Universities Weblog

(Source: Tulane University)

If you find yourself watching the NCAA basketball tournament this week, you'll likely witness the debut of a new ad campaign aimed at educating the public about the value of higher education. The American Council on Education, along with some corporate and foundation partners, has created a public-awareness campaign titled "Solutions for the Future." A related website can be found here.

This bit comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

If higher-education officials have their way, their concerns about the availability of public funds and college access will be as familiar to Americans as Coca-Cola, thanks to two national advertising campaigns set to kick off this year.

According to the leaders of this effort, which is being spearheaded by the American Council on Education and has been dubbed "Solutions for Our Future," the television spots are meant to convey, in a humorous way, the concrete benefits that colleges provide to the quality of life and well-being of the nation.

You can read the rest here, and catch Inside Higher Ed's take on it here.

Poor, poor grandmothers: every semester, dozens of them suddenly pass away, most often around the time of a big test or when a major paper is due.

Of course, grandmothers truly do pass away, and students deserve absolute sympathy at that time, but it is simply statistically impossible for so many grandmothers to leave this earth at the same time.

Every semester on the first day of class, I offer my students a mock-serious warning: Please note the days your final papers are due. I'm sorry to say that these will be horribly dangerous days for your family members, as many of them seem to experience serious injury or even death on these days. Please warn them to take extra precautions.

The speech always gets laughs and a few guilty glances. Sure, it's funny, but what exactly does the dead grandmother epidemic signify?

According to this excellent article from Inside Higher Ed, it signals a time of welcome creativity. The more outlandish a student's excuse, the more a professor is inclined to enjoy, and accept, it.

I love outrageous excuses as much as the next person – and the general aspect of student follies of various kinds still delights me. Sometimes, bracing myself for a student who is going to step up with an excuse about some past or future absence, I try to project an aura that suggests: "All right, since we know what's going to happen, let's see if we can get through this with some wit and intelligence as well as sympathy."

But it seems to me we seldom do.

So students: use those skills you're learning in college, and move beyond the dead grandmother epidemic.

What are the best excuses you've ever given?

With March Madness upon us once again, we're all busy filling out tournament brackets for office pools and online contests. The tournament begins this week, likely bringing with it the usual fare of blowouts, buzzer-beaters and Cinderellas.

Of course, only a relative handful of teams actually have a shot at winning. But what if the rules were different? What if the teams competed based on graduation rates? That's what Inside Higher Ed had in mind when it created this bracket. Note that my team, Pennsylvania, loses in the first round, even though Penn has one of the highest graduation rates in the nation. But the university doesn't make those figures public, so it forfeits its game to Texas. Oh well.

On the topic of Inside Higher Ed, check out the piece I wrote for them last year around this time.

Good luck with your picks.

(Source: AP)

Yet another article from the "shocker" file. It seems business schools cater to (surprise!) businesses, and in doing so have started to run more like businesses. Revolutionary.

Here's a bit:

For those who want to study business, there has never been a wider range of choices: Undergraduate or graduate programs? Part-time or full-time? Online or in person? Degree or certificate?

"The customer is king," said Terry Connelly, dean of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. "What we"re seeing is a response to the consumer, and business schools have two consumers: the student who goes through it and the employer who engages their services."

Read the full article here.

Any cheerleader knows how difficult–and often, dangerous–the sport can be. There has likely never been a cheerleader who hasn't suffered at least a strain or sprain. Many have suffered far worse, and a governing body of college cheerleading wants to change that.

The AACCA recently announced that certain stunts should be banned during basketball seasons, including pyramids and basket tosses.

Citing the hard surface of courts and abundance of people on the floor during the routines, the AACCA has recommended that all cheerleading coaches immediately put the ban into effect.

What do you think? Is this necessary to protect cheerleaders, or do properly trained athletes not need to worry about injuries?

Read more.

(Photo Source: UWO)

Lawyers and university officials have long fought a losing battle: to have the option to choose whether or not military recruiters can appear on campus.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that any college that receives federal money must admit any recruiters who wish to canvas college students, or lose their funding.

One of the many arguments against this development involved the military's notorious reputation for discrimination against gay recruits: more than 10,000 aspiring military have been squeezed out of the armed services.

Is this ruling fair, as schools accept federal funds? Or is it a form of Blackmail? What do you think?

Read more.

(Photo Source: Indy Bay)

Say so long to the high school counselor. Students and parents are turning to the latest must-have college admission tool: the paid consultant.

Sometimes racking up fees in the thousands of dollars, these consultants help aspiring students write essays, practice interview skills, and pad their applications with the 'right' activities.

Parents who hire these consultants say it is necessary, as admission into top colleges has gotten so competitive.

Of course, it doesn't seem fair to the families who can't afford it. If two students are equally qualified, but only one can afford a consultant, does this leave any chance for the poorer student to realize their dream of attending their top-choice school?

What do you think? Would you use a consultant if you could?

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