Links for 2/24/11

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg

True reform of the cost of higher education will only come when the convergence of faculty, administrators and trustees recognize that the present model is broken and needs a major overhaul.

Burck Smith on fixing Higher Ed

1) Allow all student loans to be discharged at bankruptcy…
2) Accreditation should be done at the course level in addition to the institutional level…
3) Equivalent courses should receive equivalent credit…
4) State higher ed funding should be voucher based…

Robert M. Eisinger

incorporating experimental, untidy open-ended exercises in their classes.

This request is not an arbitrary one. To the contrary, it germinates from a belief that the liberal arts and sciences, and the students who take such courses, often thrive by appreciating complex questions that do not have easy answers. Precisely because students can retrieve facts instantaneously at their finger tips, I am asking faculty to revise their syllabuses to discuss and, yes, teach, ambiguity…

Peter Wood

the new report from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)…

Apparently it is well within the standards of academic fairness to investigate, report on, and censure institutions of higher education from a certain distance, but not faculty members. Alternatively, it is appropriate when the AAUP does it, but not when some other organization such as the National Association of Scholars does it…