I read Mark C. Taylor’s April 27 New York Times piece on restructuring higher education with wildly mixed feelings.

Since I have been arguing that we cannot scrimp our way through the current recession without making fundamental changes in the ways universities are organized and behave, I am sympathetic to Taylor’s call. But his op-ed is a bewildering mélange of old ideas that do not, in my view, cohere.

Taylor may think that the American university is still enmeshed in the difficulties that Immanuel Kant perceived in the German institutions of the late 18th century, but I do not agree. Taylor’s major recommendations flow from his objection to overspecialization in research and teaching — this has been the major theme in...

In a story about college admissions rejection letters and where they fall on the nice-to-mean continuum (really), The Wall Street Journal reports:

Most Discouraging: Boston University. To students who have family ties to the university, its letter begins: “We give special attention to applicants whose families have a tradition of study at Boston University. We have extended this consideration in the evaluation of your application, but I regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission.” Consideration of family legacies is common practice at many universities. But Rob Flaherty, 17, a North Reading, Mass., recipient, said he felt the wording in BU’s letter translated to “we made it even easier for you and you STILL couldn’t get in.” Well, yeah,...

We all know the drill by now: Faced with a major financial shortfall, the university announces that it has no choice but to sharply raise student tuition once again. “We remain committed to providing an affordable education for all,” says the university president, in somber tones. “But we will not degrade the high academic standards that make this institution great. We continue to provide an excellent value to our students, and we call on all members of the university community to come together in this difficult time of shared sacrifice.” Students complain, while some of the more outspoken members of the faculty wonder aloud why “high academic standards” never seem to involve “paying professors more money.” They are ignored. I think this standard line of rhetoric is growing less persuasive by the year. And it’s really hard to...

This week the Audit Bureau of Circulations released figures for newspaper circulation for the last six months, and it’s a bleak picture. (See this story in Wall Street Journal.) Here are numbers for major dailies:

USA Today -7.5% Wall Street Journal +0.6% New York Times -3.5% L.A. Times -6.6% Washington Post -1.2% New York Daily News -14.3% New York Post -20.5% Chicago Tribune -7.5% Houston Chronicle -14.0% Arizona Republic -5.7%

One of the consequences of the drop is reductions in newsroom staff, such as what happened yesterday at the Baltimore Sun, where 61 people were laid off (see here).

I just want to give everyone some details about a live webinar I’m taking part in this Thursday (4/30/08) from 1pm to 2:30pm. If people are interested, they can watch the event on their computers.

Obviously, this is the week of “Obama’s First 100 Days,” and the panel discussion I am moderating, sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, brings together several scholars from different disciplinary traditions to dissect Obama’s few months in office.

The panelists include Diana Mutz, professor of communication and political science and director of the National Annenberg Election Survey; David Eisenhower, director of the Institute for Public Service at Annenberg; David Grande, an assistant professor of Medicine in the University of...

cross-posted from howtheuniversityworks.com

EVERY DAY MAY DAY!

Thursday, April 30 is May Day for faculty serving contingently, according to the fledgling New Faculty Majority coalition. Major support provided by Bob Samuels, president of...

The rich are getting richer, but the Wall Street Journal wants to shoot the messenger. The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to “that American economist under the age of 40 who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.” The current winner is economist Emmauel Saez who provides an enormous service updating statistics on how much the richest people in the country have compared to everyone else. (Peter Orzag, one of Obama’s top economists, praises Saez here.)

Although, the richest 10 percent of Americans has, indeed, done well — they got 49.7 percent of all the income in 2007 (latest data available) and...

We know single mothers have it bad. They are poorer than married mothers and their work lives are constrained by child care. Lots of complaints and worries from their end, and society’s. In the face of this woe, it’s curious that most divorce filers women. One reason mothers leave marriages or don’t marry at all may be that as economist Heidi Hartmann observed 20 years ago, and as better data in a great paper by sociologist Emily Passias at Ohio State shows, single mothers may have more time to themselves than married women. There is a long line of academic research — think Arlie Hochschild — and vicious popular culture...

The National Assessment of Educational Progress issued another of its Trends reports yesterday (go here and click on the pdf), and stories from around the country picked up on the mixed results it provided, such as this one from The Washington Post with the headline “‘Nation’s Report Card’ Sees Gains in Elementary, Middle Schools.”

The Trends reports provide long-term comparisons in reading and math achievement since the early-1970s for three age groups, ages 9, 13, and 17. The 2004 report also contained abundant data not only on test scores but on leisure habits and home life as well.

The good news is this. Nine-year-olds are going up. Their...

5. He treats everyone with what he sees as a sense of detached and razor-sharp irony, but the GWDLTWW himself becomes very sensitive when criticized or even observed closely (which amounts to the same thing). When he perceives a piece of criticism coming close to being sniffed out in public, the GWDLTWW becomes terribly earnest and looks at the perpetrator of the atrocity — otherwise known as the person disagreeing with him — like the mother who left him at day care before he was ready.

6. The GWDLTWW will paint a portrait of any woman who says anything aside from “What a brilliant idea,” and “Wow! I never would have thought of that” as man-hating, disenfranchised, lonely, probably alcoholic, bitter, spinster (or dominatrix, or ex-wife) with a second-rate mind. If you ask this man to discuss whether he has any issues with your work or...