February, 2012 // Posts published in February, 2012
Background Checks
I know I opined on this recently but thought an update would be in order, and I welcome further reactions. It’s not necessarily a huge issue, but a tough one. We are under increasing pressure to administer background checks to all newly-hired faculty (currently we only do selected, as in fields involving younger children or […]
Death in the Family
I write today about a problem I hadn’t pondered before, not common, but potentially quite important to those involved when it does surface: A student recently raised an interesting issue. Last semester he suffered a death in his family and missed a test in one class. The professor involved insisted on seeing a death certificate […]
Global Competencies
It was both interesting and embarrassing a couple of weeks ago to learn that assessments of learning outcomes in our Global Understanding general education category were the lowest of any segment examined. I was delighted, as I arrived 12 years ago, that the faculty general education committee had made a commitment to a global category […]
Obamaschool
The President’s appeal for accessible higher education at the University of Michigan (a higher cost school than Mason), deserves a reasoned response and discussion. The goals are splendid, but without being defensive, there are also problems attached. I hope we can give the issues wide airing. I was pleased that the President acknowledged that the […]
Regulatory Excess
Last year we faced a crescendo of faculty concerns about excessive, unnecessary or unexplained regulations. Focus was particularly on human subjects review, which has since been substantially modified. But there was a general sense that things were spinning out of control. So we came up with a statement about proper procedures: try, whenever possible, to […]
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