MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 5 (July)
Brown President Calls for New Approach in Math, Science and Engineering Education
During a speech at the Brookings Institution, Brown University President Ruth Simmons said that “radically different measures” are needed to educate U.S. mathematicians, scientists and engineers, including retooled courses of study and a doubling of college students in the disciplines, if the nation is to maintain its leadership in these areas.
“We need as many great minds as possible,” said Simmons, who described the advancement of the sciences in rival nations as “the tsunami that is out there.” Brown’s president touched on the evidence of an American decline in scientific expertise and a surge in scientific studies and research in such nations as China and India.
India, for example, has ordered a mandatory doubling of the population of university-level science and engineering scholars. Last year, non-Americans accounted for more patent applications than Americans for the first time, another indication of the apparent decline.
Some the actions that Simmons proposed to remedy the situation include the intervention by universities to improve the instruction of technology in elementary schools and high schools; the overhaul of engineering education to encourage and attract more students to the discipline, and then to train them with a holistic approach; and a larger share of financial aid for students of math, science and engineering.
University of Iowa Introduces Leadership Certificate
This fall, the University of Iowa will add a seven-course certificate in leadership studies, aimed at making students more attractive to hiring managers in a down economy. The certificate will consist of 21 credits, the equivalent of seven standard Iowa courses, and all students will be required to take “Perspectives on Leadership: Principles and Practices,” a core course developed by Kelley C. Ashby, director of the university’s career leadership academy, Iowa’s office of student life, and faculty in the university’s business, communication studies, education, political science and philosophy departments.
“Leadership is one of the top skills employers say they are looking for looking for,” said Ashby. “We want students to have the academic component, various theories of leadership, and we also want students to have practical experience to apply what we’re teaching them.”
Ashby anticipates that about 50 students will sign up for the core course this fall, but expects that within a few years, as many as 300 undergraduates might be pursuing the certificate at any one time. After a student has taken at least three courses, he or she can take on three credits of “experiential course work,” which may include an internship, on-campus leadership position, or service-learning course. The hope is that the theories of leadership that students learn in the courses will be put into immediate use in leadership positions.
According to Debra Humphreys, vice president for communications and public affairs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, “a lot of employers aren’t going to know what this leadership certificate means, [but] a student’s ability to describe or demonstrate what they’ve learned and done could be useful.” The certificate might also “help the student convey to the employer what they can do.”
Rutgers Halts Scheduled Pay Increases
Citing looming budget cuts from the state and invoking a provision in its union contracts that says that the university isn’t obligated to pay raises if there is not money available to cover payroll, Rutgers University has stopped the pay increases scheduled to go into effect over the next few weeks for its some 13,000 employees.
“Our union colleagues are concerned,” said Philip Furmanski, Rutgers’ executive vice president for academic affairs. “We are in a very, very difficult situation. One that is unprecedented.”
As a result of the emergency across-the-board salary freeze on its New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses, Rutgers expects to save $30 million.
Union officials said they were upset with the decision and may go to court to force the state university to fulfill its contract. Last year, many of the unions voluntarily signed agreements to defer their raises until this year to help keep the university out of the red.
“We’re outraged,” said Adrienne Eaton, a professor of labor studies and employment relations and the president of a union that represents nearly 4,500 professors, teaching assistants, part-time lecturers and other employees. “We entered into that [agreement] with good faith. They understood that this coming year was going to be worse.”
Professors and members of the faculty, who already received a 2.75 percent deferred pay raise in January, were scheduled to receive another 2.75 percent raise in July. Administrative assistants, supervisors and other staff members were due for a 5 percent raise this summer, and clerical workers, laborers and other blue collar workers were scheduled to receive a 3.5 percent pay increase.
After the state funding cut, scheduled salary increases and other mandatory cost increases are added up, the university will need to plug a nearly $96.6 million hole in its budget, observed Furmanski. But by eliminating the employee salary increases, Rutgers may be able to avoid eliminating classes, laying off employees and other drastic measures. Campus officials said salary increases may be reinstated in the future if the budget picture improves.
For more than a decade, New Jersey has been gradually reducing state funding to its public colleges and universities. This year, Governor Chris Christie’s proposed budget calls for a 15 percent decrease in state aid to Rutgers.
Accreditation Granted Back to Institute at University of South Florida
The Commission on English Language Program Accreditation recently restored the accreditation of the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. The accreditation had been revoked because the accreditor said that the institution’s relationship with INTO University Partnerships, a British company that helps colleges recruit international students and manage language programs for them, constituted a change in institutional control that required a full review and approval by the accreditor.
The university appealed the revocation of accreditation, claiming that its relationship with INTO did not involve any change in control, emphasizing that the university continued to control admissions and instruction.
According to Theresa O’Donnell, the commission’s executive director, the association still believed it had been correct to revoke recognition. But she said that when the university appealed, the association decided to compromise and restore recognition, which was contingent on the university demonstrating that there was no meaningful change in control of the program, and that it still met all standards.
O’Donnell recognized that the accreditor acted after receiving a letter from the university’s lawyer. She said that the letter did not threaten to sue, but was “not a collegial letter.” A lawyer for the university said that the institution and the accreditor were “in constructive dialogue.”
Berkeley and Stanford Ask Students for DNA Samples
To advance programs in medicine, the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University have asked students to submit genetic samples. At Berkeley, the samples will be used for an orientation program about the emerging field of personalized medicine. At Stanford, samples will support a project for medical and graduate students enrolled in the School of Medicine’s summer session elective, “Genetics 210: Genomics and Personalized Medicine.”
Faculty and administrators at Stanford foresee about 50 students signing up for the course, which was approved only after months of debate and the assurance that several precautionary measures would be taken. The course will meet once a week and run for eight weeks. Students will decide after the second class whether or not to have their DNA tested. If they agree to the test, they will then select a company to perform it and ultimately pay that company $99 for its services.
Credit Card Companies Offer Incentives to Colleges and Universities
Colleges, universities and alumni associations can receive payments that increase as students use their credit cards, reported the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. And some schools can receive bonuses when students incur debt.
These agreements come at a time when students are borrowing at record levels, raising concerns about the undesirable consequences of certain business practices and alliances.
“The fact that schools are getting paid for students to rack up debt is a disgrace,” remarked U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy (D–Pa.), a former professor at West Point Military Academy. He said that banks’ payments to schools amount to “kickbacks.”
Credit card legislation signed by President Obama one year ago curtailed some marketing strategies on campuses, but didn’t prohibit affinity deals between colleges and banks. These agreements allow financial institutions to issue cards to members or supporters of an organization or institution.
For the most part, these kinds of deals had been kept under the radar. Then a provision in the law, authored by Murphy, required their disclosure. According to the Investigative Fund, many contracts detail the special access granted to banks, some of which are allowed to set up booths at football games. The contracts ask for colleges to provide students’ names, phone numbers and addresses. Schools can then receive royalty payments based on the number of students opening accounts and the amount they spend.
Low Enrollments Spur Proposal for Shared Programs at Pennsylvania Universities
Recommendations for “shared programs” in physics and foreign languages like French, German and Spanish could gain traction in Pennsylvania as state universities struggle to deal with low enrollments. Leaders of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities have said they want more of their students to enroll in collaborative degree programs that would rely on courses and instructors based on more than one campus.
These pilot programs, potentially using software that enables distance learning, would involve degree programs that may be underenrolled on individual campuses, officials said.
“The idea is not to have the student be campus-bound,” said State System of Higher Education Vice Chancellor for External Relations Karen Ball. “The focus is to have our students benefit from being part of a system. These students will get part of their program or a course offering from faculty that’s on a campus that’s not their [home] campus.”
State System administrators are expected to outline which of these programs they plan to discontinue or impose an enrollment moratorium on, and which others will continue unchanged or with modifications. Ball said she could not identify the programs or estimate how many are involved until leaders of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties are briefed.
In light of what some have said is the worst financial challenge in the history of the state system, at least four universities have announced actual or possible work force cuts to deal with waning state support and the anticipated loss of $38 million in federal stimulus aid that allowed the state system’s 14 universities to offset cuts in their state appropriations. The 14 schools, which collectively enroll 117,000 students, also are facing a major increase in their required contributions to the state employees retirement system. ♦