Clipmarks | dmegivern's Academia collection

Who Is Behind Attacking Liberal Profs?

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:02:23 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: hnn.us

Who's Behind the Attack on Liberal Professors?

In a recent article on HNN Professors Eric Foner and Glenda Gilmore worry that academic freedom is being eroded. While they address the McCarthyite tactics of the right, I think there may also be another interesting story here.

The piece mentions Campus Watch, which is part of the Middle East Forum. If you visit the website of Cursor's Media Transparency, an organization that investigates right-wing foundations, you will discover that the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation fund the Middle East Forum.

Next the piece mentions William J. Bennett. Many of Bennett's activities are funded by the far-right Heritage Foundation, which in turn is funded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Richard Mellon Scaife, Joseph Coors's Castle Rock Foundation and the Olin Foundation, among others.

Academics should be on guard because the activities of these organizations follow a pattern designed to mislead the casual reviewer.

Tearing Down the Gates: Higher Education and Social Class

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:59:56 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.petersacks.org

"Tearing Down the Gates" is about educational injustice. While we often hear about the economic divide between the rich and the poor in America, this book locates the fountainhead of these growing economic disparities in one of our most cherished democratic institutions: our education system.

The book tells the stories of several young people born into different sides of America’s class divide and how their educational opportunities are being shaped by their class status more than ever. The book shows how the actions of schools, colleges and universities, and even government agencies, exacerbate the widening opportunity gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged young people.

Educational opportunity is the key to a middle-class life in the United States, yet the widening class divide results in an untold loss of human talent. Over time, this emerging crisis will derail the American Dream -- not just for some, but for us all.

Tags: class

Finding "Fit" in Academe

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:57:53 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: chronicle.com

What Went Wrong

There is that magic word: fit.

We use it a lot in higher education, not only when we search for colleagues but also when we woo prospective students, who are themselves encouraged to look far and wide for that elusive match -- the perfect fit between student and college. The fact that about a third of all college students drop out or transfer after the first year suggests that we may be doing a better job at creating the illusion of the perfect fit than actually fulfilling it. Or maybe the students -- those overprotected, excessively nurtured, coddled millennials -- simply expect too much of our institutions, setting themselves up for disappointment and disillusion.

No doubt, the college also fell for a fantasy version of me -- and particularly for a certain academic pedigree

which the president and others in the administration delighted in trotting out when it suited them.

How Academia is like a Relationship

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:12:16 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: chronicle.com

Can We Still Be Friends?

Breaking up with a college is hard to do. When I found myself seduced by a new job, I wanted to spare everyone the pain of a long, drawn-out negotiation and end things cleanly. The new position was a good fit, and my colleagues knew I had been unhappy. Why not just say goodbye, and move on?

"It doesn't matter," my friend argued. "If you don't give them a chance, they'll resent you. You have to let them try. If you just walk away, they will be angry and hurt."

Some bad feelings do linger on both sides. The fact is, I am leaving, and that remains something of a betrayal to my senior colleagues. As the semester ended, and I cleared out my office and packed up my things, very few of my elders said goodbye. There was no department party, no final round of drinks at the local pub, just some commiserating with fellow disillusioned junior scholars, and good wishes from the core of friends I feel lucky to have gotten to know.