Links for 10/7/10

Jason Thomas Parker

By outsourcing evaluation of our doctoral programs to an external agency, we allow ourselves to play the double game of insulating ourselves from the criticisms they may raise by questioning their accuracy, while embracing the praise they bestow. Such a disingenuous approach undermines the purpose of rankings and threatens our sense of responsibility to our students and the integrity of our departments.

The solution to the problem is obvious: Universities should provide relevant information to potential students and faculty members themselves, instead of relying on an outside body to do it for them, years too late…

A great paradox of modern academe is that our institutions take pride in being on the cutting edge of new ideas and innovations, yet remain resistant and even hostile to the openness made possible by technology. Self-interest and the desire to conceal information that casts a department or institution in a negative light seems to engender this opposition. That's a shame, because such an attitude directly contradicts the drive toward accuracy, correctness, and improvement that should lie at the heart of all academic endeavors…

Scott Jaschik

Asked if there might be contradictions in the NEA criticizing nonprofit colleges that collaborate with for-profit colleges, but then doing so itself, she said she could not speak to "political issues"…

Leonard Cassuto

academic culture doesn't credit the decision to stop writing a dissertation as legitimate… Many see it as a personal failure…

Watching someone tread water in Lake Dissertation (as one clear-eyed student aptly put it) is one of the more painful sights in academe, but it will remain an all-too-common spectacle given the stigma attached to the alternative…

Right now we allow—and through our passivity even promote—the sense that someone who doesn't finish is a quitter…

Most professors recognize when graduate students won't finish, but mostly we do nothing…

Teaching students how to leave graduate school is a task every bit as noble as shepherding them through it…

EconomPic