivy League presidency, long considered a plum role in what
Shafik described as a “life dedicated to public service.”

In normal times, you would have to ask why someone would give all that up. But these are not normal times, and the answer is obvious. A glance at the jubilant and downright vicious comments noting Shafik’s departure on the official Columbia University Instagram account gives a sense of the climate in which Shafik, who uses the name Minouche, was operating.

“A pathetic end to a feeble and embarrassing tenure,” noted one of the gentler posts. “Shame on her for not responding to antisemitism with courage and strength,” said another. “Go to hell Minouche! Free Palestine,” wrote a third. From many others, there were sounds of glee: “brat summer,” “Ding dong the witch is dead” and unprintable epithets laced with watermelon emojis. . . .

--Pamela Paul, Opinion Columnist, New York Times

Austin Community College receives multimillion dollar federal grant for semiconductor training [ KVUE ]

Shawnee Community College students go back to school [ WSIL News 3 ]

Which College Won the Olympics? [ WSJ ]

The flava:

When the Paris Olympics ended on Sunday, the final medal table looked exactly the way that everyone
around the world expected. Team USA was once again at the top, followed by China, Great Britain, host France, Australia, Japan, Italy—and Stanford. 

Excusez-moi? 

When it comes to which countries bring home the most Olympic medals, there’s not much competition: The U.S. has dominated every Summer Games since 1996. This year, the Americans and Chinese wound up tied with 40 gold medals, but Team USA easily topped the overall medal count yet again. 

So we dove into the only fight more tribal than a global competition for athletic supremacy and looked at which colleges won the Olympics. 

And as it turns out, these intramurals were also a beatdown. 

Stanford took home 39 medals, more than double the number of any other U.S. school—and more than the Netherlands, South Korea, Germany and Canada. . . . 

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/sports/olympics/olympics-medals-total-usa-stanford-texas-f5cdc101

How US Colleges Became Corporations [ Second Thought ]

Architect Breaks Down the Most Common Styles of College Campus [ Architectural Digest ]

Why Are Universities Slow to Adopt Zero Trust? [ EdTech ]

The flava:

Higher education institutions have been slower to adopt zero-trust principles than their peers in other industries, according to a new survey — findings that indicate colleges and universities are leaving themselves vulnerable to the continuing onslaught of cyberattacks.

The 2024 CDW Cybersecurity Research Report polled IT professionals in education, government, private business and other fields to gauge how prepared organizations are to defend themselves. And while 78% of respondents in the education sector (encompassing both K–12 and higher ed) were confident that they had sufficient visibility into their cybersecurity landscape, and 61% felt either somewhat or very prepared to respond to a cybersecurity incident, far fewer could attribute their confidence to the introduction of tools and strategies that align with zero trust.

Just 26% of education respondents assessed their zero-trust maturity level as advanced or optimal, while 38% were in the initial stages and 18% hadn’t started toward zero trust at all. Those numbers veer sharply from the overall survey findings: 53% of respondents across all industries were at the advanced or optimal level, and only 9% had not yet started on their zero-trust journeys. . . .

The article:

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2024/07/why-are-universities-slow-adopt-zero-trust

How many classes were taught during the past week?

https://www.thescaleoflife.com

The Relationship Between Students and Their Institution of Higher Education [ Anthony Edwards ]

2024 Stanford Commencement speech by Melinda French Gates

Low enrollment is forcing some small colleges to close [ NBC News ]

The Colleges That Have Produced The Most Billionaires [ Forbes ]

Crisis On Campus [ FRONTLINE ]

The Dean Almost Catches Jeff and Professor Slater [ Community ]

New Hampshire

Quintuplets graduate on the same day from the same college [ TODAY with Hoda & Jenna ]

Philadelphia’s University of the Arts Announces Sudden Closing [ New York Times ]

The flava:

. . . The news comes in the wake of similar closings nationwide, in part because of pressures on higher education generally but also because of art institutions’ particular vulnerabilities. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation’s first art school and museum, founded in Philadelphia in 1805, is dissolving at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. (The University of the Arts had been designated to take on some of the Academy’s students.) Last April, the 150-year-old San Francisco Art Institute filed for bankruptcy, and that fall, the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges, announced the closing of eight campuses nationwide. . . .

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/arts/design/philadelphias-arts-university-closing.html

After Learning Her TA Would Be Paid More Than She Was, This Lecturer Quit [ chronicle.com ]

The flava:

Last spring the University of California at Santa Cruz hired Amanda Reiterman to teach two 120-student lecture classes on classical texts and Greek history. Soon after, an administrator from the history department asked Reiterman if she had any suggestions for teaching assistants.

As the instructor for both classes, Reiterman would be responsible for designing the course content, lecturing, and creating lessons plans for discussion sections, while her TAs would provide support by helping with grading or leading discussion sections, for example.

Reiterman, who holds a Ph.D. and has taught as a part-time lecturer at the university since 2020, recommended a former student of hers who had just graduated with a bachelor’s degree and would be pursuing a master’s in education. But when administrators started the hiring process and copied Reiterman on the emails, she was shocked to learn that the teaching assistant would earn $3,236 per month — about $300 over Reiterman’s own monthly pay.

“I wrote back to my administrator and said there’s some kind of mistake,” Reiterman said.

There was no mistake, though. . . .

The article:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/after-learning-her-ta-would-be-paid-more-than-her-this-lecturer-quit

The Long, Steep Fall of an Online Education Giant [ WSJ ]

The flava:

In May 2018, employees from education technology company 2U paraded through the streets of New
Orleans, beads and booze abundant on their floats during a Mardi Gras-style procession. 

They had plenty to celebrate. 2U, which partners with universities to bring degree programs and other classes online, had a market value topping $5 billion and held lucrative contracts with schools including Georgetown University and the University of Southern California. 

Six years later, the company is valued at roughly $30 million and facing an existential crisis. Its balance sheet is crippled by $900 million in debt, and some university leaders are looking for the exits. . . . 

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/education-technology-2u-debt-e7218eeb

Last day of classes at Notre Dame College in South Euclid as school closes [ WKYC Channel 3 ]

The Funding Strategies Behind U.S. Colleges: Stocks, Tuition and More [ WSJ ]

I left academia. Here's why. [ Jared Henderson ]

Warren Buffett: College Is An Extremely Expensive Waste Of Time

FAFSA Completion Down 40 Percent [ InsideHigherEd.com ]

The flava:

As of March 29, 40 percent fewer high school students had completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid than they did by that date in 2023, according to newly released data from the Department of Education, a massive drop caused largely by the new form’s disastrous rollout.

The article:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/04/09/fafsa-completion-down-40-percent

My dream died, and now I'm here [ Sabine Hossenfelder ]

COLLEGE DECISIONS REACTIONS VLOG + announcing where i'm going to college | UCs and Cal States [ Nicole Laeno ]

Harvard Fake Data Scandal - HUGE NEW DEVELOPMENT [ Pete Judo ]

Tech Glitch Upends Financial Aid for About a Million Students [ WSJ ]

The flava:

The new Fafsa application form was released in late December, nearly three months later than usual.  When families did gain access to it, they reported login woes and error messages. The Education Department said in late January that because it overlooked certain inflation calculations, it wouldn’t start releasing students’ aid information to schools until mid-March. Students who had already submitted their forms but made mistakes—like omitting certain schools from their lists or checking the wrong box regarding their own assets—were told they’d need to wait until the form was processed in mid-April before they could go back in and update their paperwork. 

Many schools already delayed the deadline by which admitted students are expected to put down deposits and claim their seats, pushing the cutoff to May 15 or June 1, rather than the traditional May 1. This latest issue further compresses the timeline for students to make college decisions and has led many families to not even bother submitting the forms. 

Fewer students have applied for aid under the new system. Completion rates were down nearly 29% through March 22, compared with a year earlier, according to an analysis by the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit. Students in low-income high schools or schools with large populations of minorities were lagging even further behind.

The article:

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/fafsa-college-financial-aid-incorrect-tax-data-612e0bed

Fandango (1985)

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why. [ MIT Technology Review ]

The flava:

Two years ago, Yuri Burda and Harri Edwards, researchers at the San Francisco–based firm OpenAI, were trying to find out what it would take to get a language model to do basic arithmetic. They wanted to know how many examples of adding up two numbers the model needed to see before it was able to add up any two numbers they gave it. At first, things didn’t go too well. The models memorized the sums they saw but failed to solve new ones.

By accident, Burda and Edwards left some of their experiments running far longer than they meant to—days rather than hours. The models were shown the example sums over and over again, way past the point when the researchers would otherwise have called it quits. But when the pair at last came back, they were surprised to find that the experiments had worked. They’d trained a language model to add two numbers—it had just taken a lot more time than anybody thought it should.

Curious about what was going on, Burda and Edwards teamed up with colleagues to study the phenomenon. They found that in certain cases, models could seemingly fail to learn a task and then all of a sudden just get it, as if a lightbulb had switched on. This wasn’t how deep learning was supposed to work. They called the behavior grokking. . . .

The article:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/04/1089403/large-language-models-amazing-but-nobody-knows-why/

a final warning to high school students in the college admissions game [ Quon Howery ]

From Peter Coy's NYTimes newsletter of February 28, 2024

The flava: 

The biggest reason for the surge is the emergence of paper mills — for-profit organizations that generate bogus research for sale to people who want to be able to claim they are published scientists.  “Among large research-producing nations, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia and China have the highest retraction rates over the past two decades,” the journal Nature wrote in December.

The tabulation of retractions is done by Retraction Watch, a nonprofit. The database is maintained by another nonprofit, Crossref. (The database doesn’t yet reflect this high total for 2023 because cases are still being entered.)

I asked Dr. Ivan Oransky, a physician and journalist who is a co-founder of Retraction Watch, whether the surge could be temporary because the profession might be weeding out years of bad work all at once. He wrote: “I don’t expect retraction rates to drop but instead to continue to rise. We’re not at peak retraction yet.”

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/peter-coy

Academia is BROKEN! Harvard Fake Cancer Research Scandal Explained [ Pete Judo ]

 

:-)

Hatch Albuquerque Pojoaque Paguate Yates.  Buckhorn Ignacio Roswell Taos Hope Dora Artesia Yeso.  Chama Alamogordo Loving.

$1 Billion Donation Will Provide Free Tuition at a Bronx Medical School [ NYTimes ]

The flava:

The 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward.

The donor, Dr. Ruth Gottesman, is a former professor at Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test and ran literacy programs. It is one of the largest charitable donations to an educational institution in the United States and most likely the largest to a medical school.

The article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/nyregion/albert-einstein-college-medicine-bronx-donation.html

The Real Reason College Dorms Have Gotten So Expensive [ Morning Brew ]

AI Generated Videos Just Changed Forever [ Marques Brownlee ]

Gemini's response to the following prompt: "Write a creative blog post about the most important higher education issues of 2024."

Higher Ed Rollercoaster: Buckle Up for 2024's Wild Ride

Higher education ain't for the faint of heart. Between soaring costs, evolving demographics, and debates fiercer than a late-night study session, navigating this academic adventure can feel like riding a rickety rollercoaster blindfolded. But fear not, intrepid learners! Today, we'll strap in and explore the most crucial issues shaping the higher ed landscape in 2024:

The Financial Tightrope: Remember "sticker shock"? Buckle up for "sticker scream" as costs continue their skyward journey. This leaves students juggling loans, scholarships, and ramen noodles – not exactly the recipe for academic focus. The question remains: will 2024 see innovative solutions or a financial freefall for higher education?

The Shrinking Student Sea: Traditional-age students are dwindling, forcing universities to cast wider nets. This presents exciting opportunities for non-traditional learners, but also raises concerns about equity and access. Can institutions adapt to this demographic shift without leaving anyone behind? Only time (and enrollment figures) will tell.

The DEI Tightrope Walk: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are under fire on multiple fronts. While some push for inclusive campuses, others see them as threats to tradition. This battle for hearts and minds will play out in legislatures, boardrooms, and classrooms, shaping the very character of higher education.

The Tech Tsunami: From online learning platforms to virtual reality classrooms, technology is transforming the educational experience. But will it exacerbate the digital divide or bridge it? Can institutions balance innovation with the human touch? Buckle up for a race against the ever-evolving tech landscape!

The Workforce Whirlwind: The skills needed for today's jobs are changing faster than the headlines. Can universities keep pace, equipping graduates with relevant, future-proof skills? Or will we see a mismatch between education and employment, leaving graduates adrift in a sea of uncertainty?

The Global Jigsaw Puzzle: International collaboration is vital in an interconnected world. But political tensions and funding challenges threaten to dismantle these vital partnerships. Can higher education bridge the divides and foster global understanding, or will we see increased isolation and fragmentation?

Whew, that's a lot to unpack! Remember, these are just the big hitters. Every campus, every student, will experience these issues differently. So, buckle up, future academics! 2024 promises to be a wild ride, filled with challenges, opportunities, and (hopefully) a healthy dose of learning and growth. Hold on tight, stay curious, and keep questioning!

Your Turn: What are the most pressing higher education issues of 2024 for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Let's keep the conversation rolling!

--Gemini

The EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Workforce in Higher Education Report - 2024

 

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2024/2/the-teaching-and-learning-workforce-in-higher-education-2024

No University Left Standing in Gaza [ The Intercept ]

https://theintercept.com/2024/02/09/deconstructed-gaza-university-education/

Life and Death at a Liberal Arts College

by P.F. Kluge  

When I came to college — there’s a room-emptying sentence fragment if I’ve ever heard one — when I showed up as a clueless, immigrant stock first in the family to enter college, kid out of northern New Jersey, we were asked — make that required — to go to dinner in a place called Peirce Hall, the college commons, and there, sitting at long tables, framed by stained glass windows portraying great works of literature, surrounded by oil portraits of dead Episcopalians who were the college’s founders and benefactors, there we confronted one of those men who — risking colleagues’ sniping irony and contending with his own inner anger — incarnated the spirit of that time, that place: Kenyon College, September 1960. . . .

The source:

https://pfkluge.com/content/essays/kampkenyon.html

Rice University sets aside $33 million to settle price-fixing lawsuit [ Texas Tribune ]

The flava:

Rice University has set aside $33.75 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed against 17 prestigious
private universities across the country accused of illegally running a scheme that limited the amount of financial aid given to students, according to the school’s financial statements for last year.

The Houston-based university’s financial statement for last fiscal year, first reported by Inside Higher Ed and the Houston Chronicle, says the school will use the money to settle “a class action lawsuit in which it had been named a co-defendant along with sixteen other universities.”

The article:

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/19/rice-university-price-fixing-lawsuit/

And you think your students are bad with their phones in the classroom?

"He sat in this courthouse this morning. And while he was sitting there, he posted more defamatory statements, more lies about Ms. Carroll and this case. By our count, by our last count, 22 posts just today. Think about that. Think about that when you consider how much money will it take to get him to stop."

--Shawn Crowley, lawyer in defamation case

The article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/e-jean-carroll-testify-damages-trial-donald-trump-expected-attendance-rcna134221

House Investigations of Harvard, Others Mark a ‘Watershed Moment’ [ InsideHigherEd.com ]

The flava:

When a congressional committee announced late last month that it wanted documents and emails that would reveal how Harvard University responded to accusations of plagiarism by its then president Claudine Gay, the demand set off alarms in higher education circles.

“The idea that the House of Representatives has the legal or moral authority to investigate the internal proceedings of a private university is outrageous,” said Ethan Ris, associate professor of higher education administration at the University of Nevada at Reno.

In the same month, Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee launched investigations into antisemitism at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—inquiries that could grow in number and scope to include every aspect of an institution. Essentially, House Republicans have declared everything that happens on campuses fair game for oversight, as evidenced by the plagiarism review.

That declaration worries experts who fear the investigations could undermine the system of higher education, infringe on the independence of colleges and universities and threaten their federal funding. The committee’s work represents a significant shift in how Congress deals with institutions, they say, and is part of a broader attack on higher education—though committee leaders say it’s not a radical departure.

The article:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2024/01/11/house-probes-harvard-others-mark-watershed-moment

Colorado becomes one of the first to employ an incarcerated professor [ Chalkbeat ]

The flava:

On a late-November afternoon, at the head of a cramped classroom, David Carrillo stood at a small podium and quizzed 17 students on macroeconomic terminology.

For the two-hour class, Carrillo, the adjunct professor teaching for Adams State University, mostly kept his hands in his pockets as he lectured students in green uniforms, some bright and others faded with time. His lecture came rapid-fire, allowing just enough time for students to answer questions or let them ask a question of him. One of the lessons on that day: banking.

“Banks keep track of all of their transactions on their balance sheet, but they use a specific type of accounting tool to keep track of all this. What’s that accounting tool?” Carrillo asked his class.

Like his students at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, Carrillo, 49, also wears green. He holds a position that is extremely rare in prison: He’s an incarcerated professor teaching in a prison bachelor’s degree program. . . .

The article:

https://www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/2024/01/04/incarcerated-professor-teaches-college-classes-in-prison/

Should White Students Attend Black-Only Colleges?

Ohio State University Suspends Student Group for Supporting Palestine [ Left Voice ]

The flava:

The student group of Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists (CORS) has been suspended by Ohio State University. They were notified of the suspension following an event they did on campus entitled “Intifada, Revolution, and the Path for a Free Palestine.” The OSU administration sent a letter December 13 alleging that CORS’ “activities pose a significant risk of substantial harm to the safety or security of your organization’s members, other members of the university community or to university property.”

The article:

https://www.leftvoice.org/ohio-state-university-suspends-student-group-for-supporting-palestine/

An Explosion in Sports Betting Is Driving Gambling Addiction Among College Students [ TIME ]

The flava:

BY OLIVER STALEY

When Evan Ozmat, a Ph.D. student in psychology at the University at Albany, first began counseling
undergraduates about HIV and substance abuse, he expected to hear about their health issues. Instead, he heard about problem gambling.

“Since the beginning of the project three years ago, students have brought up, unprompted, gambling,” Ozmat says. “We started asking about it in every appointment and everyone has something to say. It’s everywhere.”

The majority of the gambling takes place on mobile phones, Ozmat says, largely—although not exclusively—on sports betting apps. Served up to students through ubiquitous ads that offer promises of “free” bets and easy wins, the apps sink their hooks deep into students, leading them to spend their financial aid money, lie to their parents, and ignore their studies so they can keep playing, he says. Students from low-income families are particularly vulnerable, as they lack the financial safety net to bounce back from losses. . . .

The article:

https://time.com/6342504/gambling-addiction-sports-betting-college-students/