The Risky Academy: Environmental Scan for October 2017
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The Risky Academy: Environmental Scan for October 2017 ACADEMIC & FACULTY QUALITY An upgrade of the federal government’s main higher ed database enables tracking part-time and adult students and gauging graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients. New Data Counts More Students, But Still Doesn’t Count Them All; The New, Improved IPEDS WalletHub evaluates higher ed institutions based on student selectivity, cost and financing, and educational outcomes. Notre Dame is the only Hoosier school in the top 20, at #16. Purdue is #84, and IU Bloomington is #180. Hoosier Schools Among ‘Best Colleges & Universities’ An antique, ponderous decision-making process where committees are rampant and procedure is sacred makes it difficult to respond. “The chances of higher education responding in time to its new challenges are further reduced by a thick layer of self-righteousness that pervades. ‘That will never happen’ is reinforced by ‘How dare they?’ Roll all these factors together and you have the classic portrait of a sitting duck.” Purdue president challenges higher education to reform Credential Engine’s web-based registry allows credential issuers to post information about their programs. The site also plans to feature information about how credential earners fare in the job market, including wage data from state and federal sources. A Kayak for Credentials The credentials, Software Development Technical Certificate and Business Operations, Applications, and Technology Technical Certificate, will be available in April 2018. Ivy Tech Community College approved for first competency based education programs Competency-based education is anchored to outputs—demonstrations of knowledge and skills, whereas schools are structured as input driven with the teacher and prescribed curriculum guiding the path for all students. Measures of success focus on quality of the inputs that provide students with the opportunity to learn. CBE focuses on what the students have actually learned. What’s Keeping Competency-Based Education Out of Higher Education’s Mainstream? The interest in finding an ideal pre-hire screening test comes because companies and public- policy groups are concerned that employers rely too heavily on the bachelor’s degree as a screen for filling jobs, even when the jobs themselves don’t require that level of skills. It also arises from a broader societal push for more hiring based on proven competencies rather than academic pedigrees. Can a 20-Minute Test Tell Employers What a College Degree Cannot? We must stop thinking of the professional you want to be (end state) and focus on the skills you want to acquire (continuous). If we are preparing students for one job or only one industry, we may be committing educational malpractice. Higher Education: Your Life May Depend Upon It Employers facing an ongoing work force shortage are turning to automation. However, more technically advanced operations will require more skilled workers, so ongoing education and training programs must continue to be a priority. Manufacturing Survey: ‘Arrow is Pointing Up’ Some of the industry’s biggest companies are placing huge wagers on artificial intelligence, betting on everything from face-scanning smartphones to autonomous vehicles, and doling out salaries that are startling. Tech Giants Are Paying Huge Salaries for Scarce AI Talent Office of the Executive Vice President for University Academic Affairs Page 1 Smart machines could replace up to 50% of current jobs within the next 20 years. We need to make students robot-proof. How College Students Should Prepare for Our Automated Future The Silicon Valley leader, who helped create Apple with the late Steve Jobs, has debuted Woz U, an online university for computer science. Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Has Created a New Online University; Apple Co-Founder’s Woz U Aims to Train Tech Workers, Affordably Dashboards allow instructors to see and compare how students are doing, and can show how students perform in a subsequent course following the initial course—a way to identify where students are learning and acquiring skills. Getting Faculty Members to Embrace Student Data Undergraduate research has expanded in the last couple of decades. Still elusive, however, is good information on how best to shape those programs, assess their benefits, and repeat their successes. Undergraduate Research Surges, Despite Uncertainties Over Best Practices While there is much work to be done to realize “a ‘new normal’—one characterized by personal and institutional expectations that all faculty members will both use and be rewarded for using evidence-based approaches to instruction—our initiative suggests that progress is being made.” A ‘New Normal’ in STEM Teaching? The past 50 years have seen a diminishing confidence in government, a widening chasm between political parties, and a growing distrust of public officials. These dangers should prompt every college to think long and hard about Dewey’s statement: “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” The Crisis of Civic Education Let us always be implicitly asking what one graduate professor explicitly asked me when I was being an intellectually recalcitrant pig: If you haven’t changed your mind lately, how do you know it’s working? Take Back the Ivory Tower Once a must-have for careers in finance and management consulting, the MBA has lost appeal as fewer employers help workers cover costs and a generation of students saddled with student- loan debt opt to remain in the workforce. M.B.A. Program at University of Wisconsin May Be on the Chopping Block; After Outcry, U. of Wisconsin Drops Plan to Suspend Admissions to 2- Year M.B.A. Program; Writing on the Wall for Future of M.B.A. Programs? A key concern is language outlining when professors may be fired for cause. It includes a “pattern of disruptive conduct or unwillingness to work productively with colleagues.” That, some faculty say, effectively means collegiality—or the lack thereof—can be used as a reason to dismiss a professor. U. of Arkansas System Considers Changes to Ease Tenured-Faculty Firings Administrators argue the faculty in question haven’t been doing their jobs well for years and are therefore abusing their tenure. Faculty union representatives dispute that, and argue that pressure on medical-school faculty to bring in outside grant funding undermines academic freedom. What It Looks Like When a University Tries to Revoke a Professor’s Tenure A study of a possible U of Iowa reorganization, which could involve moving departments, nixing programs, and creating new colleges, have some in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences feeling targeted and disrespected. University of Iowa faculty fear breakup of largest college Office of the Executive Vice President for University Academic Affairs Page 2 Under the proposal, each 2-year institution would merge with one of seven 4-year campuses. With an Ambitious Merger Proposal, Wisconsin Charts Its Own Course for Change; Whittling Down Wisconsin’s Colleges; UW Consolidation Proposal Follows Higher Education Trends “If you look at any university, the reward structure is entirely based on single-warrior combat. But if you want to attack the real-world problems that we face, it’s a team sport, with specialists in many different fields.” Why Larry Smarr Is Pioneering Collaborative Innovation Faculty have too little time for the sort of meandering, deep-thinking adventures that can lead to big ideas. The standard career path promotes people who bag the big grant and pump out publishable units, and ignores scientists who convey creative stories that don’t translate easily into numbers on a spreadsheet. Rethinking the Scientific Career Amazon has hired nearly 500 PhDs, former professors among them, since the beginning of this year to work in its applied-science and research-science units. The pace and scale of that hiring are far greater than those of any university. Amazon Is Hiring Ph.D.s — Hundreds This Year The journal’s editor received “serious and credible threats of personal violence” linked to the publication of the essay that offered a defense of colonialism. Publisher Withdraws Essay Defending Colonialism, Citing Threat to Journal Editor; A Dangerous Withdrawal Challenged by a newly formed antifascist group to investigate whether, in fact, Purdue students were behind recent white supremacist fliers plastered around campus, Mitch Daniels turned the tables on Bill Mullen, an American studies professor and founding member of the group. Bangert: Inquiry into Purdue fliers gets personal for Mitch Daniels critic Rohit Varma, the USC medical-school dean who succeeded Puliafito, has been removed as dean, just as the Los Angeles Times was to publish an article describing his alleged sexual harassment of and alleged retaliation against a young woman he supervised in 2003. U. of Southern California Removes Medical-School Dean as Newspaper Reports Sexual-Misconduct Claim Three Dartmouth professors whose research included studies of sexual desire and attractiveness have been put on paid leave while a criminal investigation of alleged sexual misconduct is carried out. Dartmouth College Professors Investigated Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations; 3 Dartmouth Professors Are Target of State Attorney General’s ‘Sexual Misconduct’ Investigation Academic departments are trying various tactics to professionalize their respective cultures and reduce the instances of harassment. Harassment Vigilance A biology lecturer created a fraudulent trade