Good

(Image from OC Weekly)

Read the ruling, courtesy of the New York Times.

The Conclusion:

"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional."

(From the OC Register)

Cal State Fullerton raises admission standards for nonlocal community college students

CSUF makes it tougher to gain admission (OC Reg)

     Due to uncertainty in state funding, Cal State Fullerton has required higher admission standards to limit enrollment and decrease its student population.
     The campus will have approximately 1,000 fewer students in the fall than the year before, and around 2,500 fewer students from fall 2008, said Ed Trotter, acting associate vice president for undergraduate programs.
. . .
     For this school year, CSUF has announced that it has received far more applications than it can accommodate and has, therefore, required supplemental applications and higher admission standards for nonlocal applicants to limit enrollment.
. . .
     CSUF received a record 56,132 undergraduate applications for the coming fall, a 32 percent increase from last year.
     For non-local community college students who wanted to transfer to CSUF, their minimum grade point average requirement is 3.7, up from 2.5 last year, [assistant vice president of enrollment services Nancy] Dority said. Traditionally, a 2.0 GPA, which is the minimum required for local applicants, would have sufficed.
. . .
     Because of fewer course offerings and professors, Trotter said CSUF will have more crowded classrooms in the fall than last year.
     CSUF has nearly 200 fewer professors this year than last year, most of whom are part-time faculty or lecturers whose annual contracts were not renewed by the university….

The care and feeding of albatrosses

     Recently, I discussed, and readers asked about, the fate of ATEP, our district’s albatrossian “Advanced Technology and Education Park” in Tustin.
     The SOCCCD Board of Trustees has a special meeting today at 4:00. According to the agenda, the board plans a “Discussion of Plans for the development of" ATEP. (For details, see this post.)
     To peruse ATEP's "long-range" plans and the new "concept 3A" plan, whatever that is, go here.
     Late last month, ATEP issued a press release, declaring that the City of Tustin has approved the “concept plan” for ATEP:

     The Advanced Technology & Education Park (ATEP) received notification today at a City of Tustin Zoning Administration hearing that the Concept 3A Plan for expansion of the ATEP campus has been approved.
     The Concept 3A Plan provides guidelines for future development of the site for up to 305,000 square feet of facilities on 28 of the 68 acres of land in Tustin Legacy. The approval allows the South Orange County Community College District to proceed with planning and site configurations for the expansion of the Advanced Technology & Education Park with maximum flexibility for phasing of the construction. The Concept 3A Plan was approved by the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees in 2009.
     “The City of Tustin’s approval today is an important and critical step in the development the ATEP campus and demonstrates the City’s support and desire for this campus to be successful,” said South Orange County Community College District Acting Chancellor Dixie Bullock. “We look forward to jointly celebrating the groundbreaking with the City by our side.”
     Dr. Randy Peebles, ATEP Provost said, “ATEP is quickly outgrowing its existing facilities. This approval enables us to accelerate partnerships with business, industry and other educational institutions to build a campus that trains workers for high impact, technical jobs in our region.”
     ATEP will provide advanced technology programs and workforce training for students, professionals and business organizations in Orange County.

What does it all mean? Dunno. Perhaps things will become clearer by the next board meeting.

Why college websites suck

     There’s an interesting piece in this morning’s Inside Higher Ed about college websites and the fact that, mostly, they suck (No Laughing Matter).
     Popular web cartoonist Randall Munroe recently produced a particularly apt cartoon about the typical college website. It's a Venn diagram:

So Munroe’s the kid who’s calling the Emperor naked. But people are noticing this kid:

     …The punch line — that university website designers have no idea what their visitors actually want front and center — has hit close enough to home to create a lot of buzz elsewhere on the Web….
     …“The cartoon is right on target,” wrote Martin Ringle, CIO of Reed College, in an e-mail. “College website design typically focuses on what an institution wants to say, not necessarily what prospective students (and others) want to know.”
. . .
     The … cartoon was particularly apt in skewering three useless but nevertheless common features on a college’s home page, said Mark Greenfield, director of Web services at the State University of New York at Buffalo and an associate consultant at the major higher-ed consulting firm Noel-Levitz. Specifically: the statement of philosophy, the letter from the president or provost, and the campus news feed.
     Having those up there might seem like a good idea to the administrative committees that tend to dictate website content, Greenfield said, but they are rarely useful to the website’s most strategically important kind of visitor: the prospective student….
. . .
     So what accounts for this apparent disconnect between what some colleges choose to include on their home pages and what visitors actually want to find there?
. . .
     …[S]ome colleges' home pages are saturated with features that do not so much reflect guesses at what visitors need, but what various campus interests want. Greenfield said “home page politics” – different departments and personalities jockeying for position – have a strong influence on what an institution’s site ends up looking like. After all, he said, if a president says he wants a letter and a mission statement out front, what Web administrator is going to say no?
. . .
     “Personally, I think an institution’s website is a reflection of the organization,” says Terry Calhoun, director of media relations at the Society for College and University Planning.
     “It’d be interesting to rate them and try to guess who ‘controls’ each one.”

Check out our colleges’ websites and tell us what you think!

Irvine Valley College website
Saddleback College website
ATEP website

See also

For College Newspapers, Prepackaged Online Versions Are Yesterday's News (Chronicle of Higher Education)