Education Commons^™

Higher Education Has Had Better Years, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

We are all familiar with the maladies that have affected higher education over the past few years: budget cuts, enroll- ment declines, bad press, etc. But was there anything that made things particularly worse in 2017? Plenty.

The bad news started with reports of increasing censorship and intimidation exercised upon college newspapers. We saw it happening on the campuses of Mt. Saint Mary’s University in Maryland, Northern Michigan University and Wesleyan University in Connecticut. The University of Kentucky’s campus newspaper was sued by the university, and at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, three staff members on “The Justice,” the student newspaper, …

The New Tax Law’S Impact On Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“The power to tax is the power to destroy,” said the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall. When one looks at the new tax code produced by the U.S. Congress, we can see how this quote rings a bell of authenticity when it comes to higher education.

Since the latest changes in the U.S. tax code were first proposed, it was clear that higher education was going to be one of the targets of Republicans in Congress. The overall objectives of these changes were to get the money needed to pay for huge tax cuts to benefit …

The War On Science Grows Deeper, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In 2005, journalist Chris Mooney pub- lished a book titled “The Republican War on Science,” which documented the persistent tendency among many conservatives to reject any science that runs contrary to their ideological principles, whether it is climate science, evolutionary biology, or health-related findings that challenge industry interests.

Since then, things have gone worse in cases that remind us of the evilest experiences from recent authoritarian regimes.

Assault On Peer Review A New Threat, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 17, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced to the Senate U.S. Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs a bill titled “BASIC Research Act.” This apparent innocent title covers the real intention of this legislation – an attempt to defund basic research and make it subject to partisan politics. This legislation would change the way grant proposals are evaluated by all federal agencies, from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). These and other federal agencies are the main funders of scholarly work in higher education …

When Institutions Of Higher Ed Fail, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Some may think that the only sign of a college or university failing is when it closes. And that has certainly happened to some small, private colleges that have gone bankrupt in the last few years. Yet, failure has many faces and comes in many degrees.

We can say that colleges and universities fail when the quality of education they offer is not rigorous, regard- less of what some regulatory agencies might say. Or when they promise to prepare students for jobs that no longer exist. Luring new students based on rankings, amenities, and other forms of non-academic qualities is …

Libraries And College Readiness: The Bronx Community College Library High School Collaborative, Carl R. Andrews, Dickens Saint Hilaire

Publications and Research

In today’s information-rich global economy, City University of New York (CUNY) graduates need strong critical thinking skills. Over three quarters of the students who enroll across CUNY’s 24 campuses are drawn from schools in the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) (Strang, 2014). The NYCDOE, the largest public school system in the United States, serving over 1 million students (Strang, 2014). Unfortunately, many of the students who matriculate to CUNY’s college and universities are underprepared for college-level work. This is especially the case with students who attend high schools throughout the Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs. …

The History Books Tell It? Collective Bargaining In Higher Education In The 1940s, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This article presents a history of collective bargaining in higher education during and just after World War II, decades before the establishment of applicable statutory frameworks for labor representation. It examines the collective bargaining program adopted by the University of Illinois in 1945, along with contracts negotiated at other institutions. The article also examines the role of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) and its predecessor unions in organizing and negotiating on behalf of faculty, teachers, and instructors. The first known collective agreements applicable to faculty, teachers and instructors, were negotiated by those unions before UPWA was destroyed during the …

Paradise Lost For Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the most famous poems in English literature is “Paradise Lost” by the British writer John Milton. Originally published in 1667, it deals with the biblical story of the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the garden of Eden.

On November 5, the German newspaper Südeutsche Zeitung revealed a trove of leaked documents from the Bermuda- based law firm Appelby. Those documents show that a large number of individuals – from Queen Elizabeth II to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and companies from Apple to Nike – were using what is commonly called “fiscal …

Making College Presidents More Visible, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Last week I wrote in this column about the issue of the increasing gap between administrators (mainly presidents) and the faculty. This is an issue that has been going on for decades and does not seem to be resolving by itself. How many institutions of higher education can succeed when their leaders are seen as “missing in action” because they seem to be out of touch with reality?

Presidents of institutions of higher education have been the focus of numerous books, yet their roles are not well understood. That is the result of the sheer number of colleges and universities …

Mills Teaches The Current State Of Journalism, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“I don’t want to say that I was ahead of my time, but my instincts just ran that way. To its credit, City College of New York accommodated me as best it could.” That’s how Professor Joshua Mills explains the way his alma mater allowed him to take a variety of courses outside the usual track of any major. He later was awarded a bachelor’s degree in political science and another in history.

That would not be the only change in career interests for this native of the Bronx. He went on to receive a master’s degree in English from …

The Gap Between Faculty, Presidents, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Conflicts between faculty and adminis- trators are not uncommon. In some cases, they escalate to the point in which faculty cast a vote of “no confidence,” usually against the president or chancellor of the institution. This action places the boards of trustees in the difficult position of either publicly backing or firing the chief execu- tive officer of the college. But why does this happen?

To understand these conflicts, we must take a look of how the role of the president in American universities has evolved over time.

Future Goals And Actions Of Faculty Development, Catherine Haras, Margery Ginsberg, Eva Fernández, Emily Daniell Magruder

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Institutional Investment In Teaching Excellence, Steven C. Taylor, Catherine Haras, Emily Daniell Magruder, Eva Fernández, Margery Ginsberg, Jake Glover

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Tribalism Is Consuming The World, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

There is a ghost wandering countries, societies, and even the halls of academia. It is the ghost of tribalism and that ghost is as old as the dawn of the human species.

One of the defining characteristics of people around the world, is to group ourselves for our own ben- efit. Since before any civilization could be described as such, we bound together to defend ourselves from other humans, for cooperating to seek food, to build our shelters, and many more things. That is why we fought wars, conquered territories, subjugate others, and developed characteristics that define ourselves based on …

The Many Faces Of Diversity, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Diversity and inclusion has been a hot topic

in academia for a long time. Yet, despite many

discussions on this issue and legal battles,

statistics show that we are far from achieving

success when it comes to recruiting and retaining

diverse faculty in institutions of higher education,

particularly when it comes to gender and race.

This panel is aimed at proposing best practices

based on the experiences of the panelists.

Sharing of other experiences by the audience

will be encouraged so we can put together a

document that can be used by ICFAD members

to improve their chances for success …

Lawyers Have Two Approaches To Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

After decades of a culture of social isolationism, we see how colleges and universities have gradu- ally become the battlegrounds of national issues such as race, religion, sexual assault, gun control and free speech. Over the last 50 years more than 120 cases related in one way or another to higher education have been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Hundreds of other cases have been filed, only for the justices to deny hearing them.

However, most colleges and universities are not well prepared to deal with litigation. For one thing institutions of higher education have had for decades a …

Civility Needs To Return To Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

According to The Institute for Civility in Government, civility is “about more than just polite- ness, although politeness is a necessary first step. It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking com- mon ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one’s preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same.”

If we go by current events in academia it seems that civility has all but been lost. We see students actively impeding or shouting out at outside speakers just because those guests do not adhere to a particular “party line,” a pure version of a particular ideology, or …

Administrative Costs Of Colleges Can Be Controlled, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Higher education is being attacked for many things from many different quarters. From the political spectrum, we hear things that colleges and univer- sities are “too liberal” or teach “useless things.” Those perceptions, paired with increasing calls for accountability, have generated a series of both fed- eral and state laws calling for more oversight of the operations of these institutions, ranging from where students sleep when going off campus on university business to how to assign textbooks to students.

This increased oversight, in turn, has created more administrative burden on colleges and universities, requiring them to spend more time, effort, …

Incorporation And Evaluation Of Authentic Research Experiences Into The Curriculum Through Development Of A Theory Of Action, Pamela Brown, Tammie Cumming, Joan D. Pasley

Publications and Research

A theory of action outlining undergraduate research program inputs and desired outcomes was developed and used to guide implementation of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) sections and to create assessment tools to measure attainment of program goals in both apprentice-model undergraduate research and CURE. Student survey results for these two research programs were compared and suggest that many aspects of the academic goals such as designing an experiment, using equipment, collecting and analyzing data, and collaborating with others were achieved in both groups. Regarding the relationship with mentors, both groups reported receiving academic advisement in course selection and career options. …

Introduction: History And Conceptual Basis Of Assessment In Higher Education, Peter Ewell, Tammie Cumming

Publications and Research

Assessment and accountability are now inescapable features of the landscape of higher education, and ensuring that these assessments are psychometrically sound has become a high priority for accrediting agencies and therefore also for higher education institutions. Bringing together the higher education assessment literature with the psychometric literature, this book focuses on how to practice sound assessment.

This volume provides comprehensive and detailed descriptions of tools for and approaches to assessing student learning outcomes in higher education. The book is guided by the core purpose of assessment, which is to enable faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals with the information they …

What Changes To Title Ix Mean For Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The fight for civil rights in this country has a long history. It became particularly notable in the 1960s with the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yet, such a law did not include any prohibition against gender discrimination in public education and federally assisted programs. After some legislative battles, Indiana Democratic Sen. Birch Bayh proposed in 1971 a provision that would eventually become Title IX within the Higher Education Act of 1965 and was signed into law by President Nixon in 1972. In the words of Bayh, this provision would provide “an equal chance (for women) to …

Online Education Is Faulty And Needs Reform, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Online courses have become very popular – and very controversial – for many reasons. In the fall of 2014 there were 5.8 million students taking online courses, with 2.85 million taking all of their courses online. Originally being offered by for-profit institutions, now a number of public colleges and universities are offering them under a number of premises, such as making higher education more accessible, the belief that offering on-line courses is cheaper than in person and that they provide an easier way to learn.

Yet, it has been the common wisdom that students consistently perform worse in an online …

The Higher Purpose Of Higher Education Is Real, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In the last few months we have witnessed a number of political debates that have become part of the national discussion on issues such as healthcare, immigration, infrastructure, freedom of speech, the media and truth itself. What is the connection between these topics and higher education? It is much more obvious than you might think.

National progress – economic, social and individual – depends on winning these debates. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, large parts of the nation’s transportation system, as well as the public higher education system, have all been heavily funded by the federal government through taxation. The rationale …

Design And Revision Of An Open-Educational Resource Microbiology Lab Manual Using Student Feedback, Joan Petersen, Susan K. Mclaughlin

Publications and Research

Open educational resources are becoming increasingly important in higher education, and are a valuable resource for instructors who want to customize course content while saving their students money. We designed, revised, and assessed an open educational resource for our Principles of Microbiology course. Student feedback was used to guide the revisions, which took place over the course of several semesters. Student survey responses to lab manual content were very positive, and students overwhelmingly favored a no-cost online manual over one that is commercially published. The process we used to develop this lab manual serves as an example for others who …

Colleges Need To Prepare For Generation Alpha., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The 19th century American theologian and

author James Freeman Clarke is credited with

coining the phrase, “A politician thinks of the

next election. A statesman, of the next generation.”

Although higher education in this country

is currently embattled on many fronts, that should

not distract us from looking years ahead to figure

out how we can prepare for new generations of

students.

One of those upcoming generations has been

labeled “Generation Alpha,” a term crafted by

Mark McCrindle, an Australian social researcher,

demographer and futurist. Unlike “Generation Z,”

born in the mid 1990s and who are today’s college

students, generation …

Students: Professors, I Wish You Would.., Norman Eng

Publications and Research

What do students wish they could tell their professors about their instruction but never do? Read their unvarnished responses in this eye-opening post.

Why More Hate Groups Target College Campuses., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In 1943, the U.S. War Department produced a 17-minute educational short titled “Don’t Be a Sucker.” The film portrays the rise of Nazism in Germany and alerts Americans against repeating the mistakes of intolerance made by the Nazis. It stresses that Americans will lose their country if they let themselves be turned into "suckers" by fanaticism and hatred. The film was produced to make the case for the desegregation of the United States armed forces by revealing the connection between prejudice and fascism.

The film became “viral” on YouTube after the events at Charlottesville, Va., because it teaches how to …

When Secrecy Hurts Institutions Of Higher Ed., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In 1982, seven people died in the Chicago metro- politan area after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been deliberately contaminated with potas- sium cyanide. Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer, responded by pulling 31 million bottles of tablets back from retailers, stopped all production and advertising of the product, got involved with the Chicago Police, FBI, and FDA in the search for the killer, and offered up to a $100,000 reward for information on the culprit, all while permanently discontinuing the capsules and developing tamper-resistant “gel caps.”

The crisis cost the company more than $100 million, but Tylenol eventually regained …

5 Tech Tools Every Professor Should Use Now, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The War On Higher Education Is Now Underway., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In 1969, President Richard Nixon formally declared

a “war on drugs” that would be directed to combat the

use of illicit drugs in the U.S. This and other “wars,”

such as the “war on gangs” or “war on cancer” have

come to signify major efforts by the federal government

against something they perceive as a threat.

In past articles in this column I have written about

concerted efforts by some groups and conservative

media to diminish funding for higher education, defame

college education as a passport to better standards

of living, portray colleges and universities as “liberal

nests” out of …