A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit Sponsored by the New Media Consortium
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Economist Intelligence Unit: The future of higher education:How technology will shape learning
A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit Sponsored by the New Media Consortium
Monday, April 11, 2011
Statesman.com: The Lowdown on Higher Ed: Confidence shaken, donors warn UT regents
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz | Friday, April 8, 2011, 02:31 PM
Sixteen current and former leaders of the Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee have urged the University of Texas System Board of Regents to reaffirm its commitment to research and teaching.
The group’s letter to Chairman Gene Powell and other members of the board, dated Wednesday, seems to indicate that a controversy over the direction and mission of the UT System campuses, especially the flagship in Austin, isn’t ending anytime soon.
The executive committee is a group of 310 civic, professional and business leaders whose financial support includes a sizable share of the annual compensation of $750,000 for Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa.
“Chairman Powell and members of the Board, we believe that the confidence of your public has been shaken, and we are deeply concerned,” the letter said.
Anthony de Bruyn, a spokesman for the UT System, declined to comment today.
Powell provoked criticism from the Longhorn faithful when he hired a $200,000-a-year special adviser who has written that much university research lacks value and that schools would be better off with fewer tenured faculty members. The adviser, Rick O’Donnell, was later reassigned to a position that will end by Aug. 31.
Signers of the letter include C. Patrick Oles, a real estate developer and current chairman of the executive council; Mike A. Myers, a donor for whom UT-Austin’s track and field complex is named; and Frank W. Denius, a philanthropist, lawyer and highly decorated World War II veteran.
Patti Kilday Hart posted an earlier blog entry about the letter for the Houston Chronicle.
Dillard University CELEBRATING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH WEEK (April 11- 15, 2011)
LAMP Conference
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Dillard Undergraduate Research & Creative Work Competition
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Council on Undergraduate Research wishes to
Thank You
for your support during
Undergraduate Research Week
April 11-15, 2011
Take part in our activities this week to recognize and celebrate the importance of undergraduate research:
The week will kick off with the launch of a new CUR publication. Advancing Undergraduate Research: Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising, by Joyce Kinkead, is designed to share successful models and strategies for promoting and funding undergraduate research programs.
On Tuesday, April 12 at 2:00 PM ET CUR will offer a complimentary webinar, "Transformational Learning through Undergraduate Research and Creative Performance" presented by Moses Lee, Professor and Dean of the Natural Sciences at Hope College.
On Wednesday, April 13 at 12:00 PM ET, as part of the Annual Posters on the Hill event, Humanities students will present their research in a panel discussion “Preserving Knowledge, Creating Knowledge”.
On Wednesday, April 13 at 5:30 PM ET, Posters on the Hill will showcase the work of 84 science and social sciences students. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) will also be presented the Honorary CUR Fellows Award.
Discounts on CUR publications purchased during April. For more information or to order, please visit the publications page.
For more information about the above events, please visit the website for Undergraduate Research Week
Council on Undergraduate Research | 734 15th St NW | Suite 550 | Washington | DC | 20005 | US
Lynn Y.R. Strong, MPA, CIM
Director, Undergraduate Research
Administrator, Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Dillard University
Professional Schools Bldg., Rm. 250
2601 Gentilly Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70122
Tel: 504-816-4446
Fax: 504-816-4313
lstrong@dillard.edu
Inside Higher Ed: Losing Ground on Salaries
Losing Ground on Salaries
April 11, 2011
For most faculty members, this academic year will be one of eroding purchasing power, according to the annual study of salaries being released today by the American Association of University Professors.
The average salary for continuing faculty members increased by 1.4 percent in 2010-11, just under the rate of inflation, the study finds -- making this year the second in a row in which faculty members will on average lose ground economically.
To those who might hope that an economic recovery exists and is having an impact on faculty salaries, the report's title -- "It's Not Over Yet" -- makes clear the AAUP's take on the issue.
"The overall picture this year, then, is of mostly stagnant salaries for full-time faculty members," the report says. "The numbers vary considerably across institutional types. But aggregate faculty salary levels did not keep up with inflation in the past year, and the cumulative increase during the last seven years lagged behind the cumulative increase in median earnings for all U.S. workers."
Indeed the variation in pay stands out. The average salary of full professors at Harvard University (which pays better than anyone else at that level) is approaching $200,000, and the average salary for assistant professors there tops $100,000. One state and a world away in terms of pay, Manchester Community College, in New Hampshire, has an average salary for full professors of just over $58,000. And while Harvard pays a lot in part because it is a research university, there are also wide gaps within sector categories. Among research universities, the average salary at private institutions is nearly $40,000 greater than that of a comparable public institution.
The report also notes several related trends of concern to the AAUP, including a rising gap between salary levels at public and private institutions (favoring the privates), and increased reliance on faculty members off the tenure track. Further, the AAUP notes concern over the continued growth in salary compression (in which senior faculty earn only modestly more than recent hires) and in the salary gaps by discipline.
While the AAUP study reports on overall institutional averages, the study includes some cross-institutional data on the latter trend. The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, which also conducts an annual faculty salary survey, highlights the issue of disciplinary shifts, and the data in that study are consistent with the concern expressed by AAUP.
For a number of reasons, the report probably understates the economic hit being taken by those who teach at colleges and universities. First, the report studies only full-time faculty members, excluding the many adjuncts who are hired course-by-course (and have for years earned much less than their tenure-track counterparts). Many adjuncts have lost sections (and corresponding income) during the economic downturn.
Second, the report is based on salary, not actual pay received by faculty members. Furloughs, which have been widespread in higher education during the past few years and which have cut take-home pay by substantial sums at some institutions, do not (in a technical sense) affect one's salary, just one's paycheck (or lack thereof for days furloughed). As a result, many institutions that are reporting modest increases in average salaries probably have paid out less to faculty members.
"Even though we are showing the last two years as already being historically low" in salary gains, "they are probably an overestimate of what the salaries are," said John Curtis, AAUP's director of research and public policy. He said that there are no available data on the national impact on salaries of furloughs, but that some states (California) have been particularly hard-hit, and that the use of furloughs has been greater in public than in private higher education.
Asked if there are any silver linings or optimistic points in this year's salary report, he said, "I don't really see it."
Public-Private Gaps
The report notes with alarm changes in the faculty make-up and pay levels of public and private colleges and universities. In terms of salaries, the average increase across ranks and institution types was 0.9 percent at public institutions, 1.8 percent at religious colleges, and 2.1 percent at private, non-religiously affiliated colleges.
But in terms of who is getting hired, the report notes other significant shifts. For instance, the AAUP examined the type of faculty hiring going on between 2007-8 and 2010-11. Gaps were particularly notable at the doctoral level.
See tables @: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9_KwJdDOiGrNmRmMjQ3OTItYzk0Yy00ZTU2LTk1ZjYtNzg2ZTc5MWE2YTU1&hl=en
— Scott Jaschik
Dillard University GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF FACULTY MEETING
MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2011 (Postponed from April 6th)
5:30 P.M.
PSB 131-135
Dear Colleagues,
Due to the anticipated amount of work required by the curriculum committee and the need for the faculty to be able to review recommendations before discussion in the assembly, the assembly meeting scheduled for today will be postponed until Monday, April 18th at the same time. Materials for your consideration will be submitted in advance of that meeting.
Sincerely,
David V. Taylor, Ph.D., Provost
Winona Somervill, Ph.D., Chair
Friday, April 8, 2011
Dillard University Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research Institute May 12 & 13th 2011
Colleagues:
Dillard University’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Academic technology is sponsoring a “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research Institute” funded through the UNCF Mellon Teaching and Learning Grant. We propose to host this institute May 12 – 13, 2011 on campus. It is a two (2) day institute to expose both our faculty and other schools to the following select objectives:
(1)Increase faculty interest in teaching and learning through SoTL and Faculty Learning Community principles
(2)Provide consultant support to faculty for investigating and utilizing new strategies in classroom research as well as experimental research
(3)Increase publication submission rates for participating institutions
We are requesting that you or designated faculty consider joining us in this retreat that focuses on tips for successful publishing. The goal is to assist faculty in submitting a research project for publication before classes start in August. We are asking that you focus on research that you have already begun so that at the end of the institute you would be ready to submit to a refereed journal.
We will support 1-2 ready faculty/faculty developers from your institution by paying registration fees, travel reimbursement, and we will provide room and board on campus for the two (2) day retreat. Faculty whose articles are successfully submitted will be paid a stipend of $1,000.00.
This institute proved to be a great opportunity for junior and senior faculty who needed the concentrated support to assist them in getting published. Dr. Kathy Burlew, University of Cincinnati, will once again be conducting the institute here at Dillard University.
We ask that you complete the attached application and return to Barbara Albert, balbert@dillard.edu by April 15, 2011.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there.
Phyllis W. Dawkins, PhD
Associate Provost & Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dillard University
2601 Gentilly Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70122
pdawkins@dillard.edu
(504) 816-4216
Dillard University Center for Teaching, Learning & Academic Technology Presents: MOODLE & Flashlight 2.0 Workshop
Consultant: Mr. Frank Parker
FLASHLIGHT 2.0 ON-LINE:
Other survey systems start you with a blank page. Other survey systems are single purpose (just single surveys, or just rubrics, or just student course evaluation, or ...) Flashlight Online 2.0 is different. You can:
•Adapt surveys, rubrics, and item banks created by other users, including authors at other institutions;
•Choose from a large collection of model surveys and validated questions created by Flashlight staff;
•Share surveys with others (e.g., instructors teaching survey methods can easily provide forms for their students to adapt or critique; staff can provide faculty with rubrics to adapt; two or more people can co-author a survey online);
•Add to the power of your inquiry by using matrix surveys, tailoring the questions and even the text for each group of respondents;
•Reduce survey fatigue by having two or more groups contribute questions to the same matrix survey (even though they are gathering information from overlapping groups of respondents);
•Use a variety of question types to create your own items, including two kinds of rubrics;
•Save money by using the same tool for surveys, rubrics, and for student course evaluation;
•Strengthen the scholarship of teaching and learning with new tools that are even more powerful when used in a faculty learning community (community of practice);
•Boost response rates (e.g., by tracking who has responded, while maintaining respondent anonymity.
•Flashlight Online is secure. Display reports to respondents as soon as they complete a survey and then allow them to watch as more data comes in.
WHAT IS MOODLE?
It is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It basically helps instructors create e-learning environments for their students.
Moodle is open source software which means that you are free to download it and use it in your organization without incurring any license costs. There are tens of thousands of registered Moodle sites. Moodle's open source license means you are free to modify or extend it, making it versatile for your growing needs.
When: Monday April 11, 2011
Where: Will Alexander Library – 2nd Floor Distance Learning Lab
AGENDA
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Meeting with Dr. Okpalaeze and James Hobbs
10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Moodle Training (FACULTY)
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
LUNCH (Lunch Provided to Workshop Participants Only)
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Flashlight Training (FACULTY)
3:15 – 4:30 p. m.
Assessment Committee
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)