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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 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. …

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.

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 …

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, …

In Transit Vol. 8 Fall 2017, Laguardia Community College

LaGuardia Community College Publications

In Transit is the LaGuardia Journal on Teaching and Learning. It is published by the Center for Teaching and Learning at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY.

Advocate, Fall 2017, Vol. 29, No. 2, Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Editorial:

- The Rebel’s Time: Remembering Vidrohi’s Poetry of Revolution. Bhargav Rani (p. 3)

Features:

- The Revolutions Should not be Televised: The Oeuvre of Peter Watkins. Curtis Russell (p. 12)

- “The Siege” Comes to NY. Ashley Marinaccio (p. 17)

- Orwell’s Revolution. Harry Blain (p. 22)

CUNY Life:

- Whose Community?: A Scalar Report from Graduate Center Grounds. Angela Dunne and Conor Tomás Reed (p. 28)

100 Years of the Russian Revolution:

- Women and the Russian Revolution. Tatiana Cozzarelli (p. 38)

Review:

- Between Value and Valor: Review of Corey Robin’s “The Reactionary Mind: …

Advocate, Fall 2017, Vol. 29, No. 1, Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Editorial:

- “To Revolution, or not to Revolution.” Bhargav Rani (p. 3)

Features:

- Why de Blasio’s Commission Reviewing NYC’s Monuments Matters. Anthony Ramos (p. 12)

- Boycott the NFL! Shame on Them! Jeff Suttles (p. 16)

- Free the Media! Campaign to Rehire Marisa Holmes. Conor Tomás Reed (p. 20)

CUNY Life:

- Dude, Where’s my Cohort? Sarah Hildebrand (p. 26)

- PSC Rank-and-File Take Independent Action for a $7k Adjunct Minimum Wage. CUNY Struggle (p. 30)

- Practicing Consent in the Classroom. Jenn Polish (p. 34)

Review:

- Up from Below Review of China Mieville’s …

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 …

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. …

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 …

Enhancing And Evaluating Scientific Argumentation In The Inquiry-Oriented College Chemistry Classroom, Annabel D'Souza

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The research presented in chapters 2, 3, and 4 in this dissertation uses a sociocultural and sociohistorical lens, particularly around power, authority of knowledge and identity formation, to investigate the complexity of engaging in, supporting, and evaluating high-quality argumentation within a college biochemistry inquiry-oriented classroom.

Argumentation skills are essential to college and career (National Research Council, 2010) and for a democratic citizenry. It is central to science teaching and learning (Osborne et al., 2004a) and can deepen content knowledge (Jiménez-Aleixandre et al., 2000; Jiménez-Aleixandre & Pereiro-Munhoz, 2002). When students have opportunities to make claims and support it with evidence and …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Pulling The Plug On Microscopes In The Anatomy And Physiology Laboratory, Zvi Ostrin, Vyacheslav Dushenkov

Publications and Research

Virtual microscopy (VM) has been widely available for more than a decade, especially in clinical settings and medical schools. In recent years the movement away from conventional optical microscopy (OM) and towards VM has been accelerating and several VM websites are now available online and readily accessible to educators. VM can enhance the instructor’s ability to teach the histology component of anatomy and physiology classes, facilitate student learning, save time for both students and instructors, and ultimately save money that can be more productively used for other facets of the laboratory. The many pedagogical and practical advantages provided by VM …

Tenure Carries Both Privileges And Responsibilities, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Politicians and many in the general public ask, “Why do university faculty need tenure?” One could give many reasons based on history or philosophy. But sometimes examples prove the most powerful explanations.

Two weeks ago, on July 18, one of the world’s academic heroes passed away. His name is not familiar to most, but thanks to his work we live in a healthier world. His name was Herbert Needleman. Born on Dec. 13, 1927, in Philadelphia, he came from a Jewish family of modest means. His father sold furniture, and his mother, whose family owned a pickle business, ran the …

Race, Gender Play Role In College Graduations, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the best ways to measure the accomplishment of colleges and universities is by assessing the percentage of their undergraduate students who graduate within six years of enrollment. Although most undergraduate degrees are designed to be completed in four years, the norm is to count grad- uation rates in six-year intervals because many students have to work (many of them full-time), while others do not have the adequate preparation from high school to succeed and need more time to overcome their academic shortcomings. There are many factors that can delay time to graduation.

Many states tie funding for their …