EMUtalk.org

A colleague of mine sent me a link about this a while ago when it appeared as a cnn.com story, but I was reminded of this again this morning when the same idea appeared in greater detail in Inside Higher Ed, “Are 4-Day Workweeks the Future?” Here are a couple of paragraphs:

With energy prices skyrocketing, a number of colleges tried longer day, four-day schedules this summer, letting commuting students and employees save on gas, while also cutting utility costs, since some offices could be shuttered an extra day. Now with a few months of experience and institutional data under their belts, some college administrators are convinced that the four-day workweek is the shape of things to come in higher education.

Others, however, are not nearly as certain, arguing that the approach limits student access to valuable resources. The trend appears more popular with community colleges — many of which don’t have residential populations and enroll many students who have never been on campus five days every week — but some four-year colleges also went four-day. Generally, colleges switched three-day-a-week course schedules to longer time periods two days a week, so students had Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday courses.

I’m for it, but it seems to me that for this to work at a place like EMU, we’d have to increase the number of hybrid and online offerings.

Via a blog called “The Erie Hiker,” I came across this Freep.com piece, “Bats stars’ TV appearances, school visits help dispel myths,” which has an EMU connection:

The Organization for Bat Conservation, created by a pair of graduate students at Eastern Michigan University in 2000 and now based at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, is gaining national attention for its work in teaching people the value and unique qualities of bats.

Since its inception, the organization’s live bats and their handlers have appeared on “Martha Stewart,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” a National Geographic special and “Today.” In October, organization founder Rob Mies presented bats on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” as part of a Halloween special.

That’s great, but bats still kinda creep me out.  By the way, the Organization for Bat Conservation has a web site here.

I’m more interested in this from the U of Iowa angle than anything else, especially since the professor in question was just starting at Iowa when I was there as an undergraduate. But it is interesting also in the way that dumb stuff happens at all kinds of good universities.

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed News Blog comes this article, “All U of Iowa Professors Told to Undergo Training to Avoid Sexual Harassment.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

The University of Iowa ordered all professors and staff members today to undergo training in how to avoid sexual harassment after a political-science professor at the university was charged with asking four female students for sexual favors in return for better grades.

According to The Des Moines Register, the professor, Arthur H. Miller, faces criminal charges for accepting bribes based on allegations that he told the female students he would give them A’s if they would expose their breasts and allow him to fondle them. As part of the criminal investigation, the university police seized e-mail messages from Mr. Miller’s computer in which he offered the quid pro quo. At least some of the students, the article said, granted the sexual favors.

The comments on this post are worth reading too; I’ll offer two brief thoughts for now.

• I was back in Iowa recently and read a little more about this in the more local media. Long story-short, the president, Sally Mason, and a variety of other folks at the U of Iowa are in the midst of a bit of controversy of their own regarding some cover-ups of rapes and sexual assaults on campus, many by athletes. It’s not as big of a controversy as covering up a murder, but still pretty bad. So when the first commentator on the CHE blog says “Sheer administrative ass-covering,” it’s hard to disagree with that.
• While I appreciate there is some gray area for what does and does not count as sexual harassment and there may be some value in training/discussion of this gray area among faculty, administrators, staff, and students, I’m pretty sure that everyone already knows that it’s sexual harassment if a professor tells a student that she will get an A if she lets the professor see and fondle their breasts. My guess is that these “training” sessions are going to be “hey, don’t do what Miller did.”

I took a few snapshots at Saturday’s Heritage Festival Parade, which was a lovely affair where EMU was well represented. There was Susan Martin out front.

I like to think that she got talked into it because of the conversation here about the July 4 parade, but I have a feeling there were other reasons/causes. In any event, good for her, good for EMU, and she looks like she had a good time.

EMU had quite a fine presence in the parade.
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The other day, I (and I assume everyone else with an EMU email) received a kind of strange public safety notice:

The Ypsilanti Fire Department has informed the campus community that a suspicious package has been located on the south side of the water tower (off campus). Precautions are being taken to determine the nature of the package. Please avoid the area. The west bound lane of Washtenaw Ave. has been temporarily closed between W. Cross St. and Summit. The campus will be informed when the fire department has given the all clear.

“That’s weird,” I thought, but I didn’t think much of it because I’ve been busy with wrapping up the summer term, getting ready for fall, etc., etc.

Then today I had a chance to read the front page of the AANews: “Web game brings out bomb unit.” It turns out the suspicious package was a tupperware container placed at the base of the water tower as a geocache stop. Here’s a quote:

Officers closed eastbound Washtenaw Avenue and routed traffic onto westbound Cross Street and also prohibited pedestrians in the area for about two hours.

A Michigan State Police bomb squad team used a robot to get a close-up view of the container through a camera and prod the package.

Harshberger said the bomb squad didn’t believe the container was an explosive, but just to be safe, they donned protective gear and opened it. Inside was a typical “geocaching” logbook and “treasures,” which are usually worthless trinkets.

Oh, I so wish I could have seen these hijinks. I love the idea of the image of the bomb squad playing it safe around the tupperware container. Did anybody out there see this?

I have to confess that I personally am not that big of a fan of the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, and I can’t really put my finger on why that is the case. But I probably will make a point of at least attending the parade. After all, it promises to feature both faculty/members of the EMU-AAUP (Bunsis sent around an invitation for all faculty to join in the marching fun) and EMU President Susan Martin.

According to the web site, the route of the parade is “east on Michigan Avenue through downtown Ypsilanti. North on Huron Street to Cross St. and west on Cross St. where the parade disbands at Washington St.” And according to the weather, it should be a good day to march, watch, and do whatever it is one does at the rest of the festival.

Focus EMU Online has a cover story on this year’s tuition increase, “Regents approve $263 million budget, 7.7 percent tuition.” Frankly, it doesn’t say much; here’s the lead paragraph:

The Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents approved a University budget of $262.7 million with a 7.7 percent increase in tuition and fees for fiscal year 2008-09. Of that increase, 6.8 percent is designated for operations and 0.9 percent to reinvest in building improvements. The Regents also approved housing and dining rate increases averaging 5.15 percent for 2008-2009, and reinvested in students with $23.6 million in student financial aid, an increase of 10.3 percent compared with the previous fiscal year.

Nowhere in this article does it say what percentage of the 6.8 percent in “operations” goes toward salary increases, which was the the only thing that was mentioned before as an example of an operation. Given that faculty and lecturer numbers are down for the 2008-09 school year and that the faculty pay increase is 3.6 percent, I think it’s fair to say that most of that 6.8 percent of operations is going to other things.

But what?

I appreciate that EMU’s PR folks are trying to put a positive spin on all this, which is why that first paragraph ends with the news of more financial aid being available. But honestly, how hard would it be to post a spreadsheet or something that gives a basic break-down of these tuition increases? You know, heating gas and fuel is up by “x” percent, electric bills up by that much, salaries for faculty by this much, salaries for administrators up by that much, etc.

Like everyone else (I guess?), I received this email today from Pam Young:

“Have Your Say: Help EMU name its new e-mail system”

As announced in May, EMU will introduce a new system for e-mail, calendaring and collaboration beginning in October 2008. The e-mail component will be implemented October 3, with the other components to follow in early 2009. (Complete information is here: www.emich.edu/email)

We would like to create an EMU name and graphic identity for the new system. Please visit this very brief survey to let us know what YOU think about a new name:

http://webstage.emich.edu/email_survey/

First off, I’ve got issues with this “as announced in May” bit.  I might be missing something, but isn’t this the first official notice we’ve seen about when the new email system is going to go online?  In fact, I’m pretty sure that this  July 14 EMUTalk.org post was the first time I had heard anything that looked even remotely official about when this new email system was going to come online.

But no matter.

My real issue here is the naming options available.  I think they are all pretty lame.

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From the AAN (and a bunch of other sources, including the EMU homepage) comes news that “EMU scholarships (will) get (a) boost.” George Cogar, who is an EMU alum and now a psychologist living in Charleston, SC, along with his wife, are donating $1 million toward scholarships for students who have financial need. Thanks, Dr. Cogar!

Addendum:
WEMU just had a brief interview with Cogar on their news.  Cogar spoke of how he himself was a commuting student from humble means when he was a student at EMU, and he hopes his donation can help students who are similar circumstances.  WEMU also reported that Cogar was very impressed with the fact that Martin had been named president and he might not have given the gift if a less qualified person had been picked as president.

Well, I’m back from Las Vegas, sleep-deprived, my wallet lighter (though not much from gambling), and ready for a couple weeks of “atonement” before the fall semester begins. Perhaps then it is good timing to post this article from an EMUTalk reader, “An Education in the Dangers of Online Research,” published in the Sunday Washington Post.

It’s a plagiarism story with a bit of a twist. First, it was plagiarism that happened as part of “summer abroad” program, and the student busted in the story more or less had to find his own way home from Greece after he got thrown out of the class. Second, it’s a program at the University of Virginia, which has an extremely strict student honor code/anti-plagiarism policy.

As you might imagine, plagiarism is a big topic of conversation among many folks who teach writing courses. Personally, I have found that plagiarism is not nearly as cut and dry an issue as many faculty seem to think, and it certainly is not clear to me that the plagiarizers in this particular story actually plagiarized. I also think the best way for instructors to prevent plagiarism is to write compelling assignments that are difficult to plagiarize in the first place– that is, not an assignment like “write a five page essay about something we read this semester” or something like that.