Wednesday, July 18, 2007
By PAUL BASKEN
Washington
The federal government's system for accrediting colleges is a misguided failure that should be largely replaced with a simpler method that relies on key institutional data about cost and quality, a trustees group is arguing.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative-leaning lobbying association led by Anne D. Neal, proposed in a report released on Tuesday that a process of "expedited accreditation" might begin to repair a system that the council regards as detracting from academic quality rather than improving it.
"Nothing in the accreditation process concretely measures student learning, instructional quality or academic standards," the council said in the report. "If the accrediting process were applied to automobile inspection, cars would 'pass' as long as they had tires, doors and an engine -- without anyone ever turning the key to see if the car actually operated."
The report, "Why Accreditation Doesn't Work and What Policy Makers Can Do About It," is the latest in a series of attempts by both administration allies and critics to force changes in the federal government's use of accrediting agencies as the means for determining which American colleges are eligible for government-guaranteed student loans.
The administration-appointed Commission on the Future of Higher Education, in its final report last September, proposed that accreditation agencies judge colleges on the basis of "performance outcomes," such as graduation rates, rather than on the basis of "inputs or processes," such as financial resources.
Ms. Neal, an outspoken advocate of such a new approach, was appointed by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity. The committee, known as Naciqi, evaluates whether accrediting agencies should be recognized by the Education Department for the purpose of student-aid eligibility.
Naciqi, and Ms. Neal in particular, have been accused by some accrediting agencies of forcing the accreditors to begin abiding by outcomes-based methods of evaluating colleges without first waiting for such standards to be written into federal law or regulation.
Resistance to Outcomes-Based Methods
The Education Department has "gone beyond what's reasonable" in demanding that accrediting agencies employ outcomes-based criteria in evaluating colleges, Susan F. Zlotlow, director of program consultation and accreditation at the American Psychological Association, told participants at a conference last month organized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
In large part, the report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni reads as a chronicle of Ms. Neal's discontent with Naciqi and the accrediting agencies that have appeared before it.
Such agencies include the American Bar Association, which provides accreditation to law schools and has been demanding that its member schools work to ensure racial diversity among students and faculty. Ms. Spellings, following Naciqi's recommendation, last month approved only an 18-month renewal for the bar association's accreditation authority, rather than the five-year standard, with a requirement that the bar association further clarify its diversity standard.
The Education Department needs only to ensure that colleges receiving federally guaranteed student aid aren't misusing that money, and it already has systems in place to verify that, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni said in its report. The report cites the bar association's diversity standard and other anecdotal cases as evidence that too many accreditors are imposing requirements on colleges beyond those necessary simply to ensure academic quality.
Such anecdotes, however, do not constitute empirical proof that support the report's conclusion that the current system of accreditation is broken, said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education.
"This is not a careful, thoughtful analysis of what accreditation does," Mr. Hartle said. "It's just a hodgepodge of half-baked ideas and anecdotes."
The report should also fuel concern among accrediting agencies that they might not receive fair treatment from Naciqi while Ms. Neal is a member, he said.
"It's impossible to imagine her giving unbiased advice based on the evidence presented in those meetings," Mr. Hartle said. "If the Department of Education wonders why colleges and universities are skeptical about their motives with respect to accreditation, they need look no further than this report."
Judith S. Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, an umbrella group of accreditors, agreed that the report may make Ms. Neal's future service on Naciqi untenable.
"How can someone with such strong views on accreditation function evenhandedly on a body that advises the secretary?" Ms. Eaton said. "If I were an accreditor coming up for review, I would say to myself, 'Is it appropriate for this member of the committee to recuse herself?'"
"It's the blanket negative characterization, without evidence," that makes Ms. Neal's report alarming, Ms. Eaton said.
At the same time, Ms. Neal is correct to provoke the discussion of whether the Education Department should be using accreditation, rather than some other method, to limit access to the government's $83-billion student-aid program, Ms. Eaton said.
"With everything that's happened in the last few years," Ms. Eaton said, "a very serious discussion of the gatekeeping role, accreditation, and the federal government, and the relationship, is in order."
Ms. Neal and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued an earlier report, in 2002, that also called for an end to the government's use of the academic accreditation process to police the student-loan program.
The key addition in Tuesday's report is the suggestion, as "a short-term alternative," that colleges that are already accredited can renew that accreditation by submitting to Naciqi updated data on cost, quality and achievement, Ms. Neal said.
Criticisms of that recommendation that focus on her fitness to serve on Naciqi are a "predictable" attempt to avoid the issue, Ms. Neal said.
"Instead of meeting a good-faith effort to improve the education our students receive with a thoughtful discussion," she said, "the establishment is denying everything and trying to shoot the messenger."
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Universities Must Not Ignore Intelligence Research
By AMY B. ZEGART
Last week the CIA finally released the "Family Jewels" — a 700-page secret file made in 1973 that chronicles domestic spying programs, foreign assassination plots, and other skeletons in the agency's closet. Jewelmania quickly ensued: a feeding frenzy to examine what these documents revealed, what they continued to hide, and what they mean. As bloggers, pundits, journalists, policy makers, and others raced to their computers and hit the airwaves, one group remained conspicuously absent from the debate: university professors.
This is not an aberration. At a time when intelligence agencies have never been more important, universities are teaching and studying just about everything else. In 2006 only four of the top 25 universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report offered undergraduate courses on intelligence agencies or issues. Students at America's elite universities had greater opportunities to learn about the rock band U2 than the spy plane by the same name; more of the top 25 offered courses on the history of rock 'n' roll.
Scholarly inattention is even more glaring in academic publishing. Between 2001 and 2006, the three most highly regarded academic journals in political sciencethe American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and The Journal of Politics — published a total of 750 articles. Only one discussed intelligence. At precisely the time that intelligence issues have dominated headlines and policy-maker attention, the nation's best political scientists have been studying other subjects.
Last week the CIA finally released the "Family Jewels" — a 700-page secret file made in 1973 that chronicles domestic spying programs, foreign assassination plots, and other skeletons in the agency's closet. Jewelmania quickly ensued: a feeding frenzy to examine what these documents revealed, what they continued to hide, and what they mean. As bloggers, pundits, journalists, policy makers, and others raced to their computers and hit the airwaves, one group remained conspicuously absent from the debate: university professors.
This is not an aberration. At a time when intelligence agencies have never been more important, universities are teaching and studying just about everything else. In 2006 only four of the top 25 universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report offered undergraduate courses on intelligence agencies or issues. Students at America's elite universities had greater opportunities to learn about the rock band U2 than the spy plane by the same name; more of the top 25 offered courses on the history of rock 'n' roll.
Scholarly inattention is even more glaring in academic publishing. Between 2001 and 2006, the three most highly regarded academic journals in political sciencethe American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and The Journal of Politics — published a total of 750 articles. Only one discussed intelligence. At precisely the time that intelligence issues have dominated headlines and policy-maker attention, the nation's best political scientists have been studying other subjects.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The University of Pennsylvania lost two prominent professors who study black culture this week.
2 Scholars of Black Culture Are Leaving Penn
By ELIZABETH QUILL
Elijah Anderson, a sociologist known for his work examining urban inequality, has moved to Yale University, and Michael Eric Dyson, an ordained Baptist minister, author, and commentator, has taken a position at Georgetown University.
Mr. Anderson, 63, had worked at Penn for 32 years. During that time, he became known for his studies of the black experience in Philadelphia, writing such books as Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (W.W. Norton, 1999). He also wrote A Place on the Corner (University of Chicago Press, 1978), an examination of life at a Chicago bar and liquor store that is regarded as a sociological classic. Mr. Anderson says he hopes to give urban ethnography a prominent place at Yale.
"I am looking forward to new opportunities," Mr. Anderson said. "It is a new challenge."
There has been some speculation that an unsettled controversy involving allegations of "conceptual plagiarism" of Mr. Anderson's work by a junior faculty member affected his decision to leave. But Mr. Anderson said the dispute did not contribute in any significant way. "That is pretty much in the past," he said. (Penn made a comparable counteroffer, he said, but he still chose to go to Connecticut.)
Mr. Dyson's departure had no slice of controversy, only confusion. Before any official moves were announced, the 48-year-old scholar, who is an authority on hip-hop and many other cultural topics, listed himself as a university professor at Georgetown on a Web site promoting his new book.
Terrence P. Reynolds, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown, said this week that he had heard conversations about Mr. Dyson, but that they were at a level above him. "It may be a complicated matter," Mr. Reynolds said.
Mr. Dyson, who was a professor of humanities and religious studies at Penn, confirmed later that he began at Georgetown on July 1 and would teach English, theology, and African-American studies. As a university professor, he will move between departments.
"I had a true home at Penn," Mr. Dyson said of the university where he worked for five years. "But there is no city more vibrant and teeming with ideas and possibilities to explore than Washington."
Mr. Dyson is the author of numerous books, including Come Hell or High Water (Basic Civitas, 2006), and is set to go on tour to promote his latest book, Know What I Mean? (Basic Civitas, 2007), this month.
Penn's provost, Ronald J. Daniels, declined to comment on the departures beyond a brief e-mail statement acknowledging the contributions of both professors to the university.
By ELIZABETH QUILL
Elijah Anderson, a sociologist known for his work examining urban inequality, has moved to Yale University, and Michael Eric Dyson, an ordained Baptist minister, author, and commentator, has taken a position at Georgetown University.
Mr. Anderson, 63, had worked at Penn for 32 years. During that time, he became known for his studies of the black experience in Philadelphia, writing such books as Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (W.W. Norton, 1999). He also wrote A Place on the Corner (University of Chicago Press, 1978), an examination of life at a Chicago bar and liquor store that is regarded as a sociological classic. Mr. Anderson says he hopes to give urban ethnography a prominent place at Yale.
"I am looking forward to new opportunities," Mr. Anderson said. "It is a new challenge."
There has been some speculation that an unsettled controversy involving allegations of "conceptual plagiarism" of Mr. Anderson's work by a junior faculty member affected his decision to leave. But Mr. Anderson said the dispute did not contribute in any significant way. "That is pretty much in the past," he said. (Penn made a comparable counteroffer, he said, but he still chose to go to Connecticut.)
Mr. Dyson's departure had no slice of controversy, only confusion. Before any official moves were announced, the 48-year-old scholar, who is an authority on hip-hop and many other cultural topics, listed himself as a university professor at Georgetown on a Web site promoting his new book.
Terrence P. Reynolds, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown, said this week that he had heard conversations about Mr. Dyson, but that they were at a level above him. "It may be a complicated matter," Mr. Reynolds said.
Mr. Dyson, who was a professor of humanities and religious studies at Penn, confirmed later that he began at Georgetown on July 1 and would teach English, theology, and African-American studies. As a university professor, he will move between departments.
"I had a true home at Penn," Mr. Dyson said of the university where he worked for five years. "But there is no city more vibrant and teeming with ideas and possibilities to explore than Washington."
Mr. Dyson is the author of numerous books, including Come Hell or High Water (Basic Civitas, 2006), and is set to go on tour to promote his latest book, Know What I Mean? (Basic Civitas, 2007), this month.
Penn's provost, Ronald J. Daniels, declined to comment on the departures beyond a brief e-mail statement acknowledging the contributions of both professors to the university.
Friday, July 06, 2007
JEWEL IN THE ROUGH
The Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course, which has been overrun by grass and weeds since Hurricane Katrina, will require an estimated $11 million to restore the entire facility
Thursday, July 05, 2007
By Fred RobinsonStaff writer
Driving down Prentiss Avenue along the first hole at Joseph M. Bartholomew Municipal Golf Course, anyone who has played several rounds of golf at the facility can't help noticing the huge oak trees that divided the No. 1 and No. 18 fairways are gone.
The missing oaks, the same trees that proved to be an opening-hole nightmare for slicers and a save haven for golfers hitting their approach shots on No. 18, are not the first thing one notices.
Missing is the gem of a golf course that once was 40-something years ago. What one now sees is a vast area that has been overrun by grass, weeds and wild bushes. What years of neglect and lack of funding couldn't kill, Hurricane Katrina did.
The Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course, which sits in the heart of Pontchartrain Park, now is unkempt green space. It is like nearly 80 percent of the houses in the Gentilly Woods-Pontchartrain Park subdivisions -- sitting gutted and waiting for money to fix it up.
The questions facing the course Joseph now are how quickly will it come back, and can it be the catalyst to the rebuilding of the oldest black subdivision in the United States? And should work begin on the golf course while the area's population is, at best, sparse?
"At no time has Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course fallen off the radar," said Ann McDonald, director of the New Orleans Parks and Parkways. "It is a priority. It has not been forgotten, we just have to get the money."
Money has long been a problem for the Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course, named after a New Orleans African-American who designed that course and several others in the metro area.
According to McDonald, it will take nearly $11 million to restore the entire facility -- golf course, driving range, clubhouse and the maintenance building. Although the city has received some donated equipment, its pockets are empty when it comes to the funds needed to restore the course. The city, McDonald says, has slightly more than $1 million in hand for the golf course.
Through freshman state representative J.P. Morrell (D- New Orleans), the city was attempting to get another $6 million from the state to jumpstart the project. However, Morrell said the only monies the city will receive out of the legislative session that ended last week is $400,000. Morrell also said the city is missing a blueprint for how it plans to use the money.
"The city asked for $6.3 million, and of the $4 million that has been set aside, it'll get $400,000 to provide adequate planning for the golf course," Morrell said. "The city needs to get us an itemized list of what's going to be done before it can get the kind of money it's requesting."
Morrell said the kind of planning that's needed is going to take "a couple of months." What it means is the golf course's restoration, at the very least, is a couple of years away.
When the golf course was overtaken by the floodwaters, it was near the completion of a rare capital improvement project. McDonald said between $800,000 and $1 million had been spent to re-do tee boxes, greens and re-sod several fairways. The salt waters that covered the course "killed everything."
"The turf is the golf course, and it was destroyed," McDonald said. "Additionally, some of the natural swales and drainage were destroyed."
Altogether, of the 375 trees the golf course lost, 360 were oak trees.
McDonald said there isn't a time frame to reopen the golf facility, but it will happen -- when the money rolls in. Morrell said there's no chance of that happening before next year's legislative session.
And even if the monies become available next year, the rebuilding of the golf course could take another two years.
King Wells, 73, president of the Pontilly Neighborhood Association and a Pontchartrain Park resident since 1965, believes it's important that something be done soon.
"People don't want to live across the street from a park filled with weeds," Wells said. "The people who lived out here loved the fact that they lived across the street from a golf course, although they didn't play."
But Barry "Mercedes" Gonzalez, an avid golfer whose gutted house sits across the street from the No. 2 green, said bringing back the golf course would have a huge impact on the community.
"That's a no-brainer," Gonzalez said. "It'll definitely speed up the recovery. If you don't see that, you don't have common sense.
"Now (the city) has every opportunity to produce a first-class golf course. I'd like to see a first-class golf course, or to bring it back to the original Joseph Bartholomew design. Don't just bring it back the way it was before."
If there's one thing all parties agree on, the revitalization of the golf course has to be a part of bringing back the homeowners.
Said Morrell: "I don't think you can separate the two. You can't talk about bringing people home and ignore Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course. Part of what is the identity of Pontchartrain Park is Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course. It's an anchor for the community."
Thursday, July 05, 2007
By Fred RobinsonStaff writer
Driving down Prentiss Avenue along the first hole at Joseph M. Bartholomew Municipal Golf Course, anyone who has played several rounds of golf at the facility can't help noticing the huge oak trees that divided the No. 1 and No. 18 fairways are gone.
The missing oaks, the same trees that proved to be an opening-hole nightmare for slicers and a save haven for golfers hitting their approach shots on No. 18, are not the first thing one notices.
Missing is the gem of a golf course that once was 40-something years ago. What one now sees is a vast area that has been overrun by grass, weeds and wild bushes. What years of neglect and lack of funding couldn't kill, Hurricane Katrina did.
The Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course, which sits in the heart of Pontchartrain Park, now is unkempt green space. It is like nearly 80 percent of the houses in the Gentilly Woods-Pontchartrain Park subdivisions -- sitting gutted and waiting for money to fix it up.
The questions facing the course Joseph now are how quickly will it come back, and can it be the catalyst to the rebuilding of the oldest black subdivision in the United States? And should work begin on the golf course while the area's population is, at best, sparse?
"At no time has Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course fallen off the radar," said Ann McDonald, director of the New Orleans Parks and Parkways. "It is a priority. It has not been forgotten, we just have to get the money."
Money has long been a problem for the Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course, named after a New Orleans African-American who designed that course and several others in the metro area.
According to McDonald, it will take nearly $11 million to restore the entire facility -- golf course, driving range, clubhouse and the maintenance building. Although the city has received some donated equipment, its pockets are empty when it comes to the funds needed to restore the course. The city, McDonald says, has slightly more than $1 million in hand for the golf course.
Through freshman state representative J.P. Morrell (D- New Orleans), the city was attempting to get another $6 million from the state to jumpstart the project. However, Morrell said the only monies the city will receive out of the legislative session that ended last week is $400,000. Morrell also said the city is missing a blueprint for how it plans to use the money.
"The city asked for $6.3 million, and of the $4 million that has been set aside, it'll get $400,000 to provide adequate planning for the golf course," Morrell said. "The city needs to get us an itemized list of what's going to be done before it can get the kind of money it's requesting."
Morrell said the kind of planning that's needed is going to take "a couple of months." What it means is the golf course's restoration, at the very least, is a couple of years away.
When the golf course was overtaken by the floodwaters, it was near the completion of a rare capital improvement project. McDonald said between $800,000 and $1 million had been spent to re-do tee boxes, greens and re-sod several fairways. The salt waters that covered the course "killed everything."
"The turf is the golf course, and it was destroyed," McDonald said. "Additionally, some of the natural swales and drainage were destroyed."
Altogether, of the 375 trees the golf course lost, 360 were oak trees.
McDonald said there isn't a time frame to reopen the golf facility, but it will happen -- when the money rolls in. Morrell said there's no chance of that happening before next year's legislative session.
And even if the monies become available next year, the rebuilding of the golf course could take another two years.
King Wells, 73, president of the Pontilly Neighborhood Association and a Pontchartrain Park resident since 1965, believes it's important that something be done soon.
"People don't want to live across the street from a park filled with weeds," Wells said. "The people who lived out here loved the fact that they lived across the street from a golf course, although they didn't play."
But Barry "Mercedes" Gonzalez, an avid golfer whose gutted house sits across the street from the No. 2 green, said bringing back the golf course would have a huge impact on the community.
"That's a no-brainer," Gonzalez said. "It'll definitely speed up the recovery. If you don't see that, you don't have common sense.
"Now (the city) has every opportunity to produce a first-class golf course. I'd like to see a first-class golf course, or to bring it back to the original Joseph Bartholomew design. Don't just bring it back the way it was before."
If there's one thing all parties agree on, the revitalization of the golf course has to be a part of bringing back the homeowners.
Said Morrell: "I don't think you can separate the two. You can't talk about bringing people home and ignore Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course. Part of what is the identity of Pontchartrain Park is Joseph Bartholomew Golf Course. It's an anchor for the community."
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Departing UMass Chancellor May Land at Louisiana State
July 3, 2007
If university presidents can have nine lives, John V. Lombardi may be working on No. 3.
Mr. Lombardi, who was ousted as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus at Amherst as part of a controversial restructuring plan a month ago, is now the leading candidate for president of the Louisiana State University system, The Advocate, a newspaper in Baton Rouge, La., reported.
The search committee, which has been seeking a successor to William L. Jenkins for more than a year, could recommend a new president as soon as Friday. Committee members would not comment officially on the selection of Mr. Lombardi, who announced in May that he would leave Amherst at the end of the 2007-8 academic year as part of a leadership shuffle that, at one point, would have combined the jobs of system president and flagship chancellor.
Although UMass officials publicly called Mr. Lombardi’s resignation a “mutual decision,” the chancellor, who is known for his hard-charging ways, apparently clashed with system administrators and trustees, who wanted him to be more of a team player. Faculty members, however, praised him for supporting scholarship and raising money — and the university’s profile.
The Louisiana State post would be Mr. Lombardi’s third act as a university president or chancellor. He was president of the University of Florida for nine years, resigning in 1999 after repeatedly clashing with state higher-education officials. In Florida, too, he earned praise for his vision and criticism for his interpersonal skills.
Mr. Jenkins announced in February 2006 that he was stepping down as Louisiana State’s president in order to devote more time to hurricane-recovery and fund-raising efforts, but many speculated he had been forced out because of his opposition to the immediate closure and consolidation of campuses in the system in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The Chronicle for Higher Education
If university presidents can have nine lives, John V. Lombardi may be working on No. 3.
Mr. Lombardi, who was ousted as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus at Amherst as part of a controversial restructuring plan a month ago, is now the leading candidate for president of the Louisiana State University system, The Advocate, a newspaper in Baton Rouge, La., reported.
The search committee, which has been seeking a successor to William L. Jenkins for more than a year, could recommend a new president as soon as Friday. Committee members would not comment officially on the selection of Mr. Lombardi, who announced in May that he would leave Amherst at the end of the 2007-8 academic year as part of a leadership shuffle that, at one point, would have combined the jobs of system president and flagship chancellor.
Although UMass officials publicly called Mr. Lombardi’s resignation a “mutual decision,” the chancellor, who is known for his hard-charging ways, apparently clashed with system administrators and trustees, who wanted him to be more of a team player. Faculty members, however, praised him for supporting scholarship and raising money — and the university’s profile.
The Louisiana State post would be Mr. Lombardi’s third act as a university president or chancellor. He was president of the University of Florida for nine years, resigning in 1999 after repeatedly clashing with state higher-education officials. In Florida, too, he earned praise for his vision and criticism for his interpersonal skills.
Mr. Jenkins announced in February 2006 that he was stepping down as Louisiana State’s president in order to devote more time to hurricane-recovery and fund-raising efforts, but many speculated he had been forced out because of his opposition to the immediate closure and consolidation of campuses in the system in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The Chronicle for Higher Education
Article on NOLA recovery in the NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/us/nationalspecial/02orleans.html
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