"we'll get you your life's ambition"

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

For-Profit Group's Western Spoof Takes Shots at Community Colleges and For-Profits
By Goldie Blumenstyk

excerpt:

A video clip featuring the head of the major association of for-profit colleges, Harris N. Miller, dressed like the character Woody from Toy Story and cracking jokes that make fun of community colleges and his member colleges' own advertising messages, was live on YouTube for the past several days before it was abruptly taken down on Monday.

Not everyone appreciated the humor....

...Set to twangy Western music, the clip includes one scene of a cap-gun-toting Mr. Miller, taking a mocking jab at the make-up artist who had misapplied his pancake in an earlier scene.

"That make-up girl probably went to community college," he says. "She doesn't even know what she's doing."

..."It is deeply troubling that the president of a higher-education association would see it as appropriate to publicly insult community-college students as Harris Miller does in this video," said Craig P. Smith, deputy director for higher education at the American Federation of Teachers, who was among those who circulated the video on Twitter. "If Miller wishes to demonstrate that the sector he represents has integrity and puts students first, this video clearly sends the wrong message."

To read the rest, click here.

Manny, Edith, and Roy go to Europe

     This post has been expanded and moved to another blog: SEE.

Solicitations

Dear readers,

Let us know how commencement (etc.) was—and anything else on your minds. I'm about to leave for the airport. Fannie and Alexander are here, holding the fort. All is well, I hope.

B von T

Oh my

Family Ties Lead to Questions About OCTA Audit (Voice of OC)

     When it came time last year for Orange County Transportation Authority officials to hire an outside firm for an "independent" review of how the agency manages a $12-billion transportation improvement program, they had three bidders.
     One was a Sacramento-based firm headed by former state Auditor Kurt R. Sjoberg, and another was Capital Partnerships Inc., a small San Francisco firm with extensive experience conducting management and performance audits in California.
     Finally, there was a team put together by the Orange County Business Council that included Stan Oftelie, a longtime Orange County transportation official who also happens to be the father of Andrew Oftelie, the OCTA's manager of financial planning and analysis.
     They chose the Business Council's group, which, in October, completed the analysis and found no significant problems with how the program was being managed. The elder Oftelie was one of six "key personnel" that the Business Council promised would work on the contract.
     That OCTA executives would choose a group with such an obvious and deep connection to do an independent management audit of their operations has experts in ethics and good government scratching their heads.
     "It creates the appearance of a conflict of interest," said Julie Ragatz, professor of business ethics at the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. "And the appearance of a conflict tends to diminish confidence in our officials."…. (continued)

à bientôt

     There’s a board meeting tomorrow night. I won’t be there, ‘cause I’m headed for Europe for a couple of weeks. I’ll try to post from there, but I suspect you’ll be hearing more from the Reb.
     For the board’s agenda, go here.
     Later!

Default rate jumps

• Default Rate on Federal Student Loans Jumps to 8.9%, a Nearly 2-Point Rise (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     The rate at which students defaulted on their federal loans in the two-year period ending September 30, 2010, was 8.9 percent, an increase of nearly two percentage points over the two-year rate for the previous year, according to draft data released on Friday by the U.S. Department of Education.
. . .
     Students at for-profit colleges, who make up about 10 percent of the nation's college enrollments, accounted for nearly half of all the defaults—47 percent—the draft data show. A year earlier, that proportion was 43 percent.
     The overall two-year default rate for students at for-profit colleges also rose. It was 15.2 percent, up from 11.6 percent in the previous year and 11 percent the year before that.
     The default rate for public colleges was 7.3 percent, and for private, nonprofit colleges it was 4.7 percent, according to the draft data.…
     Officials at for-profit colleges say that their students default at higher rates because a majority of them are poorer to start with and face many more financial challenges. Critics of the colleges say their high default rates show that many of those institutions are loading up their students with unaffordable debt that the students cannot repay once they graduate or drop out….

• New York Joins List of States Known to Be Investigating For-Profit Colleges (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Textbooks Go the iTunes Route, but Buying by Chapters Might Not Save Students Money (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Lewis at Chapman U

Jerry Lewis speaks at Chapman graduation (OC Weekly)

     …Movie star and comedian Jerry Lewis delivered the commencement speech Saturday morning, switching off between sage and humorous advice for the graduates.
     "There is nothing out there you cannot do if you want to do it badly enough," said Lewis, adding later, "you musn't be afraid of what people say about you, because you should really let them wonder what you think of them. That's a lot easier."
     He finished his speech saying that one should always leave the audience with a quote they will remember forever.
     "A friend in need is a pest," Lewis joked.