Worst-governed state?
A few thoughts on the budget catastrophe that California is facing: Before voters imposed a supermajority requirement for crafting a budget several years ago, California’s political system was broken. Voters approved Prop. 98 to guarantee a slice of general revenues going to K-12 and community colleges for a reason, even if the rigidity was not […]
A day in the life of a summer course
Third class of the summer session this morning, first one where students were supposed to have finished readings. This is an undergraduate social-foundations class, and the readings for this week include Gary Becker on human capital, Sam Bowles on social reproduction, and either the start of Paul Tough’s Whatever It Takes or Joe Williams’s Cheating […]
Quick notes on administration
Three writings on transitions to administration and faculty-administration relations: Serviceable by Gary Olson Sensible by DeanDad Very good (essential) by Tenured Radical One of my concerns about Olson’s piece is that it assumes that the upwardly-and-horizontally-mobile administrator is the norm (though maybe we should call this “diagonal mobility”). And while it is absolutely true that […]
I know that guy! (Delta higher-ed cost project)
I am pleased as punch that Nate Johnson’s new Delta Cost Project report is being publicized nationally. I first met Nate about a decade ago when he was working deep in the bowels of the Ralph Turlington Education Building in Tallahassee, before he was plucked by the former state university system chancellor to be his […]
Changing higher ed, from Mr. Obvious Man
Craig Smith tagged me in an AFT FACE entry asking about the future of/a better vision for higher education, and given the way that Mark Taylor’s schizophrenic vision of higher ed prompted not only a flurry of comments but thoughtful comments by Dr. Crazy, Dean Dad, Marc Bousquet, Timothy Burke, H. Saussy, and Michael Berube, […]