New Blog link--CHE Campus Cuts

Not sure how long I will leave this blog linked (see right hand side of the page) but thought some might be interested to see what programs are being cut at other campuses.

A tally of possible program cuts

Someone's been doing their homework! The Chronicle put together a list of universities and the programs slated for possible cuts. UNLV and UNR are among them.

University presses move to Open Access model in tough budget times

As you may or may not know, UNLV Libraries is now sponsoring an Open Access publishing platform for scholarly journals. This article from Inside Higher Ed briefly describes the University of Utah becoming the most recent university press--University of Michigan Press led the way--to embrace Open Access for book publication. Excerpts from the article:
"the press will survive -- in part by embracing a new model of organization (becoming part of the university library) and a new business model (embracing open access, in which most publications would be available online and free). While both of those changes are significant, key aspects of the press's identity and mission will not change. It will continue to be a peer-reviewed scholarly publisher, and plans to continue its highly regarded work in fields such as composition studies, folklore, poetry, environmental studies, and the history and culture of the West....But the more significant philosophical shift is to open access, with digital publication as the norm...the press will survive and that in digital format its books will have "the same rigorous scholarly peer review" as print books."

College teaching shifts to more "student-centered" approaches

See the comparative data from 2005-2008 for the Higher Education Research Institute study in this chart excerpted by the Chronicle. Also, for a laugh, read the comments :-)

The challenges faced by veterans returning to college

Great article from the Chronicle on the types of challenges faced by former soldiers coming to college. Includes a picture of students at UNLV!

Undergraduate Students & Technology

From the most recent Educause survey...
"Since 2004, the annual ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology has sought to shed light on how information technology affects the college experience. We ask students about the technology they own and how they use it in and out of their academic world. We gather information about how skilled students believe they are with technologies; how they perceive technology is affecting their learning experience; and their preferences for IT in courses. The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 studies. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2009 survey of 30,616 freshmen and seniors at 103 four-year institutions and students at 12 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 62 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2009 study also includes a special focus on student ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices."

CHE report on institutions awarding minority doctorates

The Chronicle of Higher Education just issued a report on which institutions are awarding the most doctoral degrees to minorities--dates covered are 2003-2007. See the results here.

New report on post-secondary education

New NCES report focuses on the cost of getting a college degree. Tables include profiles of post-secondary institutions which include data on tuition, degrees awarded, demographics of students. Link to full report is here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009165

How to talk to an administrator

The short article (Speaking like a hedgehog, hearing like a fox) in May 20th's Inside Higher Education and the linked post to Tenured Radical offer some common sense advice that could be useful in the best of times and certainly in the worst of (budget) times that we are currently experiencing.

University lectures on YouTube

Just read this posting in the CHE's Wired Campus blog about YouTube now claiming to host complete lectures from over 200 colleges and universities.

Student research assignments--what do we want them to learn

This is not a rhetorical question...the editorial musings from a librarian at Princeton (Inside Higher Ed, April 13) on the seemingly changeless questions and confessions she gets from students doing research assignments should make us all think about how we can help students address the underlying information gaps and misconceptions. She offers suggestions for both departmental faculty as well as librarians to help students learn more from the process. I also loved her acronym for the way most students approach research based assignments: "WIGWAM research (Wikipedia – Internet – Google – Without Anything More"

Defining and Debating 'Double Dipping' in Scholarship

I thought this would be a great article to get a conversation started about faculty scholarship since UNLV's increased focus has raised everyone's attention level. This recent article from Inside Higher Education summarized some national level conversations about what constitutes 'double dipping' and how we should count scholarship efforts.
I'm going to go ahead and stick my neck out just to give us a starting/reaction point and I hope you'll send your comments. I think impact is a key measure for faculty scholarship and so I agree with the opinion of one person quoted who says, basically, that it's ok to provide essentially the same content to two different audiences. If in fact, the point of scholarship is to share knowledge and have an impact on the field, doesn't it make sense to disseminate as widely as possible. As long as one is clear in documenting your work that the same presentation was made to different audiences? For example, I work across disciplines in my collaborations so I might publish or present similar information in a venue targeted to librarians and another targeted to educators or counselors. What do you think about the questions raised in this article?

NCES Descriptive summary of beginning post-secondary students

This NCES report provides a description of the characteristics and enrollment patterns of a nationally representative sample of students who began postsecondary education for the first time during the 2003-04 academic year. Using data from the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the report describes the background, academic preparation, and experience of these beginning students over three academic years, from July 2003 to June 2006, and provides information about rates of persistence, program completion, transfer, and attrition. The focus is on differences among students beginning at either 4-year, 2-year, or less-than-2-year institutions.
Report is available for viewing/download here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008174

New report issued on the impact of the Spellings Commission

The National Assoc. of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) has issued an analysis of what's happened in the two years since the Spellings Commission (A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education) issued its report on higher education. According to Inside Higher Ed (July 15), "It dispassionately presents and balances the often conflicting viewpoints of participants in the commission’s work and aftermath..." Inside Higher Ed has put together this bibliography of news coverage on the Commission's report: http://insidehighered.com/news/focus/commission

The NACUBO report itself offers this: “[T]he impact of the Commission and the effectiveness of the initiative overall can be seen most clearly in: 1) the attention it afforded to the issues and themes addressed in the Report and follow-up activities; 2) the dialogue that has been stimulated by these efforts; and 3) the numerous voluntary improvement projects and programs that have been energized and inspired during this period...However, the effort has had considerably less impact and success in fostering the kind of mutual respect, constructive collaboration, and engaged partnering that seems necessary to unite the higher education community, Congress, and the Department in the joint pursuit of a common agenda.” Read the full report here:
Assessing the impact of the Spellings Commission : the message, the messenger, and the
dynamics of change in higher education. Brent D. Ruben, Laurie Lewis, Louise Sandmeyer ;
with Travis Russ, Stacy Smulowitz, Kate Immordino.