UB Buzz

Hang Tough

Some students, particularly low-income and those whose parents did not attend college, need extra encouragement and direction on what steps are important in preparing for college. The second-generation KnowHow2GO college access campaign from The Advertising Council, Lumina Foundation for Education, and American Council on Education includes public service announcement ads that are a bit edgier than last year's inaugural ads. The TV, radio, print, outdoor, and web PSAs stress taking on the "tough classes" as one of those key steps toward college. The campaign's main audience is students in grades 8 to 10, but it's also aimed at their parents and adult influencers.
Click here to see the full collection of KnowHow2GO PSAs.

Notre Dame Rolls Out Google Apps for Education

The University of Notre Dame joins a growing list of higher ed institutions moving to third-party options for email services. The university will migrate to Google Apps for Education to provide robust email and other collaboration tools. Many institutions are exploring the advantages of the search giant's cloud computing model to create a more collaborative learning environment for both students and faculty. Significantly, this strategy also relieves the standard IT support costs that burden many colleges and universities. Notre Dame joins Abilene Christian University (Texas), Arizona State University, Central Piedmont Community College (N.C.), Northwestern University (Ill.), University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and University of Southern California in working with Google to enhance the use of technology in the classroom and meet the demands of IT staff, students and faculty. Notre Dame expects to complete the project by the summer break. With Google Apps for Education, incoming students, current students and graduating students will have access to Gmail accounts, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk.

UNC Charlotte Offers $10,000 Reward in Yarmolenko Case

From the UNCC Office of Public Relations — The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is offering a $10,000 reward in connection with the death of a 20-year-old student, Chancellor Philip L. Dubois said Thursday. The University will seek the assistance of Crimestoppers of Gaston County to administer the reward. Irina Yarmolenko was found dead next to her car on the bank of the Catawba River in Gaston County on Monday, May 5. The UNC Charlotte Police has been cooperating with the investigation with the Mount Holly Police Department. Yarmolenko was reportedly last seen leaving the Jackson’s Java located on University City Boulevard on Monday, May 5, at approximately 10:50 a.m. She was found dead at approximately 1:15 p.m.
The $10,000 reward will be funded by the Chancellor using private dollars in the Chancellor’s discretionary fund in the UNC Charlotte Foundation and administered by Crimestoppers. No state funds or tuition dollars will be used by the University. Dubois indicated that interested citizens may donate dollars to the reward fund through the UNC Charlotte Foundation at 704-687-2271.
Anyone with information that may be helpful to the investigation or concerning the movements of Irina Yarmolenko is encouraged to contact the Mount Holly Police Department at 704-827-4343 or UNC Charlotte Police at 704-687-2200.

Having Their Say

It's common to see a business executive or philanthropist speak at commencement ceremonies, but TV scientist Bill Nye or Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling? According to USA Today, a number of celebrities are gracing the podium at graduations this year, perhaps a trend to cater more to student interests.
TV mogul Oprah Winfrey will speak at Stanford University, the University of Delaware has baseball star Cal Ripken Jr., and musician Quincy Jones will deliver his melodic message at the  University of Washington, Seattle.
Rowling will visit Harvard, while Nye appears at Harvey Mudd College (Calif.) and then again at Johns Hopkins University (Md.).

Paper Criticizes Spellings Commission's Learning Outcomes

A new paper from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at University of California, Berkeley says the learning outcomes proposed by the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education "could easily be injurious to the ideals of higher education."
Steven Brint, author of the paper called “No College Student Left Behind,” suggests an alternative approach. Rather than learning outcomes, Brint says taking steps to professionalize college teaching can improve the quality of the teaching corps, while leaving intact three essential features of higher level teaching and learning: 
1. The centrality of discipline-based knowledge systems;
2. The plurality of approaches that contribute to the formation of well-educated adults; and
3. The transformative potential of the college teacher as model of reason joined to creative engagement with course materials. 
“If educators take the initiative to enforce standards of professionalism, the faculty itself, rather than external regulators, will be in charge of accountability in higher education," says Brint. "It will not be easy to bring greater professionalism to college teaching, because graduate education has, understandably, focused on research rather than teaching. But the future of higher education may ride on the willingness of educators to make the effort.” 
Brint offers suggestions on how to professionalize college teaching through classes on pedagogy, teaching demonstrations during job interviews, and peer evaluation.
Download a PDF version of "No College Student Left Behind" here.

Safety 101

Although the incoming freshman class probably isn't made up of complete idiots, the transition from high school to college can cause some people to leave their common sense at the front gate. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Campus Safety by Guy Antinozzi and Alan Axelrod (Penguin Group, 2008; 270 p.p.; $14.95) covers a variety of topics ranging from living with a roommate to safety off campus. There is even a chapter on Spring Break. Although some of the sections seem a little alarmist, that tone might be necessary to have the core self-defense messages of be alert and aware of your surroundings heard over the din of a new life on campus. It might be worth considering the volume for a freshman orientation or College 101 type course.

Sports Programs Cut

Athletic Departments are also facing the brunt of budget crunches. Yesterday, Arizona State University unveiled news about discontinuing three varsity sports programs - men's swimming, men's tennis and wrestling - effective immediately.
The decision, resulting from budget cuts, will reduce the number of ASU-sponsored varsity teams down to 20 and will save expenses totaling in at $1 million annually. As many as 70 student athletes will be affected by the cut and six full-time coaching positions will be eliminated. Head coaches will remain on contract through November.
Last month, University of Rhode Island decided to eliminate four NCAA Division I sports programs to deal with state budget cuts, as URI is dealing with a $12 million drop in state funding and asked departments to cut their budgets by 10 percent. Men's swimming, men's tennis and field hockey will be cut. The institution announced earlier it was dropping gymnastics.

Another Way to Rank

Selecting a college or university that is a good "fit" can go a long way in ensuring a student's happiness and success. An adequate way to judge that fit based on race, gender, or sexual orientation is currently lacking, but the Campus Tolerance Foundation in partnership with Public Agenda is working on a pilot survey that might help fill the gap. The second analysis of the admittedly small survey pool (1,039) focused on the atmosphere encountered by minorities on campus. With 1 in 2 students reporting witnessing acts of bias, there is certainly room for improvement. As institutions strive to increase diversity on campus, it is good to be reminded to consider how the new people will be received.

VoIP Use Grows at Colleges and Universities

Although a new survey says a growing number of colleges and universities have signed on to Voice over IP technology, it continues to see limited use on the average campus. The survey, by ACUTA, the Association for Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, showed that 66 percent of ACUTA member schools are using VoIP (compared with 43 percent two years ago). Download the survey. However, four out of five ACUTA members surveyed (82 percent) said their VoIP network still covers 25 percent or less of their campus. Just 9 percent said their schools’ coverage exceeded 50 percent.
The good news is that 62 percent of the schools responding to the survey said they plan to expand their VoIP networks within the next 18 months, while another 14 percent had longer-term plans.
When it comes to VoIP’s challenges, 52 percent of ACUTA members surveyed cited staffing issues as their top concern, while 38 percent pointed to quality of service and emergency 911 issues, and said implementing VoIP has been more complex than they anticipated. While just a fraction of those surveyed expressed any concern about VoIP security, this year’s survey represented an interesting contrast with the 2006 survey, when security was the biggest worry, cited by 77 percent of surveyed members.

Science and Second Life

ScienceNews has an interesting article about research being conducted at Drexel University, the University of Denver and elsewhere in Second Life. It notes the growing number of educators and researchers exploring the potential of the online virtual world.
For example, "Dr. Bob Vandeverre," the Second Life alter ego of University of Denver physicist Robert Amme, is building a virtual nuclear reactor to help train the next generation of environmental engineers on how to deal with nuclear waste.
Drexel neuroscientist Corey Hart, or "Luciftias Neurocam" as he is known, has been busy studying the muscle movements of a "Simfrog," one of the many "living" creatures that survive, evolve and interact in the Second Life ecosystem.
Hart's virtual island, Second Nature 3, is programmed to allow other users to develop and release plants or animals onto the island. As in real life, this practice has the potential of upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. Says Hart:

“Sometimes they get out of hand, and I have to go in and play God and kill something off because it was poorly designed,” he says, recounting the example of a prolific seed-producing plant that created havoc on the island. The plant spewed scads of ill-adapted seeds into the air. Because they were not programmed to take root and sprout, the seeds tumbled when they hit the ground, steamrolling over other plants and creating a pileup in the island ravine. The island’s computer responded by crashing.