Ignorami

How many ways can you be wrong? Mitt hits 'em all

The Campaign and Higher Ed (Inside Higher Ed)
   [MITT ROMNEY] …Romney's views on for-profit higher education were the focus of an article Sunday in The New York Times. The article described statements by Romney in New Hampshire, where he suggested that students concerned about the high cost of higher education consider enrolling at for-profit colleges, and in Iowa, where he specifically praised Full Sail University. Also in Iowa, Romney said that for-profit colleges "hold down the cost of education." And in an interview with The Ames Tribune editorial board, Romney said that for-profit higher education would force nonprofit colleges to cut costs, and eliminate "unnecessary" departments.
     The Times article noted that when Romney endorsed for-profit higher education and Full Sail, he did not mention that the university's chief executive, Bill Heavener, is co-chair of Romney's Florida fund-raising team. Nor did he mention contributions from the chair of the private equity company that owns Full Sail, or from Todd S. Nelson, chief executive of the Education Management Corp., which is currently facing a suit from the U.S. Justice Department over its recruiting practices.
     While Romney praised for-profit higher education as a financially practical alternative to traditional colleges, the Times noted that Full Sail is not inexpensive….
     [Notoriously, for-profits account for most student loans, which are federally insured; and their students' default rates are very high, and, when default occurs, tax-payers end up paying off the loan.]

Foot in mouth again

   [JOE BIDEN] ...In Pennsylvania, Biden responded to a question about why college costs keep going up by noting that it was a "puzzle" and that there was "no one thing" responsible. But among the factors he identified were increases in faculty salaries. "Salaries for college professors have escalated significantly," he said….
. . .
     Most experts would agree that labor costs (faculty members and all other employees) are a large part of college budgets. But nationally, during the past few years when double-digit price increases at many public institutions have frustrated so many students, parents and politicians, it would be hard to point the finger at escalating faculty salaries. According to national data from 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 figure the year before was a 1.2 percent increase, well below inflation. And these figures are for full-time faculty members, and so don't reflect the increased reliance of colleges in recent years on adjuncts, who are typically paid much less than others, and who frequently lack benefits….
. . .

Won't eat French fries either

   [NEWT GINGRICH] A new ad on behalf of Newt Gingrich, after accusing Romney of being a moderate, of supporting government mandated health care and more, raises a new scandalous charge: Romney speaks French. There is even a clip (toward end of the ad) to verify the charge.
     Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association, was not impressed with the ad. Via e-mail she said: "That Mitt Romney speaks French is probably great news for the million and a half U.S. residents whose first language is French, and it might also influence others who value knowing more than one language. Campaign strategic message fail!"

Price of Success (Inside Higher Ed)

     If low graduation and student transfer rates at City Colleges of Chicago don’t start improving, the system’s leaders could lose their jobs. That’s because the formal job responsibilities of the chancellor, presidents and even trustees include graduation rate goals.
. . .
     “You cannot continue with a 7 percent graduation rate,” said Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, at news conference last summer. “We owe the taxpayers – and most importantly the students – a better community college system.”....

IVC's "Early College Program": doing it wrong?

     Last Monday, I wrote about my experiences holding a class (as a substitute) in Irvine Valley College’s benighted “Early College Program,” a program foisted upon IVC faculty that has been the subject of many complaints by faculty participants. The latter led to an Academic Senate (limited) inquiry, which seemed to bear out the notion that the program was problematic (student immaturity, a pattern of violations of instructor autonomy, obnoxious pressures from deans/parents, etc.).
     (One suspects that top administration views the college's ECP as a shiny, if meretricious, political showpiece that no quantity of pedagogical negatives cited by mere faculty could ever outweigh.)
     In the piece, I once again opined that the ECP, as presently configured, is a bad idea, at least for some college courses, owing to the immaturity of students (otherwise wonderful though they may be).
     For what it’s worth, this morning, we heard from one David Dugger:

David Dugger said...
     As the Director of the Early College Alliance @ Eastern Michigan University, former Dean/Principal of the Washtenaw Technical Middle College and President of Middle College Consultants I must whole heartedly agree with the post and the associated comments.
     This [i.e., IVC's ECP] is not an Early/Middle College Model, but a Direct Credit Model. Often Direct Credit Models are "packaged" as Early/Middle Colleges, but their design, structure and pedagogy are rarely, if ever, consistent with the tenets of Early/Middle College programs.
     Direct Credit models have some value and they should be evaluated as such, but to market them as Early Colleges does a grave disservice to the students and the Early/Middle College movement.
     -- 7:20 AM, January 16, 2012

     I checked, and a David Dugger is indeed the Director of the Early College Alliance, whose “about” page explains that:

   The Early College Alliance (ECA) is a public, early/middle college program located on the campus of Eastern Michigan University and exists in partnership with local school districts, including Washtenaw Intermediate School District. [My emphasis.]
. . .
   ECA is recognized by the Michigan Department of Education as a four plus one program. . . .

   The program gives students an opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school and offers strong, academically focused students a chance to enroll in advanced, college-level coursework. It also provides an option for students who are either struggling or don't feel connected to their school an alternative.
   ECA allows students to:

• Graduate from high school with a diploma and up to 60 college credits.
• Attend classes on a university campus with support.
• Learn in a college environment that fosters maturity and academic growth.
• Gain vital skills for college success.

     I'll see what I can find out about these two "models" to which Dugger refers.

P.S.:

     I did some looking, and it appears that, normally, an “Early College” or “Middle College” program comprises instruction at college campuses that are “structured” to permit participating K-12 students' simultaneous completion of high school (grad requirements) and a college Associate Degree (or satisfaction of college/university transfer requirements).
     Clearly, IVC’s ECP is not of this type (with the exception of high school seniors in the program; see IVC statement below), for its courses are held at the high school.
     “Direct Credit” programs seem typically to involve high school students taking “college” courses at the high school. Instructors are often “deputized” high school instructors, although, sometimes, they are college instructors imported from the local college. Often, direct credit schemes, like the above programs, are structured to allow students to prepare for college transfer and high school graduation simultaneously. (Some early or middle college programs target "struggling" students as well.)
     As Dugger suggests, IVC’s ECP seems to fall into the “direct credit” category, for its courses are held at the high schools, not the colleges. The instructors, however, are typically IVC adjuncts and hence they are college instructors, not high school instructors.
     Here’s how IVC describes its Early College Program:

     The purpose of the Early College Program is to provide the opportunity for academically qualified high school students to ... transfer to one of the UC or CSU campuses with almost two years worth of transferrable college credit, saving thousands of dollars in tuition and valuable time that can be directed toward a career or graduate work. ...[A]fter the initial cohort of students, the project has scaled back to provide for the IGETC Certification only. Students complete their high school diploma while taking IVC courses for both high school and college credit.
     The classes offered at the high school are Irvine Valley College courses taught by Irvine Valley College professors....
     Professors from IVC ... have access to high school principals and vice principals to deal immediately with student/school issues and parental requests for information as they arise, and the IVC’s Office of Instruction is responsible for overall coordination of this program. [These features reflect an attempt to address the adverse findings of the Academic Senate inquiry, I believe.]
     ECP classes are held in the morning before the first period at the high school for 9th through 11th graders…. Seniors take their college classes at IVC in the early morning. Classes are open to other college students in addition to ECP students.
     This May we look forward to our first Early College graduating class of 23 students from Beckman High School….

     One wonders what Dugger had in mind when he wrote that "Often Direct Credit Models are 'packaged' as Early/Middle Colleges, but their design, structure and pedagogy are rarely, if ever, consistent with the tenets of Early/Middle College programs." And what is the "disservice" done to "early college" students when "direct credit" schemes are labelled "early college"?
     I'll see what I can learn. (I've emailed Director Dugger.)

More on Utt the Nut: "Extensive experiments in hypnotism and rhythm"

     Saddleback College’s library is named after Congressman James B. Utt, who died in 1970. I’ve been posting about the fellow and his views and pronouncements.
     This morning, I scraped up a few new factoids:
     There are several references to James B. Utt in the excellent Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right, by Lisa McGirr.
     On p. 120, McGirr quotes from a letter by Utt to Richard Nixon, complaining that Nixon’s denunciation of the John Birch Society (owing to leader Welch's remarks) was “ridiculous.” Later, Ronald Reagan, whom Utt championed, refused to disown Birch support, again distinguishing between leader and followers (p. 311).

Utt liked Birchers but
didn't like leader Welch

     As near as I can tell, Utt was never actually a member of the JB Society, but he certainly agreed with many of the views with which that organization is associated and he defended it often.
     Utt seemed to have a fondness for nutty "scientific" theories. Historian and journalist Rick Perlstein quotes from a speech by Utt in the Congressional Record:

“The Beatles and their mimicking rock-and-rollers use the Pavlovian techniques produce artificial neuroses in our young people. Extensive experiments in hypnotism and rhythm have shown how rock-and-rock music leads to a destrtuion [sic] of the normal inhibitory mechanism of the cerebral cortet [sic] and permits easy acceptance of immorality and disregard for all moral norms.”

     The speech is also quoted in part in Perlstein’s Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.
     According to journalist Howard Blum in Wanted!: the search for Nazis in America,

Sometime before his ominous pronouncements about Operation Water Moccasin and just after his discovery of "a plot to centralize the Girl Scouts," Representative James B. Utt became involved in the case of Andrija Artukovic.

James B. Utt

     Utt helped Artukovic fight extradition to Yugoslovia for war crimes. Artukovic was known as the “Himmler of the Balkans.” Eventually, the extradition occurred (in the 80s). (Evidently, “Operation Water Moccasin” was a planned U.S. military maneuver in Georgia. At the time [1963], the far right was convinced that the operation was a cover for a move to disarm the U.S. and make it subject to the U.N.)
     James B. Utt on Space Travel (1963). Pretty goofy. Evidently, Utt supposed that, someday, a Star Trek-like transporter would be invented, though it appears that he wouldn't want to use it. Smart.
     Utt on muckraker Jessica Mitford. Utt was really down on Mitford’s famous exposé of the funeral industry (The American Way of Death, 1963). Called her a Commie, owing to her long-ago membership. I think she appreciated the publicity. Utt was a big supporter of HUAC.
     Utt on Medicare. Yeah, he was down on that sort of thing. Civil rights, too.
     Although I haven't been able to verify it, Utt reportedly once warned that Chinese soldiers were massing on the Mexican border. He wrote that in his notorious newsletter. The rumor was widespread among the far right in those days.
     Gosh, if anybody had kept those newsletters, they'd be gold now!