Higher Education Commons^™

Why The History Of Cuny Matters: Using The Cuny Digital History Archive To Teach Cuny’S Past, Stephen Brier

Publications and Research

This article describes the newly launched CUNY Digital History Archive (CDHA), a project of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the CUNY Graduate Center. The CDHA is designed to provide open, online access to a rich array of digitized historical sources that detail the important history of the City University of New York (CUNY). The article reviews that history, focusing on the postwar expansion of the city’s tuition free municipal college system and the subsequent birth of the CUNY system in 1961. CUNY’s growth helped launch a student-led fight for open admissions at various CUNY campuses …

Personalized Outreach To University Students With A History Of Reading Difficulties: Early Screening And Outreach To Support Academically At-Risk Students, Hélène Deacon, Rebecca Tucker, Bradley W. Bergey, Annie Laroche, Rauno Parrila

Publications and Research

We examined whether identification of and personalized outreach to a group of students with a history of reading difficulties would impact their use of support services and academic outcomes. Using a brief self-report questionnaire, we identified students with a history of reading difficulties (n = 175) and a comparison group of university students without a history of reading difficulties (n = 100). One half of the students with a history of reading difficulties were individually invited to visit the Academic Advising Centre; the other students received standard university communications about and access to university support services. Students with …

Does Unconscious Bias Effect Higher Ed Hiring?, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Nobody wants to be called a racist or a misogynist. Most people think that they are not. However, we are constantly making decisions that are influenced by unconscious biases.

Unconscious biases are defined as social stereo- types that are formed about certain groups of people by individuals from outside their own conscious awareness. Psychologists agree that everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and that these biases stem from one’s tenden- cy to organize social worlds by categorizing.

Teaching Must Become Engaging To Be Effective., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

We live in a time of intense scrutiny as to the

effectiveness of instruction in higher education.

Questions are being asked of college and university

administrators about the retention and graduation

rates of their students. In fact, some states have tied

funding of public institutions to this data. Others

are asking how well we are teaching students to get

that well-paid job after graduation.

It is interesting that the fundamental question

of how well we are teaching our students is rarely

answered. One reason for this hesitation is that we

are still struggling with just how to measure teaching

effectiveness …

Female Administrators Face Discrimination In Ed., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In past articles of this column we have reported

data that show that women in general find more

barriers than their male counterparts in getting

into academic careers. Further, female college professors

earn on average 10 percent less in salaries

than their male colleagues.

If you are a woman in academia and aspire to

an administrative job in order to substantially

improve your earnings and make them more in

par with the males around you, you should think

twice.

Reframing Readiness: Through The Cracked Looking Glass: The Framework For Success In Postsecondary Writing As Assessment Model, David Hyman

Publications and Research

The Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, and National Writing Project) describes experiences and habits of mind that will equip students for success in college writing. This column highlights examples of the values espoused by the Framework and aims to increase understanding of this statement, advocating for its rich conception of writing.

Gender Bias In Academe: An Annotated Bibliography Of Important Recent Studies, Danica Savonick, Cathy Davidson

Publications and Research

An annotated bibliography of studies examining the role of gender bias in hiring, promotion and tenure in higher education.

Diversity More Than Race, Gender In Higher Ed., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Most people when talking about diversity think

of matters revolving around race and gender, and

while those are obvious and important topics, the

fact of the matter is that the definition of diversity

is much larger.

Today diversity is seen in two dimensions.

The first one is what is called inherent diversity,

the diversity that is beyond people’s control.

Obviously, these issues include race and gender,

but also include national origin, age, sexual orientation,

disability, religious affiliation and socioeconomic

status. Certainly, you can change your

religious affiliation or socioeconomic status over

time, but being raised in a particular religion or …

Not All Presidential Spouses Are Created Equal., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the individuals who is usually around on campuses but many times is almost “invisible” is the president’s partner. Sometimes they take on major roles for social functions, fundraising, and public relations; others are quite inconspicuous. In some cases, they even get financial compensation for their work. In others, they have to make sacrifices for the wellbeing of their partners.

A new study helps to clarify the role of presidential partners and how they feel about their roles. “The Lives of Presidential Partners in Higher Education Institutions,” published by the University of Minnesota, provides a good understanding.

There Is Proof Diversity Makes Colleges Better., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Since the time of the Civil Rights movement the

issue of diversity has been widely discussed in academia.

First it was considered that institutions of

higher education should increase the participation of

minorities of both faculty and students as a matter of

social justice.

Then came the legal aspect of increasing diversity

when the concept of affirmative action was introduced

in the early 1960s. After President John F. Kennedy

issued an executive order in 1961 that required not to

“discriminate against any employee or applicant for

employment because of race, creed, color, or national

origin" and "take affirmative action to …

As If By Magic: Unleashing Critical And Expressive Voices Through A Rhetoric Of "This/And" In First-Year Composition, Nolan Chessman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation engages academic, creative, and student genres in conversation in order to challenge the strict discursive and stylistic boundaries placed around college writing, particularly in first-year composition. Because this project aims to thrust first-year writing pedagogy beyond the confines of fixed genre forms, its inquiry is multimodal, intermingling writing styles and research modes so that, in scholar-teacher Wendy Bishop’s words, “I can think in and through them all” (“Places to Stand” 17). The particulars—or “data”—informing this study are primarily archival, textual (often a combination of the two), experimental, and experiential. Broadly speaking, this inquiry consists of seven chapters, which …

The Relationship Between Clinical Teaching Effectiveness And Emotional Intelligence In Clinical Nurse Faculty In Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Programs In New York State, Caroline K. Mosca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It is important to evaluate the Clinical Teaching Effectiveness (CTE) of nurse faculty because clinical teaching is one of the most effective pedagogies in nursing education (Billings & Halstead, 2012). However, clinical faculty must be able to manage effectively the stressors of the clinical setting, where lessons can be unpredictable and the environment is often laden with intense emotion (Gerolamo & Roemer, 2011; Ondrejka, 2013; Roberts, Chrisman, & Flowers, 2013). Emotional Intelligence (EI) may facilitate CTE because higher EI has been associated with improved management of stress in both nursing and the general workplace (Goleman, 1995; Görgens-Ekermans & Brand, 2012; …

Reinventing The Wheel Of Teaching Business? Learning In The Academic Classroom - The Case Of The Business Consulting Course, Francesco R. Frova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to use the case of the Business Consulting course to demonstrate and enhance the significance of the application of effective and experiential learning in the academic classroom. Three Learning Theories are considered: Classical, Social, and Experiential Learning. Principles of effective learning and learning goals are described, and are looked at through the description of a Business Strategy and Business Consulting courses run in a US North-Eastern public university. The Business Consulting course is then compared with a standard lecture course and a course that uses case studies to demonstrate how the learning goals can …

Stress As A Cultural Tool In Higher Education, Nadia Ramjit

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study focuses on how two groups of college freshmen, the traditional age and nontraditional age students use the word stress as a cultural tool in their college adjustment process. This topic is explored through Vygotsky’s concept of language understood as a cultural tool, enacting meaning as developed through socio-cultural relations (1978). Three research questions explore how students articulate stress in diverse ways: How do traditional and nontraditional college freshmen use the word stress as a cultural tool to mediate their experiences in the college environment: academically, socially, personally, regarding goal commitments, etc.? What are the factors that traditional and …

Department Chairs Play Key Role In Education., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In higher education, it has always been said

that the position of departmental chair is one of

the most difficult jobs. Chairs usually take over

the responsibility of managing the affairs of

their academic units without previous in-depth

preparation for the job and do so in a difficult

position where they have to implement policies

and practices from the college and university’s

administration, while having to still deal with

their colleagues on a daily basis.

On top of that they tend to return to the faculty

as another foot soldier after their stint as chair,

having to live with the …

Freedom Of The Press In Danger On Campuses., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Anybody who has attended college is familiar with

student-run media. From newspapers to radio to even

TV stations, these outlets are oftentimes the main sources

of information to the college community.

They vary in quality and content, with some even

carrying out investigative reporting of their own institutions

and taking critical stances about policies and practices

that, while may seem inconsequential to outsiders,

are crucial to education.

Allen Teaches And Practices The Art Of Translation., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

An old Italian adage, “traduttore, traditore,” whose literal translation is “translator, traitor,” has been haunting the world of translation for decades. In fact, translation is a difficult art that not many people fully understand, and there are professors who teach it in college.

One of those professors is Dr. Esther Allen of the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College of the City University of New York.

College Enrollments Becoming Problematic., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Enrollment has become the main focus of attention for

higher education administrators. For private institutions

enrollment is the major source of their funding. And due

to diminished support from states, it has also become

the major source of financial support for most public

colleges and universities. This dependence on tuition

wasn’t always so great for public institutions, but is the

result of a process that has been called the privatization

of public higher education.

Two reports that got little attention when published

recently were the Western Interstate Commission on

Higher Education, known as Wiche. This group released

its new projections …

The Puerto Rican Education Pipeline: New York City, New York State, And The United States, Luis O. Reyes

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

Over the past 14 years, educational attainment among Puerto Ricans in the United States has been slowly improving. In 2000, 63 percent of Puerto Ricans 25 years of age and older had a high school degree or higher versus 75 percent in 2014 (U.S. Census Bureau 2014). Similarly, only 12.5 percent of Puerto Ricans had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2000 versus 16 percent in 2014 (U.S. Census Bureau 2014). Even though educational attainment has been steadily increasing, the disparity between educational attainment among Puerto Ricans versus non-Hispanic whites and other Hispanic subpopulations has remained constant.

Egalitarian Teams In Action: Organizing For Library Initiatives, Linda Miles, Miriam Laskin, Kate Lyons

Urban Library Journal

In 2006 Peter Senge, who coined the term the learning organization, wrote, “As the world becomes more interconnected and business becomes more complex and dynamic, work must become more ‘learningful’... It’s just not possible any longer to to figure it out from the top, and have everyone else following the orders of the ‘grand strategist’” (p. 4). Senge documented the need for professions and organizations that can change, that can quickly adapt, be nimble, learn, and find new opportunities in the changing information landscape. Libraries are not immune from this kind of pressure. In this case study, first presented at …

Using Pre-Reading Strategies To Provide Historical Context In A Literature Course, Tisha Ulmer

Publications and Research

Students find that pre-reading activities which help them make a personal transaction with the past also help them read earlier African American writers with intensified insight.

Open Access And The Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual, Jill Cirasella, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

The process of completing a dissertation is stressful—deadlines are scary, editing is hard, formatting is tricky, and defending is terrifying. (And, of course, postgraduate employment is often uncertain.) Now that dissertations are deposited and distributed electronically, students must perform yet another anxiety-inducing task: deciding whether they want to make their dissertations immediately open access (OA) or, at universities that require OA, coming to terms with openness. For some students, mostly in the humanities and some of the social sciences, who hope to transform their dissertations into books, OA has become a bogeyman, a supposed saboteur of book contracts and destroyer …

Reading Effectively Across The Disciplines (Read): A Strategy To Improve Student Success, Juanita But, Pamela Brown, Davida Smyth

Publications and Research

This paper describes the structure and activities of READ (Reading Effectively Across the Disciplines), a pilot initiative to improve students’ critical reading skills, disciplinary literacy and academic success. READ employs a multimodal design that consists of faculty training in disciplinary literacy instruction and curricular enhancement, development and implementation of active reading assignments and assessments, peer-led team learning, and the dissemination of discipline-specific teaching and learning resources on an Open Lab site to provide an interactive teaching and learning environment for students and faculty. Empirical evidence of the initial effectiveness of the pilot in three gateway courses in Biology, Electromechanical Engineering …

Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide To Lecturing, Presenting, And Engaging Students, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

Your students aren’t reading. They aren’t engaged in class. Getting them to talk is like pulling teeth. Whatever the situation, your reality is not meeting your expectations. Change is needed. But who’s got the time? Or maybe you’re just starting out, and you want to get it right the first time.

If so, Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide to Lecturing, Presenting, and Engaging Students is the blueprint. Written for early career instructors, this easy-to-implement guide teaches you to:

• Think like advertisers to understand your target audience—your students
• Adopt the active learning approach of the best K-12 teachers
• Write a syllabus …

“There Is Nothing Inherently Mysterious About Assistive Technology”: A Qualitative Study About Blind User Experiences In Us Academic Libraries, Adina Mulliken

Publications and Research

Eighteen academic library users who are blind were interviewed about their experiences with academic libraries and the libraries’ websites using an open-ended questionnaire and recorded telephone interviews. The study approaches these topics from a user-centered perspective, with the idea that blind users themselves can provide particularly reliable insights into the issues and potential solutions that are most critical to them. Most participants used reference librarians’ assistance, and most had positive experiences. High-level screen reader users requested help with specific needs. A larger number of participants reported contacting a librarian because of feeling overwhelmed by the library website. In some cases, …

Online, Blended And Technology-Enhanced Learning: Tools To Facilitate Community College Student Success In The Digitally-Driven Workplace, Dawn Levy

Publications and Research

Community colleges have embraced distance education as a means to provide increased flexibility and access to their large numbers of non-traditional students. Retention rates and student achievement measures alone may not reflect all of the benefits and opportunities that online learning, blended or hybrid learning, and technology enhanced learning may afford these students. Online learning resources should be viewed as a tremendous value added benefit for community college students, not only for the content conveyed, but also for fostering the digital readiness, cultivating the professional personas, and encouraging the self-directed learning needed to succeed in the digitally-driven workplace.

On The Way To Tenure: Women In The Public Sector At John Jay In Reflections On Academic Lives: Identities, Struggles, And Triumphs In Graduate School And Beyond, Eds, Nicole Elias, Maria J. D’Agostino

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Higher Ed Needs New Forms Of Marketing., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In this day and age of crises – financial, enrollment,

even scandal – among institutions of higher education,

image “management” has become a tool to help

some institutions stay afloat. Countless colleges and

universities have resorted to spending money on

glossy brochures, billboards and even on expensive

TV airtime.

The images they portray are usually one of happy

and attractive students having fun on campus, enjoying

athletic events and amenities that used to be more

likely to be found at country clubs than colleges. The

quality of education is almost an afterthought. The

name of the institution is being sold …

Digital Literacies And Visual Rhetoric: Scaffolding A Meme-Based Assignment Sequence For Introductory Composition Classes, Andie Silva

Publications and Research

Introducing students to the practice of academic writing ideally goes beyond teaching strategies like drafting, outlining, and revising in order to encourage deeper skills such as critical thinking and metacognition. This post discusses an assignment series focusing on reflection, genre analysis, and multiliteracies leading up to the design of original memes.

If You Think Education Is Expensive, Try Ignorance., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

This is the 100th column of this series. During

the two years during which this column has been

published uninterruptedly on a weekly basis, a

common question I received is why do I defend

higher education?

I remember when I decided to become a scientist.

The day was October 5, 1957. I was a 6-year-old kid

living in Venezuela. The big headline in the newspaper

that day was that the Soviets had launched

an artificial satellite named Sputnik. I was amazed.

I asked my father all kinds of questions about it,

but he could not tell me much more than …