Abstract: A power shift is occurring in higher education, driven by two trends: (a) the increased freedom of learners to access, create, and re-create content; and (b) the opportunity for learners to interact with each other outside of a mediating agent. Information access and dialogue, previously under control of the educator, can now be readily fulfilled by learners. When the essential mandate of universities is buffeted by global, social/political, technological, and educational change pressures, questions about the future of universities become prominent. The integrated university faces numerous challenges, including a decoupling of research and teaching functions. Do we still need physical classrooms? Are courses effective when information is fluid across disciplines and subject to continual changes? What value does a university provide society when educational resources and processes are open and transparent?
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Executive summary of a SCUP-46 presentation on academic and other program prioritization. Previously only available to SCUP members and SCUP-46 attendees. Dickeson will update this popular session in July 2012 at SCUP-47, Chicago. 
"The percentage of university funds allocated to academic libraries shrank for the 14th straight year in 2009, dipping below 2 percent for the first time, according to updated figures from the Association of Research Libraries.
Hey, if you have a Kindle, you need to know this, in order to make themost our of SCUP publications. This is ONE way to load a MOBI file into your Kindle. The video is less than one minute in length. Once a relatively affordable option for many families, the cost of attending public colleges and universities is getting out of reach. A very nice piece, covering reduction in state funding and municipal tax issues. 
Wow. "US military researchers have had great success using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)– in which they hook you up to what’s essentially a 9-volt battery and let the current flow through your brain. After a few years of lab testing, they’ve found that they can more than double the rate at which people learn a wide range of tasks such as object recognition, maths skills, and marksmanship." 
"Why won't Millennials grow up? she wondered. The biggest reason is they can't, according to the Pew Research Center's fantastic new survey 'Young, Underemployed, and Optimistic.' It begins with school."
"Until very recently, American universities were led mainly by their faculties, which viewed intellectual production and pedagogy as the core missions of higher education. Today, as Benjamin Ginsberg warns in this eye-opening, controversial book, "deanlets"--administrators and staffers often without serious academic backgrounds or experience--are setting the educational agenda. The Fall of the Faculty examines the fallout of rampant administrative blight that now plagues the nation's universities. In the past decade, universities have added layers of administrators and staffers to their payrolls every year even while laying off full-time faculty in increasing numbers--ostensibly because of budget cuts. In a further irony, many of the newly minted--and non-academic--administrators are career managers who downplay the importance of teaching and research, as evidenced by their tireless advocacy for a banal "life skills" curriculum. Consequently, students are denied a more enriching educational experience--one defined by intellectual rigor. Ginsberg also reveals how the legitimate grievances of minority groups and liberal activists, which were traditionally championed by faculty members, have, in the hands of administrators, been reduced to chess pieces in a game of power politics. By embracing initiatives such as affirmative action, the administration gained favor with these groups and legitimized a thinly cloaked gambit to bolster their power over the faculty. As troubling as this trend has become, there are ways to reverse it. The Fall of the Faculty outlines how we can revamp the system so that real educators can regain their voice in curriculum policy." Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor Steven Schwartz Blog (Why MITx may herald the dawn of disruption for higher education http://t.co/NJRNZYGs #SCUP: disruption tsunami on its way...)... It's pretty simple: "MIT plans to create a not-for-profit body that will offer certification for online learners of MIT coursework. In other words, with MITx there will be structured study leading to a credential." Not from MIT, but from MITx. Worthless, right? Hmm 
As green building practices become more commonplace in the global construction industry, the goal of designing zero energy buildings, or buildings that con (Revenue From Net Zero Energy Buildings to Reach $1.3 Trillion by 2035
Amazon.com: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (9780307352149): Susan Cain: Books... Planners can expect a growing trend for stakeholders' groups to expect procedures to get introverts to speak out: "Introverts prefer quiet, minimally stimulating environments, while extroverts need higher levels of stimulation to feel their best. Stimulation comes in all forms – social stimulation, but also lights, noise, and so on. Introverts even salivate more than extroverts do if you place a drop of lemon juice on their tongues! So an introvert is more likely to enjoy a quiet glass of wine with a close friend than a loud, raucous party full of strangers. It’s also important to understand that introversion is different from shyness. Shyness is the fear of negative judgment, while introversion is simply the preference for less stimulation. Shyness is inherently uncomfortable; introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree." 
For nearly half a century, the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel-Air has served as a serene stopover for visitors from locations as varied as Newhall, Nashville and the Netherlands. "The university says it needs money for endowments and professorships, but gardening groups oppose sale of the Bel-Air property." 
Why not upgrade that existing building, instead? "The Greenest Building analysis finds that it can take 10 to 80 years for a new energy efficient building to compensate, through efficient operations, for the climate change impacts created by its construction. The study finds that the majority of building types in different climates will take between 20-30 years to overcome the initial carbon impacts from construction." |
Clemson's Cooper Library: From Quiet Book Repository to Social Hub
SCUP–47 is higher education's premier planning conference in 2012. Chicago, July 7–11. A Library Journal article about the SCUP–47 concurrent session, "'Road Map' For Making the Most Rather Than Making Do." When it opened over 40 years ago, Clemson University’s Robert Muldrow Cooper Library was a state of the art facility and architectural focal point of the South Carolina campus. The 184,839 square foot, six-story library retains its architectural prominence, but it has gone from a quiet study and book repository to the campus meeting place and social hub. The library’s vision and mission reflects an engaged and vibrant service mindset in a forward-thinking university. 
Suggested by Sadie Wutka
Campus e-commerce sites actually have a marketing edge over retailers’ online stores, but only if departments and IT pay attention to the back end when planning.
"Adjunct professors often say that university administrators give them short shrift, with low pay and lack of benefits being the common complaints. A small private college in the Boston suburbs is tackling the issue head-on by making adjunct issues a top priority, one of nine academic goals mentioned in its strategic plan. Lasell College’s “Vision 2017” plan says it aims to ensure competitive salaries for adjuncts, at the midpoint of a peer group. What this means is that administrators will compare adjunct salaries at Lasell with neighboring colleges and try to raise them. While such a goal isn't surprising at all when coming from a faculty group or an adjunct union, it's unusual for a campuswide strategic plan."
"And this is what concerns me as I listen to the growing number of conversations about big data in academe: lots of smart people, both in and around higher education, who advocate for the numbers but who may (or may not) know or understand the critical nuances that provide insight into the numbers.
A really comprehensive look around the country at partnerships for capital development. Can anyone oversee quality of education at overseas schools with wildly varying connections to American institutions? "At a time when more and more colleges and universities are pursuing international activities, how does one ensure quality thousands of miles away from the main campus? Whose job is it to ensure the quality of international programs? Are states, accrediting agencies, the federal government, or institutions really equipped to ensure the quality of institutions halfway around the globe?
"The Occupy movement is starting to set up camp in university course catalogs, syllabuses and classrooms. There are new course offerings and a new focus in older ones." 
Foreign students boost the bottom line: "This is the University of Washington’s new math: 18 percent of its freshmen come from abroad, most from China. Each pays tuition of $28,059, about three times as much as students from Washington State. And that, according to the dean of admissions, is how low-income Washingtonians — more than a quarter of the class — get a free ride. With state financing slashed by more than half in the last three years, university officials decided to pull back on admissions offers to Washington residents, and increase them to students overseas. That has rankled some local politicians and parents, a few of whom have even asked Michael K. Young, the university president, whether their children could get in if they paid nonresident tuition. “It does appeal to me a little,” he said." 
From the blog, Registrarism: "Amanda Goodall, who has done a lot of work on this, recently published a brief piece on why academics make the best university leaders. It’s a powerful argument and it is difficult to disagree with Goodall’s thesis – top universities do need top academics to lead them. Goodall’s recent book, Socrates in the Boardroom, makes this quite compelling case in more detail.
Weiss Pavilion: Penn’s Fifth Certified LEED Building (01/31/12, Penn's LEED Buildings - Almanac, Vol. A nice review of its green buildings, in the University of Pennsylvania's Almanac. 
Regarding the president's speech in Ann Arbor last week: "Is this plan just "political theater of the worst sort," as University of Washington President Mike Young put it? Or is it a brave attempt at "tying the method of funding to the outcomes we're looking for," as William Powers, president of the University of Texas at Austin, said? Honestly, it might be a bit of both. Some aspects of the plan look like little more than window dressing in an election year. But overall, it seems like an earnest attempt to hog-tie some of the many wild forces that are pushing up the cost of a college education." 
In all, the plan identifies sites for 14 major new buildings between Euclid and Chester avenues. "A new master plan completed by Ohio’s second-biggest employer envisions a big, green future for the institution’s 160-acre main campus west of University Circle. The plan, released to The Plain Dealer last month after several requests, shows that the Clinic has room for dramatic growth over the next 30 to 50 years — a prospect that could mean more jobs and economic activity for decades to come.
"The Michigan State University Board of Trustees on Friday approved the first construction phase for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a half-billion-dollar project awarded to MSU by the federal government for nuclear research. The board approved a $20 million budget for site preparation and excavation." |
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