Universities Weblog

We've all heard of women wanting to get into West Point; how about men wanting to get into St. Hilda's?

Students at this last women's college in Oxford have voted to allow men in…although the vote was quite close.

Opponents of the decision say they will continue to fight, lamenting resulting drawbacks such as limited hiring of female professors and lecturers.

From the Education Guardian:Claire Lynch, the president of the middle common room, which represents postgraduate students at the college, said St Hilda's had not kicked up enough of a fuss about the funding arrangements for lecturers with the university.

She said only 8.6% of professors and 23% of lecturers at Oxford were female and it was important to have a group of female role models running a college. "Not just outstanding women, but women who are successful, who teach, publish and have families – that's a powerful for us to be part of the college," said Ms Lynch.What do you think? Should all educational institutions provide equal opportunities for any student to attend? Or is tradition just as important?

(Photo Source: HRC News)

The ultimate debate regarding free speech is here: it is one thing for a professor to discuss the white supremacy movement in class, but what if he is actually part of the hatred himself?

This is the question university officials and students must face now, after a physics instructor at the University of Delaware was discovered to be exceptionally active it the white supremacy movement.

From the UD Review:Bob Huber has close ties to skinhead groups in the region.

Morrison said most skinheads merely seek political change, but that Huber's lyrics are unguardedly violent.What do you think? Is free speech the ultimate concern, or should colleges draw the line somewhere? Is the choice of professors a reflection of the institution's values? Would you be comfortable taking Huber's class?

(Photo Source: University of Delaware)

(Source: Claremont McKenna College)According to a recent piece on Inside Higher Ed, several elite liberal arts colleges are hoping to grow their enrollments, sparking debate on campus about ideal size. Some of these institutions aim to increase diversity, including numbers of international students.

Here's a bit:

"It is unquestionably the trend to increase," says Richard H. Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. The enrollment increases can create economies of scale, broaden diversity of students and programs, and make institutions more competitive, he says.

"Obviously there are concerns about constituencies, whether they are minority students or legacy students or scientists or athletes or artists," Marx says. "If it was possible for us to do what we need to do for education and society without anyone feeling that it came as a cost to them, why wouldn't we do it that way?"Read the rest here.

Ah…advanced placement courses. Could a year of hard work in high school, along with a nail-biter of a test, take the place of –or help in– a college course?

Students have been doing it for years, but now higher education experts aren't so sure it's a good idea.

From Inside Higher Ed:

There's just one problem, according to research presented Friday in St. Louis at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: AP courses – whatever their merits – may be poor substitutes for college courses in the sciences.

"Our survey, the largest ever of its type, suggests that AP courses do not contribute substantially to student success in college," said Philip M. Sadler, director of science education at the Harvard University-Smithsonian Center for astrophysics and a senior lecturer in astronomy at Harvard. "Even a score of 5 on an AP test is no guarantee of a college grade of A in the same subject," he said.What do you think? Did you skip college courses thanks to AP credits, or did you take the course in college expecting it to be easy? Was it worth it?

(Source: boston globe)As I reported yesterday, Larry Summers has stepped down as president of Harvard, effective July 1. Derek Bok, Harvard's president from 1971-1991, will serve in an interim capacity until a permanent successor is chosen. Summers will return to the faculty as a University Professor.

You can read more about Summers' decision and campus reactions in this Boston Globe piece.

The human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV, is spreading faster than any other sexually transmitted disease, especially among college students.

The disease can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer.

Many college health centers now test female students for this disease during yearly gynecological exams without informing the student. And some feel that prevention of HPV is, or should be, the responsibility of women.

From the Louisville Cardinal:"There is a huge knowledge gap about HPV," said Dr. Stanley A. Gall, who specializes in infectious diseases in obstetrics and gynecology, and is a professor at U of L. "It's grim considering 75 percent of the population has been exposed to HPV. We know that by the presence of antibodies or presence of the virus itself." Gall has been researching the STD since 1977.

"The burden of this disease falls on the female," Gall said. He recommends that all college age females visit a gynecologist once a year for a Pap smear. He added that most women don't know about HPV or that when they receive a Pap smear they are specifically being tested for it.Is it right to expect only women to carry the burden of disease prevention? Should university doctors be required to inform students of all tests administered during routine examinations? Please let us know what you think.

Students have employed all sorts of tactics to change a grade they weren't pleased with: begging the professor for mercy, taking on extra credit, taking the class again. A few have gone beyond the usual techniques and employed drastic measures, as a student at the University of Utah recently did.

From the Daily Herald: A University of Utah student has been indicted on federal charges of hacking into one of his professor's computers in an attempt to change a failing grade, the U.S. attorney's office said.

You Li, a 21-year-old student from China, was charged in a federal indictment Friday with accessing a protected computer in an attempt at fraud and obtaining information from a protected computer. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Yikes, that's quite a penalty.

What do you think? Should all computer hackers be given the same sentence, regardless of the severity of their intentions? Should an attempt to change a grade be equated with an attempt to compromise national security, for instance, or to steal someone's financial identity? Is the penalty too harsh, or should everyone be treated the same?

(Photo Source: Pivot)

If you want to know what generation a person is from, just ask them what "PC" stands for.

The young pups will promptly answer, "Personal Computer." For those a little longer in the tooth, the abbreviation will always resonate as "Politically Correct."

During the late eighties and early nineties, the nation was so paralyzed with the fear of offending sensibilities, or of being seen as crude or 'wrong', that many people kept opinions to themselves, or offered banal musings instead of strong thoughts on issues.

There is nothing wrong with being sensitive to others–in fact, empathy is a crucial skill that many students develop during their college years–but there is something wrong with closing your eyes and ears to the world around you.

In a potentially disturbing development, the PC trend is now invading college classrooms.

An Arizona bill is waiting to pass that would allow students to demand alternative coursework if a professor assigns a text or assignment that the student finds "personally offensive." As you can imagine, professors hate the idea of their credibility being questioned. But it's more important to ask: what harm could this do to students?

Inside Higher Ed provides a thought-provoking
article:The Arizona bill goes beyond the measures that have been pushed in other states – in fact it goes so far that David Horowitz, the '60s radical turned conservative activist who has pushed the Academic Bill of Rights, opposes the measure. "It doesn't respect the authority of the professor in the classroom," he said. "This authority does not include the right to indoctrinate students or deny them access to texts with points of view that differ from the professor's. But it does include the right to assign texts that make students feel uncomfortable."

And he said that the experience has reinforced for him the value of teaching. "This all was a little difficult at first, with a flurry of e-mails attacking the college and my integrity," he said. "But the more I've learned about academic freedom, the more sure I am that what I'm doing is right and that it matters – to teach students to think critically, to help students come a little bit out of their comfort zones."
As always, issues of this magnitude leave us with more questions than answers.

Which is more dangerous: the possibility of feeling offended, or the possibility of closing yourself off to other views on the world, possibly never changing or growing as a result?

Is college the right place to remain in a bubble? Should students force themselves to consider other ways of life, no matter how unpleasant, or do they have the right to refuse this knowledge? If this legislation passes, what does it hold in store for the future of your higher education years?

Please share your ideas and opinions with us in the Comments section.

(Photo Source: NCSU)