Higher Education
News Clippings
Week of June 15, 2008
1018 Kanawha Boulevard, East, Suite 700, Charleston, WV 25301
June 20, 2008
Some shocked by textbook prices
Many students find cheaper prices through sellers outside school
by Ben Joyce, For the Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN - Once again, textbook sticker shock is jolting thousands of incoming
freshmen at West Virginia University.
Older students who've been through it all before are scrambling to cope with what many
view as ridiculously high prices for books at the start of a semester and piddling resale
value at the end.
Students in the College of Business and Economics will be hard-pressed to find the
books they need for less than $100, even if they buy used ones, which generally cost 10
to 15 percent less.
Mitch King is a junior finance major from Collegeville, Pa.
"It's insane," King said.
"Prices are ridiculous. You go on amazon.com and books are just a little more than half
the price they sell them for here."
King said he's bought books online twice and has had no problem.
More and more students are finding these alternatives appealing.
Andrea Baumgartner, a senior criminology major from Parkersburg, saw significant
savings when she stopped buying from the WVU bookstore and shopped at
amazon.com.
"I bought books for the first two years of college and spent about $400 a semester, so
then I bought from Amazon, and spent less than half," Baumgartner said.
Even at half price, it can be hard for students to feel like they're getting their money's
worth.
The book required for German 101 was priced at $207 for a new copy.
The price for a new copy of the book required for German 204, however, was only $185.
Spanish 101 and 204 books were priced at just $66 and $112, respectively.
Other big-ticket textbooks included Physics 102, which is going for $225 for a new copy.
And as if organic chemistry didn't already have a reputation for being one of the hardest
classes any university offers, studying it will cost students $310, nearly as much as it
costs for an in-state student to take just that one class.
The biggest-ticket item, however, was the book required for Nursing 255, ringing in at
$400.
What really annoys students is that they are lucky to regain a third of what they paid
when selling a textbook. Then they see the same books on the shelves at huge
markups the next semester.
Both King and Baumgartner learned their lesson when they bought books that they
didn't end up needing for a class.
"I learned to go to all of my classes and see which books you really need," King said.
"I made that mistake just once,"
June 20, 2008
Promise officials making doubly sure final grades for
scholars hold up
by Kelly Holleran, Daily Mail staff
Promise officials are cracking down on giving the scholarship to students who are
ineligible to receive it due to their final semester grades.
A rule declaring students ineligible to receive the scholarship if their final high school
grade point average dips below the required 3.0 has always been in effect.
But this year, Promise officials decided to rely on data provided by the State
Department of Education to determine who would be deemed disqualified, said Jack
Toney, director of the state Financial Aid Program.
In years past they had relied on counselors to provide the names of students who had
the required 3.0 grade point averages going into their eighth semester of high school,
but who dropped below the grade point average at the end of the semester.
The scholarship also works the other way - students who apply for the scholarship but
do not receive it because their grade point averages are below 3.0 going into their
eighth semester still have the opportunity to get it if they manage to earn a final grade
point average of above 3.0.
The change comes because counselors have traditionally turned in a number of names
of students who became eligible for the scholarship at the end of the year, but Promise
officials were not receiving many names of students who were ineligible, Toney said.
"They did a pretty good job with people who became eligible," he said. "There would be
very few of those (ineligibilities) because they were coming from counselors."
But Karen Hopkins, a counselor at Capital High School, said she was not aware that
counselors were supposed to turn in students who dipped below the 3.0 GPA in their
final semester.
"I hadn't heard a thing," she said. "I thought that was all determined earlier."
Students are sent a letter before the end of the school year that notifies them they have
received the scholarship.
This year, though, a line in the letter warned students that Promise officials would look
at eighth semester grades, Toney said.
Promise officials will not know until about the middle of July how many of the 3,396
students who qualified for the scholarship will lose it, Toney said.
About 30 students so far have been deemed eligible to receive it because of their final
grade point average, but that number could increase with the data, Toney said.
Promise officials will double check grades before denying or accepting additional
students for the award, he said.
"We try to check that to look for obvious problems," he said. "Say in the seventh
semester, the student had a 3.5 grade point average and then in the eighth had a 2.5
GPA. That's a red flag. You wouldn't think a person would drop that much in one
semester."
The deadline for all students to apply for the scholarship is March 1, Toney said.
Even students who do not have the required 3.0 grade point average are encouraged to
apply because of the rule that allows them to become eligible for the scholarship if their
final grades increase to above the 3.0.
"Anybody that is near at all, we take them down to the computer lab and sign them up,"
Hopkins said.
June 20, 2008
Online education, flexible classes play part in WVU
enrollment increase
School reports 18.5 percent more taking summer courses
by Shelly Davidov, Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN - Dorms are empty and parking spaces are plentiful. Nevertheless,
summertime at West Virginia University is changing. With a varied selection of summer
classes, more and more students are choosing to stay in Morgantown to catch up on
their studies.
The number of students enrolling for both on-campus and online summer courses
simultaneously has increased by more than 18.5 percent from last year, according to
WVU News and Information Services.
Sue Day-Perroots, dean of extended learning, attributes the increase to several factors.
"Online (learning) provides flexibility and the opportunity to work as well as participate in
classes at convenient times," Day-Perroots said. "Students often select to add
additional minors to their degree for increased marketability, and some students want to
graduate early or on time by picking up a summer course."
WVU will continue to explore digital learning because of the increasing demand, she
said.
"WVU continues to add new online minors as well as general education courses and
has just completed 10 years of significant increases in summer enrollment," she said.
"At the end of 2008 summer, we are conducting an extensive analysis of trends at WVU
over the decade. We also are a member of Eduventures' Summer Consortium that
assesses market trends nationally."
She thinks the options available to students in the summer also are a factor.
"In 2007, summer (session) was changed from two six-week terms to one 12-week
term. Classes still have varying lengths from one, three, six, nine and 12 weeks, but
students have access to the Rec Center and WVU Libraries for the entire summer," she
said.
Jake Ruddle, an incoming freshman, has heard of the changing summer atmosphere of
Morgantown.
"From what I've seen and what I've heard from friends, Morgantown is becoming a lot
more summer friendly for students, and I anticipate having the opportunity to take
advantage of all it has to offer," Ruddle said.
He will live in Boreman South this fall. It's one of the dormitory buildings on the
downtown campus. Ruddle thinks if they were open, the dorms would be "the perfect
place to stay" during the summer.
"At some point I would like to stay in Morgantown over the summer," he said. "It could
really help in getting credits finished early, and I suspect I will once the time comes."
Obtaining some required credits in the summer is a way to make the fall and spring
semesters less stressful, and financial aid is available to students who qualify.
"Summer and online courses allow students time to do other things during the summer,
such as work," said Brenda Thompson, assistant vice president for student affairs and
enrollment management and services at WVU.
Thompson thinks the trend of students taking summer and online classes will continue
to grow. It also allows people who have full-time jobs the flexibility to work on their
degrees.
While the university has considered keeping dorms open over the summer, the growth
in off-campus housing keeps the university "on target for the future" in terms of growing
enrollment numbers, according to Thompson.
"It seems like we're watching more people in the 12-month lease situation who think,
'Well, since I'll already be here, maybe I should enroll in summer courses to better
focused in the fall,' " she said.
Twelve-month leases have indeed contributed to the number of people opting to stay in
Morgantown throughout the summer.
Randi White, a junior journalism major at WVU, is also an employee at The District
Apartments. White is from Keyser but has lived in Morgantown every summer since
2005.
"Even though I work out here (Morgantown) through the summers, I would remain here
regardless because I don't want to have to move my things back and forth every year,"
White said.
While convenience is a main reason for her spending her summers away from home,
White also enjoys Morgantown.
"I've enjoyed it every year. The traffic isn't crazy like it is throughout the school year, so
it's a nice break."
She thinks many other students feel the same.
"I think the number of students staying throughout the summer stays pretty constant
from year to year, simply because of summer classes and jobs," White said.
For more information on summer classes and activities at WVU, visit summer.wvu.edu.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE TIMES
Published June 6, 2008
A partnership to train new company leaders
By Daniel Silver
Despite recent slowdowns in product demand, Fred LeMasters, a human resources
manager at a large cabinet manufacturing plant in rural West Virginia, acknowledges a
hiring plight.
“Sometimes we’re hard-pressed to find supervisory personnel,” he said.
American Woodmark, LeMasters’ employer, operates three plants in Moorefield, the
seat of Hardy County. The area, with a population of about 2,500, is an important
agricultural center in the heart of the Potomac River’s fertile South Branch.
Nevertheless, there’s a shortage of employees with leadership kills. “There are an
awful lot of technically talented people in our organization with a lot of capability whom
we haven’t been able to tap because they haven’t had the chance to develop those
particular skill sets,” LeMasters said. That was, he emphasized, until Eastern West
Virginia Community and Technical College and the U.S. Department of Labor’s
apprenticeship and internship programs partnered to help.
“We like to keep several channels open with representatives of the businesses and
industries in our service district and partner with them to meet their workforce training
and educational needs,” said Seyed Mirkhani, Eastern’s academic program manager for
business technologies.
With American Woodmark’s participation, Eastern developed an occupational
development degree program in leadership for the company’s employees. It includes
180 hours of workplace trainings offered by the company in the technical core and
occupational specialty and an additional 4,000 hours minimum on-thejob fulfill an
internship credential and complete the degree requirements.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship has registered and approved
the training program, said Michael Ferrari, the department’s apprenticeship training
representative for West Virginia. Serving as a facilitator between the employer and the
college, Ferrari’s office monitors participants’ progress and provides assistance to the
training program.
“Once the company verifies its employees have successfully completed the training and
classroom requirements in their federally registered apprenticeship/internship program,
a nationally recognized U.S. Department of Labor certificate of completion is awarded
the graduate,” Ferrari said.
West Virginia law specifically calls on the community and technical colleges to develop
programs awarding college credit for certified workplace apprenticeship and internship
training that, in combination with additional classroom instruction, earn an associate
degree in occupational development.
“Our employees are able to convert on-the-job and work-related training credits for this
college degree,” said Dana Coleman, training manager at Woodmark’s Moorefield plant
and herself an Eastern graduate in business management. “This program will give us a
more highly skilled workforce and stronger leaders.”
The college is also working with Woodmark to launch a similar program at their call
center in Winchester, Va.
Michael Crislip, who has worked at Woodmark for 10 years, started in the program last
fall. “So far I've taken principles of marketing and general psychology. This semester
I’m doing organizational behavior and computer fundamentals,” Crislip said. “I’m the
type of person who’s not satisfied learning just one thing. As far as the job is concerned,
the more I can learn, the more I want to know.”
Acknowledging that he’d like to put his learning to use in a supervisory position if one
becomes available at Woodmark, Crislip said the program gives him more
understanding of how to work in business situations. “Even right now I do some backup team leading,” he said.
The desire for job advancement also lies behind Darlene Harper’s decision to enroll for
the occupational development degree. “The leadership program teaches you different
aspects of business that leaders should know, like how to cope with diversity in the
workplace, to care about the people working next to you and treat them with respect
and dignity,” Harper said.
Unlike most of his classmates in the program, Chris Homan already completed a twoyear degree at another college when he joined Woodmark. Although he had majored in
agriculture, Eastern accepted many of his earlier general education college classes for
credit toward the occupational development program.
“I’m trying to better myself in some way or another, and I’m hoping maybe to get a
supervisor’s job at the plant,” said Homan, who has worked as a moulder operator for
most of his eight years at Woodmark.
Under American Woodmark’s tuition reimbursement plan, employees receive full tuition
and books reimbursement— up to $2,000—so long as they maintain an ‘A’ or ‘B’
average.
“I’ve been taking classes for four semesters, and it’s cost me about $42,” said Angela
Lafferre, who started at Woodmark as a door painter and is now a quality auditor. “I
can’t even fill up my car for that.”
Silver is a staff writer for Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College.
June 19, 2008
W.Va's SMART529 plan ranked No. 1
By Paul J. Nyden, Staff writer
Savingforcollege.com, a leading national rating group, has just ranked West Virginia's
college savings program, called SMART529 Direct, as the "Number One" program in
the nation.
State Treasurer John Perdue, whose office administers the program, said Thursday, "I
am very proud we are 'Number One' in the country. That is what we strive to be."
West Virginia's program had the nation's top investment performance during the past
year. Over the past three years, West Virginia ranked 10th among thousands of plans
nationally.
Perdue urges parents and grandparents "to start saving now to help kids when they
grow up. College is not getting any cheaper."
"We attract people from all over the country to invest in our 529 program. Out of $1.2
billion invested so far, $400 million came from West Virginians," Perdue said.
State residents also get a state tax break for money they invest in the program.
"You do not have to go through a broker," Perdue added, during an interview with The
Charleston Gazette. "That is one reason we are No. 1. You can go right online to invest
in the program, and students can go to college anywhere in the country."
In a related development, the Ethisphere Institute's new "most ethical companies list"
includes the Hartford Financial Services Group, which manages West Virginia's
SMART529 plans.
Ethisphere is a think tank that analyzes business ethics and corporate responsibility.
West Virginia residents may set up a SMART529 Direct plan for as little as $50.
Automatic continuing investments require minimum installments of only $15 a month.
June 19, 2008
Continued Growth for 2 Distance Ed Models
Two unique models of providing distance education to mainly nontraditional students
are coming into their own, each showing a healthy expansion of enrollments and growth
in available course offerings. One, the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges &
Universities, has been enlarging since its inception, while the other, Western Governors
University, faced years of skepticism from critics who said its ambitious goals would
never be met. Now, both are touting their success with fresh numbers and statistics,
suggesting that online education needn’t only come from large for-profit companies or
local community colleges.
In 2005, Regis University announced a consortium of colleges that would work together,
rather than compete, to share each others’ online courses in a way that would in effect
vastly expand the offerings of each of the group’s members. Since then, the 39 founding
colleges of the OCICU have expanded to 68, with 1,784 course enrollments over the
past year.
The model is unusual in that it allows colleges that are interested in offering courses
online, but don’t necessarily have the resources to cover every conceivable topic, to
supplement their catalog with classes that already exist — in the consortium and on the
Web, but not on their campuses. So far, seven of the member colleges, including Regis,
act as “providers,” essentially allowing other colleges in the group to pick and choose
which courses to make available to their own students, with full institutional credit
assigned through the student’s college.
“We’ve just experienced remarkable growth and great feedback from the schools
participating,” said Thomas R. Kennedy, executive director of new ventures at Regis.
“Especially as member schools ... they don’t have any online schools whatsoever, and
overnight they have one. That’s one of the beauties of it.”
That near-instant capability can serve students in a number of ways. Do they need to
fulfill a general elective requirement, like sociology or political science? The providers
offer plenty of possibilities for students at colleges that don’t have the resources to fill
every gap in the curriculum. What about students interested in a niche topic, like Irish
studies? Some of the providers, as well as members that are planning on offering up
courses to the rest of the consortium in the future, have such offerings as well.
Many, but not all, of the member colleges are religiously affiliated, and most fit the
profile of small- or medium-sized institutions in the Council of Independent Colleges that
may not have the resources to get into the distance education business on their own.
Members pay a one-time fee of $3,500 to join the consortium plus an annual fee of
$1,000, Kennedy said, to cover administrative costs. Of the approximately $1,350 in
tuition for a three-credit course, he added, about $500 would go to the provider school
per student — essentially extra cash for a course that was already being held, he
pointed out — and $700 would remain at the student’s home college, which would incur
no additional cost.
“All these provider schools are doing is opening up their classes ... to visiting students,
in a way,” he said. The key difference, however, is that students receive credit as if they
took the courses at their own institutions, rather than as transfer credits.
Kennedy said he’s been urging member colleges to pocket that extra tuition money “and
start investing in your own online program.”
Some are doing just that. Keuka College, in upstate New York, administers degree
completion programs by partnering with hospitals and community colleges across the
state. To help students in its various programs who need to take a specific course or
two to complete their degrees, the college can now send them to offerings available
online through the consortium.
“We found that by using courses offered through the consortium, we could offer
students more forms of access,” said Gary Smith, associate vice president for
professional studies and international programs at Keuka, especially for the “general
education or general elective pool that’s outside our major program offerings.”
This year, Keuka will ramp up its own online courses by playing to its strengths: If all
goes according to plan, Smith said, the college will add classes in Asian studies to the
consortium’s lineup.
A ‘Competency-Based’ University Takes Off
Another model that’s meeting or exceeding the expectations of its leaders is breathing a
sigh of relief. Western Governors University, founded in 1997 by 19 state governors,
started with ambitious plans to grow its enrollment and become a regional economic
engine. But the initial plans faltered and the university found itself the object of criticism
and even scorn — although that wasn’t necessarily confined to Western Governors.
“If you go back to the mid-’90s, when the idea for WGU bubbled up from among the
conversations from the governors of the Western states, there was at that time no clear
sense of whether or not online education would work, period, or would work with any
level of success and any decent level of quality,” said Patrick Partridge, the university’s
vice president of marketing and enrollment. But, he acknowledged, there was plenty of
skepticism in academe as well. “I think that skepticism was both of a financial type and
sort of an awareness ... of the kind of political hurdles in the higher-ed world.”
These days, the picture for both online education in general, and WGU in particular,
seems quite a bit brighter. The nonprofit institution, which receives no state support and
sustains itself primarily through tuition and private donations, announced this month that
it had reached an enrollment of 10,000 students — up from 500 in 2003. That growth
can be attributed to a number of factors, including regional accreditation, but the
university also emphasizes two features that distinguish it from most of its peers: a
“competency-based” approach to assessing students’ work, and its nationally accredited
Teachers College.
From the outset, courses and curriculums are developed with input from senior faculty
together with an “outside council” including practitioners from a given field. Course
material is then assessed to a level that’s considered “highly competent,” Partridge said,
by the developers of the course, effectively creating a standardized set of requirements
in lieu of more independent assessments by individual instructors. Upon completion,
employers can theoretically be assured that students are proficient in a specific set of
skills and knowledge.
The university doesn’t give letter grades, and it allows students to take as long as they
want in their course of study — which could be a mixed blessing, since they pay a flat
fee (a bit under $3,000) every six months. All in all, Partridge said, “we are as different
from the other online schools as they are from” traditional higher education. It’s a model
not suited to everyone, he acknowledged, but especially tailored to students with a
certain “impatience” or “determination” to complete in a timely manner.
Another significant draw for WGU is the Teachers College, which, unlike any other such
online program, places graduates at schools in virtually every state. Now, at least half of
WGU’s students are enrolled in the teaching program. “[W]e offer a path to initial
teacher licensure for individuals all around the country who want to become teachers,
often later in life where returning to a traditional school of education ... is just not that
convenient,” Partridge said.
The university projects further growth in the coming years, with a predicted enrollment
of up to 15,000 in the foreseeable future. “We really see the future as one in which the
people of the United States and the adult audience need to have very good-quality and
affordable options to either get a first bachelor’s degree or continue to pursue [a]
master’s degree, in particular change careers and pursue dreams that will in the long
run strengthen our economy, the citizenry and make our country, our states, etc.,
stronger,” said Partridge.
— Andy Guess
June 19, 2008
Boards Must Have Balance, Integrity
Story By David Allen
Because of the ongoing turmoil at West Virginia University, the subject of appointing
directors to the university's governing board has been a much-discussed topic. Let's
take a moment to consider the right people for the job.
When selecting a board member-- and this applies to every organization -- the
candidate must have a common interest or commonality of purpose with regard to the
institution. If not, why bother?
While this requirement seems simple enough, it never fails that two undesirable types of
people pass the commonality test--the proverbial "yes" man and the parasite. Even the
most diligent screening process cannot always weed out these people.
Sitting on a board can have an intoxicating influence on even the most well-intentioned
people. Directors find that the title of board member does afford them status in their
communities, and at some point they might become "yes" men or women so as not to
jeopardize losing their directorships. No director that I am aware of was ever fired for
toadying.
Other well-intentioned people have compromised their fiduciary duty by doing business
with the very institution they are appointed to oversee. Most often, these business
arrangements begin as symbiotic relationships with all parties benefiting. When greed
sets in, the relationship turns parasitic.
The faculty has expressed that the governing board should have more faculty
representatives. This sounds wonderful in theory. But the reality of the campus is that
professors rarely know what goes on outside of the buildings they teach in.
Professors also specialize in their field of learning. So who do you pick? The botanist
who studies aphid damage? The physicist who looks for dark matter? The historian who
debates the cause of the Civil War? Or do we consider the education professor who
knows everything about running a classroom but precious little about running a school?
Would a professor of proctology even stand a chance?
For the faculty's sake, they should speak collectively through their elected senate rather
than through one or more board members. And the faculty senate should have stronger
powers, especially so with regard to the presidential selection process. If a presidential
candidate can't win the hearts of the faculty senate during his or her interview, then the
candidate has no business applying for the job.
There are probably 100 million people on this planet who know who Pat White and
Kevin Pittsnogle are. Ten times that many know who Jerry West is. In terms of dollars
and cents, WVU's athletic program is not a huge budget item. But in terms of publicity,
athletics brings WVU its most attention.
Candidates for the Board of Governors need to be serious about athletics -- and just as
serious about demanding a scandal-free athletic program. The football stadium may be
named in honor of Milan Puskar, but it will always be remembered as the house that
Don Nehlen built. Coach Nehlen was a winner, but let us not forget that he was
respected for his integrity from coast to coast.
The Health Science Center is an important part of WVU, and the board needs a few
members who are up to speed on modern medicine. While drug company
representatives don't get much respect, I will tell you for a fact that they know everything
that goes on in the medical community.
I am not recommending a drug pusher for the board. So don't choke.
I point this out, however, because WVU needs to consider people in the medical field
who get around and also are knowledgeable of the financial side of the medical
business. This is definitely the area where WVU has to think outside the box for
recruiting board members.
When Netscape developed JavaScript in 1995, I remarked that java scripts had been
around for years. When questioned about my observation, I quipped that boards of
directors were in the habit of using the chairman's report as coffee cup coasters to
protect their mahogany conference tables.
Bad jokes aside, a board member must be involved and not consider the board meeting
a coffee klatch.
A board member's responsibility can be compared somewhat to that of a juror's. When
the door is closed, people trust them to make the right decision. Sometimes, those
decisions are incredibly unpopular, while at other times they are routine. But all
individual decisions made on behalf of a community test a person's resolve, conscience
and ethics.
From personal experience, I have seen the damage that self-serving directors can do. I
have also seen the good work that responsible directors can do. The final test for
selecting a board member is this simple: Picking from the former guarantees a train
wreck, while picking from the latter guarantees success.
David G. Allen of Clarksburg has extensive business experience.
June 19, 2008
College moves to new facility
Gov. Manchin is at the opening of Blue Ridges’ technology center in Martinsburg
By Jillian E. Kesner / Journal Staff
MARTINSBURG —Telling the audience that partnerships like the one forged between
Blue Ridge Community and Technical College and Allegheny Power is “just a
beginning,” Gov. Joe Manchin lauded the efforts of both entities at a ribbon-cutting
ceremony for the CTC’s new technology center.
The center will serve as the home of the new electric distribution engineering
technology program, which will train linesmen from Allegheny Power for their jobs.
“I’ve learned by doing ribbon-cuttings that you should always expect great things,”
Manchin said. “This provides new opportunities and skills.”
Manchin talked about the importance of establishing public and private partnerships,
such as the one being established between the college and the energy company.
“I don’t think we’re finished,” Manchin said. “I think we’ve just begun.”
Manchin said he envisioned the state’s community and technical colleges becoming
“career centers,” which would provide businesses with the workforce that they need
immediately.
Joining Manchin in addressing the 100-person crowd at the Berkeley Business Park
was James Skidmore, chancellor of the Community and Technical College System of
West Virginia.
“Here’s how this came about — it started with a conversation in Charleston ... this is
what happens when there is communication,” Skidmore said. He praised the efforts of
Blue Ridge President Pete Checkovich, the staff and Allegheny Power for their
dedication to making the project happen.
“The big winners are the West Virginians in the Eastern Panhandle who will have high
wages and high-demand jobs,” Skidmore said.
David Flitman, president of Allegheny Power, said that the new partnership will help
Allegheny Power hit the ground running with an educated workforce.
Flitman said that within the next five years, the company will lose 10 percent of its
linemen to retirement. That’s why the new education program was so pivotal, he added.
Flitman said the company will attract good talent and the company will benefit by having
educated and understanding employees that are able to work immediately.
“All we’re lacking right now is students ... but we have a couple already,” Flitman said.
Originally, a similar linesmen training program began as an apprenticeship with
Allegheny Power. The program now offers students a one-year certificate program and
a two-year associate of applied science program in EDET.
Classes will begin July 12 at the new facility.
Dan Steerman, technical program coordinator, said Blue Ridge was approached by
Allegheny about a year ago to create a partnership to train linesmen. Allegheny
provided matching funds to what the state offered.
Construction on the 23,000-square-foot building began in February. The facility includes
eight offices, one indoor pole park and seven classrooms. A bucket truck, Derrick truck
and a utility trailer are among the equipment on which training will be provided.
A public open house will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday featuring prizes and
demonstrations of equipment.
Attending Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting were officials from Allegheny Power, faculty, staff
and board members from Blue Ridge CTC, county and city officials as well as members
of the legislative delegation. Members of the Utility Workers Union of America Local
102, who endorsed the program, also were present.
Checkovich said that this opportunity will provide job security for students who graduate
from the program.
“We had a wonderful turnout,” Checkovich said. “It was a great day for the college.”
June 18, 2008
The New SAT: Longer, but No Better?
In 2005, the College Board unveiled the most dramatic changes in years in the SAT.
The dreaded analogies were removed. Mathematics questions were updated. A writing
section was added, resulting in the test getting longer. The moves came at a time that a
growing number of critics were questioning whether the SAT really added enough to
admissions officers’ knowledge to justify the stress, time and money of millions of
students. Other critics raised issues of fairness, noting the gaps among gender and
racial groups — and the ability of wealthy students to coach themselves to better
scores.
The new and improved SAT was supposed to respond to many of those critics. On
Tuesday, the College Board released “validity studies” in which, for the first time, results
on the new SAT were correlated with first-year grades earned by students who enrolled
at four-year colleges. (That’s the key measure for judging the SAT because the College
Board says it is designed to predict first-year grades, not long-term success in college.)
College Board leaders in a telephone press conference hailed the results as great
news. Gaston Caperton, president of the board, said that the studies contained “very
important and positive news” for colleges, in particular that the writing test’s addition had
worked and had brought much more attention to writing instruction.
But the reports themselves suggested that the SAT’s strengths and weaknesses were
not much different from before the big changes. “The results show that the changes
made to the SAT did not substantially change how well the test predicts first year
college performance,” said one report, which examined overall reliability of the SAT.
This study also found — and this is unchanged from studies of the old SAT — that the
single best way to predict a high school student’s performance in the freshman year of
college is through high school grades, not the SAT. (While that data point is clear in the
report, College Board leaders stressed that by combining high school grades with the
SAT, still more predictive value was found, although not different from that of the old
SAT).
The other report focused on “differential validity,” meaning the question of whether the
SAT is equally accurate in predicting the college success of different kinds of students.
Here, many defenders of the SAT had hoped that the addition of the writing test might
have made a difference, especially in the trend in which the SAT has tended to
underpredict the abilities of females who take the test and to overpredict the skills of
men. But here, too, the new SAT appears to have the same problems as the old SAT.
The College Board’s report said: “The findings demonstrate that there are similar
patterns of differential validity and prediction by gender, race/ethnicity, and best
language subgroups on the revised SAT compared with previous research on older
versions of the test.”
In terms of race, the report found the exact same patterns as it did in studying the
earlier version of the SAT. Scores of black, Latino and American Indian students
overpredict first-year performance in college. (That may sound surprising, because
many advocates for minority students say that many who excel in college do so despite
low SAT scores, but those comparisons tend to focus on overall college records, not
freshman year.) White and Asian students tend to be accurately or slightly
underpredicted.
On another equity issue — whether the tests are coachable, giving an edge to those
who can pay for tutors and classes — the College Board has already admitted that the
new writing test is in fact coachable.
The studies were based on 150,000 students’ records, reviewed at a wide range of
institutions.
College Board officials defended the results as a success and said that they were not
alarmed by the gaps in predictive validity. Laurence Bunin, senior vice president of the
board, said that “the SAT is the most well designed and researched test in the world,”
and noted that questions are reviewed by multicultural groups of educators. “We know
the questions on the test are fair,” he said.
Wayne Camara, vice president of research and development, noted that there are
predictive gaps — in many cases larger than those from the SAT — on using high
school grades as well. Camara and others said that the most encouraging result was
that the new writing test had predictive validity across ethnic and racial groups — at
higher levels than the rest of the SAT.
Given the importance of writing, this suggests a real improvement in the test, he said.
Long-time critics were not impressed. Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the
National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as FairTest said that the College
Board’s slogan should be: “Meet the new test, same as the old test — only longer and
more expensive.”
The emphasis of the College Board on writing is in part because many colleges have
held off on requiring the SAT writing test. According to the board, 44 percent of colleges
that are “moderately selective” require or use the writing test. (In other words, that’s the
percentage that either require or “recommend” a writing test.) The ACT, which also has
a new writing test, has had similar results, both in terms of percentage of colleges
requiring it and in only seeing a small additional predictive value in the test because of
the additional section.
It is unclear whether the results released Tuesday will prompt a groundswell from
writing instructors to place more emphasis on the SAT. While some writing instructors
have praised the College Board for adding writing, saying that the move sent a strong
message, many think that the test encourages the worst kind of writing.
Les Perelman, director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks the writing test is so bad that he coaches
students on how to write abysmal essays, while including words that the College Board
likes ("plethora” is key) and to end up with great scores. (The story of one of his
successful efforts is here.)
Perelman said that it’s absolutely no surprise that students who do well on the SAT
writing test do well in college. The College Board favors the traditional “five paragraph
essay” format taught to high school freshmen, and those who are going to succeed in
college have generally mastered the format and picked up the various tricks that earn
good scores on the essay. (One of Perelman’s students, to show how the scoring favors
quotations from famous people, accurate or not, took the test using various quotes that
happened to be visible in the testing room, and attributed all of them to Lee Iacocca —
and she earned great scores.)
“The writing test is teaching students a lot of bad habits,” said Perelman. “It’s real
predictive value, in terms of writing, is nil.”
— Scott Jaschik
June 19, 2008
R&V urged WVUH: Join complaint
Consulting firm target: MedExpress
BY CASSIE SHANER The Dominion Post
E-mails obtained by The Dominion Post indicate that a consultant hired to evaluate
WVU’s Health Sciences Center suggested university officials get involved in a complaint
filed against MedExpress by Wheeling Hospital — a facility the consulting firm
manages.
Though Health Sciences faculty members at a town hall meeting this past week
suggested the firm had several conflicts of interest related to its engagement with WVU,
Mike Plante, a spokesman for the consulting firm, said the suggestion was no more than
casual advice on an issue that was being discussed by hospitals around the state.
Vincent Deluzio and Ronald Violi are co-founders and managing directors of R&V
Associates, a Pittsburgh consulting firm that was hired earlier this year to evaluate the
HSC. University officials released an interim report from the firm Friday — the same day
they announced plans to terminate WVU’s $75,000-a-month contract with the firm,
saying the report contained errors and failed to offer solutions to problems.
R&V Associates is also under contract to manage Wheeling Hospital through July
2010 — a potential conflict that was disclosed in the firm’s letter agreement with the
WVU Research Corp. According to a press release on Wheeling Hospital’s Web site,
Violi serves as the facility’s chief executive officer, while Deluzio handles legal and
regulatory matters.
Wheeling Hospital asked the West Virginia Health Care Authority to investigate
MedExpress earlier this year, claiming the company is owned partly by individuals who
are not licensed health professionals.
MedExpress plans to open a private-office practice in Wheeling later this month,
according to its Web site, but Wheeling Hospital argued that the company does not
meet the requirements for such a facility and should be subject to Certificate of Need
review. The HCA ruled in MedExpress’ favor in May, though Wheeling Hospital has
appealed that decision.
The Dominion Post filed a Freedom of Information Act request in May for e-mails and
other university documents related to R&V Associates’ consulting services. In a March
12 message, Deluzio forwarded a draft letter to Dan Durbin, WVU’s associate vice
president for finance, expressing support for Wheeling Hospital in its complaint against
MedExpress.
The draft letter — addressed to Sonia Chambers, chairwoman of the HCA, and
Deborah Rodecker, legal counsel for the West Virginia Board of Medicine — was sent
to Deluzio by Michael J. Folio, a Charleston attorney for the firm representing Wheeling
Hospital. It is not signed and makes no mention of WVU, but a note at the top indicates
that it was to be printed on a WVU letterhead.
“We are generally familiar with the request by Wheeling Hospital Inc., for your
agencies to investigate Med-Express,” the letter says. “We endorse Wheeling Hospital’s
request.”
Although R&V continued to press the matter, it appears WVU never got involved.
Later that day, Deluzio sent Durbin another e-mail regarding MedExpress.
“The Chairman of Pediatrics is absolutely in agreement on how badly WVU and
especially pediatrics are hurt unfairly by Med-Express,” Deluzio said.
Durbin did not respond to Deluzio’s comment in a reply email. Giovanni Piedimonte,
chairman of pediatrics for the WVU School of Medicine, is out of the office until July and
was not available for comment.
Plante said Deluzio was simply offering advice about an issue outside the scope of
R&V Associates’ contract with the university that could affect business. The matter
came up during the course of conversation, Plante said, and Deluzio did not actively
push WVU officials to get involved.
“He was just passing on information,” Plante said. “The Med-Express folks compete
with any hospital that operates an emergency room. He said, ‘This is something you
may want to do. This is what other hospitals are doing.’”
The Charleston Area Medical Center and Raleigh General Hospital each sent letters
to the HCA in support of Wheeling Hospital’s position. Deluzio forwarded both letters to
Fred Butcher, interim vice president for Health Sciences.
Folio again suggested WVU get involved in the matter in a March 24 e-mail to
Deluzio: “If WVU is interested in making a filing with HCA, I would encourage them to do
so ASAP. WVU’s participation is vital.”
Deluzio forwarded the e-mail to Butcher.
“Fred, this is vital to Health Sciences!” Deluzio wrote.
Dayle Stepp, director of the HCA’s Certificate of Need program, said he does not
recall ever receiving a letter from WVU officials in the MedExpress matter.
Correspondence in the case is posted on the HCA Web site, and no letter from WVU
is listed.
Health Sciences spokeswoman Amy Johns said she does not believe the letter was
ever sent, and the e-mail was forwarded to the office of then-WVU General Counsel
Alex Macia.
Johns said Butcher was not willing to comment about whether Deluzio’s e-mails
constituted a conflict of interest “because he didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Harry Rubenstein, an attorney for MedExpress, said Deluzio’s casual suggestion that
WVU get involved in the matter on Wheeling Hospital’s behalf is of concern, but he is
pleased that WVU opted against the recommendation. He said he not aware of any
letter sent to the HCA by WVU.
“WVU had to take that request from [Deluzio] with a grain of salt,” Rubenstein said.
“He was just trying to rally the troops.”
Several Health Sciences faculty members who alleged other conflicts of interest
against R&V Associates were out of the office Wednesday and unavailable for
comment.
At Friday’s town hall meeting, Alison Wilson, director of the Jon Michael Moore
Trauma Center, noted that Deluzio serves on the board of directors for the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center, a facility that often competes with WVU Hospitals.
June 18, 2008
Energy Research Would See Big Growth Under House
Spending Bill
Washington — Federal spending on energy research would get a hefty spending boost
of 21 percent in the 2009 fiscal year, under a spending bill approved by a House of
Representatives Appropriations subcommittee this week.
The proposed increase would lift the budget of the Department of Energy’s Office of
Science to $4.86-billion, outpacing the 19-percent increase requested by President
Bush in February. Both proposals aim to put the office’s budget back on track to double
over seven years, as called for by the America Competes Act enacted last year. The bill
aims to increase federal spending on fundamental research in the physical sciences to
help improve America’s global economic competitiveness.
Congress and the president approved an initial installment toward the doubling goal in
the 2007 fiscal year but deadlocked over aggregate spending levels in 2008, agreeing
eventually to only a minimal increase for the Office of Science this year.
The House bill for 2009 includes $100-million to establish roughly two dozen new,
interdisciplinary research programs, to be called Energy Frontier Research Centers, to
study renewable energy and atmospheric-carbon sequestration. —Jeffrey Brainard
June 18, 2008
College Accountability Dashboard Debuts
The Minnesota state college system unveiled on Tuesday its new Accountability
Dashboard. The service is based on a Web site that displays a series of measures—
tuition rates, graduates’ employment rates, condition of facilities—that use
speedometer-type gauges to show exactly how the Minnesota system and each of its
individual colleges is performing.
The dashboard makes already-available information about institutional performance
easy to access by the public. Yet it’s not clear that the system will prove to be the best
solution, Richard Garrett, a senior research analyst with Eduventures, an industry
consulting company, told The Chronicle. American colleges appear to be pursuing a
“patchwork of measures and metrics and benchmarks” that allow for some comparisons
between institutions, he said. But the higher--education system is so fragmented that
tools such as the dashboard can give only partial pictures.
What do you think? Is this a step forward for higher education accountability? Or is it
window dressing?
June 17, 2008
Grant to support hands-on chemistry experiences for
WVU Tech students
By Staff Reports, The Montgomery Herald
MONTGOMERY — The West Virginia University Institute of Technology Tuesday
received a $25,000 grant from PPG Industries, which will allow students to continue
groundbreaking research in the area of renewable energy.
Natrium plant manager and Tech alumnus Jim Rock presented the award June 17 on
the WVU Tech campus.
“PPG is pleased to make a significant donation to the West Virginia University Institute
of Technology’s new biochemical teaching and laboratory initiative to provide hands-on
chemistry experiences for students,” Rock said.
The funding is part of a $1.7 million campaign supporting the biochemistry lab. These
grants will continue the institution’s research into coal as a cleaner energy resource.
“PPG has hired many exceptional WVU Tech graduates who continue to make
important contributions to our business,” Rock said. “Today’s $25,000 donation is the
first installment of a total $50,000 contribution to the university program over the next
two years.”
Richard Schoening, chair of Tech’s chemistry department, added, “This grant will
provide vital instrumentation needed in our lab as WVU Tech students continue their
groundbreaking energy research. We’ve already been awarded patents on our process
removing mercury from the byproducts of coal energy production, and this award will
continue the development this technology and research in renewable resources.”
The grant was facilitated by and made to Tech Foundation Inc., a nonprofit corporation
whose mission is to raise, manage and disburse funds on behalf of WVU Tech.
Pittsburgh-based PPG is a global supplier of paints, coatings, chemicals, optical
products, specialty materials, glass and fiber glass. The company has more than 150
manufacturing facilities and equity affiliates and operates in more than 60 countries.
PPG’s sales in 2007 were $11.2 billion.
WVU Tech, a division of WVU, offers more than 50 four-year programs in the
engineering, sciences, business, social sciences, public administration, humanities and
health fields.
June 17, 2008
Court will hear appeal over selling textbooks to WVU
students
by Justin D. Anderson, Daily Mail Capitol Reporter
State Supreme Court justices have unanimously agreed to hear the appeal of a
longtime Morgantown bookstore that contends West Virginia University and Barnes and
Noble unfairly harmed its business.
The Book Exchange, which has stores at two locations in Morgantown, sued WVU, its
board of governors, school finance chief Narvel Weese and Barnes and Noble for $2
million last summer.
The lawsuit claimed the school and national bookstore chain were monopolizing an $8.8
million market for students on financial aid purchasing textbooks.
Monongalia Circuit Judge Robert Stone dismissed the lawsuit in December, saying the
Book Exchange failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted.
Stone dismissed the complaint "with prejudice," meaning the same action could not be
brought again.
Now Barnes and Noble, which has been under contract to run WVU's bookstores, wants
$736,527 in lost sales and for lawyer fees.
The Book Exchange, which has been in business since 1934, argues it could have
proven its case if given the chance. It also contends the judge was wrong not to allow it
to amend its complaint to address any concerns of the court.
Through its lease agreement with WVU, Barnes and Noble has direct access to
students' financial aid accounts and withholds $500 in aid that can only be used at the
four WVU bookstores.
The Book Exchange does not have access to the financial aid accounts.
Monongalia Circuit Judge Russell Clawges issued a temporary injunction against WVU
and Barnes and Noble, preventing them from withholding money from the financial aid
accounts for the Fall 2007 semester. Judge Stone lifted the injunction when he
dismissed the Book Exchange complaint.
The Book Exchange says the financial aid is withheld without the consent of students.
According to the appeal, the student is entitled to a refund of any unspent withheld
money two weeks after the start of the semester. By that time, the student would have
already had to buy their textbooks.
"This refund, after the fact, effectively precludes the financial aid student from
comparison shopping and purchasing textbooks from the Book Exchange, the main
competitor of (WVU and Barnes and Noble) in Morgantown," the appeal says.
The appeal alleges that WVU sent financial aid students a confusing e-mail that outlined
the student's right not to allow the withholding of the funds.
But the e-mail was sent after the last day of classes during final exams, when a student
probably wouldn't have the time to study the message.
Barnes and Noble entered into its lease agreement with WVU in 2001. The lease was
renewed in 2006 and is slated to expire on April 30, 2010.
In 2005, Barnes and Noble began to directly access the financial aid and withhold the
money for books and other items, according to the appeal.
Initially, the lease agreement had Barnes and Noble paying WVU a flat $1.5 million
annually plus 13 percent of all gross sales over $15 million.
Once the financial aid was withheld, WVU changed the terms of the lease and
increased its collections. Now, it collects 11.5 percent on gross sales between $13.5
million and $14.5 million; 12 percent on sales between $14.5 million and $15 million;
and 13 percent of sales over $15 million.
The Book Exchange cites growing enrollment at WVU and the estimated 8,800 students
who receive financial aid. The company estimates it's losing out on an $8.8 million
business.
The case should be scheduled for argument before the justices within eight months.
June 17, 2008
Who Needs a Professor When There's a Tutor Available?
An unusual new commercial service offers low-cost online courses and connects
students to accredited colleges who will accept the courses for credit. The only thing
missing: professors.
The service, called StraighterLine, is run by SmartThinking, a company that operates an
online tutoring service used by about 300 colleges and universities. The online courses
offered by StraighterLine are self-guided, and if students run into trouble they can
summon a tutor from SmartThiking and talk with them via instant messaging. Students
turn in their assignments or papers to tutors for grading as well.
“We’re using our tutoring service as the instructional component,” says Burck Smith,
CEO of SmartThinking. “Students move through the course, and when they have a
problem they click a button and they’re talking with a tutor.”
The courses cost $399 each, which includes 10 hours of time with a tutor. If students
need more one-on-one help, they can pay extra for more tutoring.
The courses themselves were developed by McGraw-Hill, and StraighterLine uses
Blackboard’s course-management service. So this virtual college is essentially cobbled
together from various off-the-shelf learning services.
So far three colleges have agreed to grant credit for the StraighterLine courses — Fort
Hays State University, Jones International University, and Potomac College.
The colleges see the partnership as a way to attract new students. “One of the things
we hope to do is convert those students to Jones students,” says D. Terry Rawls, a vice
chancellor at Jones International. “My expectation is that in reality students will take one
maybe two courses with StraighterLine and then the students will take the rest of their
courses with us.”
Richard Garrett, a senior analyst for Eduventures, sees the service as part of a broader
trend of colleges granting credit for unconventional college experience, provided that
the students can pass a test or otherwise demonstrate competency. And that raises the
question, he says, “what is the core business of the academy versus what can be
outsourced?”—Jeffrey R. Young
June 17, 2008
Law schools growing, but jobs aren't
United States is first country in world to have 200 accredited programs
by The Associated Press
To hear many students tell it, law school is a guaranteed ticket to a well-paying career.
So a recent milestone must have sounded like good news.
The United States last week became the world's first nation of 200 accredited law
schools, as the American Bar Association gave provisional approval to two North
Carolina institutions.
In other countries, it's much harder to become a lawyer. In the United States, the doors
are open and getting wider. The 150,000 students enrolled in law schools last year were
an all-time high. So adding more slots means even more avenues of opportunity, right?
On closer inspection, however, the economics of the "more is better" argument for legal
education don't necessarily hold up.
It's the numbers at the top that get all the attention: At the largest law firms, median
starting salaries were $145,000 last fall, according to NALP, an organization that tracks
law placement.
But many students don't realize at first that the high-paying law firms recruit almost
exclusively at institutions ranked in the top 15 or so. Overall, the median salary for new
lawyers is $62,000. For public interest law jobs, new lawyers can expect about $40,000.
Meanwhile, the average amount students borrow to attend a private law school surged
25 percent between 2002 and 2007 to $87,906, ABA figures show. For public law
schools, borrowing averages $57,170.
"I think we have this fundamental disconnect between images of lawyers in the popular
media, in the courtroom dispensing justice, where everyone seems prosperous and well
paid," said William Henderson, an Indiana University-Bloomington law professor who
studies the job market. "The reality is for a lot of people, law school is a route to trying to
start your own private practice, and that's a very crowded business right now."
Vichet Chan, who received his law degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.,
in 2007 has been looking for work ever since. He recently moved back in with his
parents in West Virginia to save money.
He owes about $250 a month in interest on student loans. If he gets a job, he will lose
his hardship deferral and will owe about $1,000 a month.
"The thing is companies want experience from young lawyers, but it's hard to get the
experience," Chan said.
One symptom of the surplus is the rise of so-called "contract attorneys" - essentially
temps with JDs (the doctor of law degree). They work for roughly $20- to $40-an-hour
on often monotonous tasks, like reviewing documents, that law firms outsource.
A blog called Temporary Attorney even chronicles the mind-numbing assignments,
verbal abuse and poor working conditions that include cockroach-infested, un-airconditioned rooms with blocked exits and no breaks allowed.
Regardless, universities continue to build law schools.
Chan has been offered contract work in Washington but is reluctant to move back
because - as usual with contract work - there are no guarantees it will last more than a
few weeks.
With provisional accreditation, Charlotte College of Law and Elon University were Nos.
199 and 200. Nine others operating share that status. And at least 10 new ones are in
the works nationwide, The National Law Journal recently reported, in states including
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and California.
In New York, home to 150,000 lawyers (the most of any state), legislators recently
appropriated more than $50 million to develop two new public law schools and one
affiliated with St. John Fisher College, a private school. Some leaders of the state's 15
existing law schools were dumbfounded.
"There's no question that we simply have a glut of law schools," Makau Mutua, interim
dean of the University at Buffalo Law School, told The Associated Press. He called state
support for a private law school "mind-boggling."
For universities, a new law school is a lot more attractive financially than, say, spending
money to make sure more undergraduates complete their degree within six years
(national average: 57 percent).
Law schools have big classes, and don't need to provide much financial aid, because
students are expected to borrow the money they need.
The case for some new law schools is stronger than others, and Gene Clark, who leads
Charlotte College of Law, makes a pretty strong one.
Charlotte is the largest city in the United States without a law school, he says, and fastgrowing North Carolina has the fewest lawyers per capita of any state.
Clark says his institution fills an important gap, serving underrepresented groups and
providing a flexible schedule for working adults. While the market for traditional
lawyering jobs is mixed, he says, it's strong in other fields for people - law-enforcement
officers, entrepreneurs - with legal skills.
Finally, Charlotte College of Law is a for-profit institution. Unlike several law schools in
the works, it isn't taking public money. It will have to offer students good results, or it will
go under.
Some reasonably note that students should do their homework about job prospects. If
they think they can be successful, law schools should give them that chance.
The problem is that law schools, obsessed with rankings, have been less than straight
with students about what they can expect. Too many stats are self-reported.
Henderson's research has found evidence of "massive exaggeration" by law schools
when they report what graduates are up to.
June 17, 2008
Research Methods ‘Beyond Google’
When “Google” has become a synonym for “research,” how should faculty respond?
And if the answer doesn’t lie in musty books and stacks of journals, are libraries still part
of the answer?
The problem is near-universal for professors who discover, upon assigning research
projects, that superficial searches on the Internet and facts gleaned from Wikipedia are
the extent — or a significant portion — of far too many of their students’ investigations.
It’s not necessarily an issue of laziness, perhaps, but one of exposure to a set of
research practices and a mindset that encourages critical thinking about competing
online sources. Just because students walk in the door as “digital natives,” the common
observation goes, doesn’t mean they’re equipped to handle the heavy lifting of digital
databases and proprietary search engines that comprise the bulk of modern, online
research techniques.
Yet the gap between students’ research competence and what’s required of a modern
college graduate can’t easily be solved without a framework that encompasses faculty
members, librarians, technicians and those who study teaching methods. After all,
faculty control their syllabuses, librarians are often confined to the reference desk and
IT staff are there for when the network crashes.
So instead of expecting students to wander into the library themselves, some professors
are bringing the stacks into the classroom. In an effort to nudge curriculums in the
direction of incorporating research methodology into the fabric of courses themselves,
two universities are experimenting with voluntary programs that encourage cooperation
between faculty and research specialists to develop assignments that will serve as a
hands-on and collaborative introduction to the relevant skills and practices.
Kathy Lee Berggren, a professor at Cornell University, teaches oral communication with
a “heavy research component.” Still, she pointed out, “a lot of my students really [only]
scratch the surface with the type of research they’re doing.”
“Research isn’t a Google search,” she said.
That sentiment was echoed by several others involved with the Cornell Undergraduate
Information Competency Initiative, a program that kicked off on Monday with a weeklong summer institute aimed at understanding how students perceive university
research, how to guide their habits and how to merge existing course goals with
instruction in research methods. Those practices, of course, can apply whether inside a
brick-and-mortar research facility or logged on from home. The goal is to “really learn
how to use a library whether they’re in it or not,” Berggren said.
Each of nine faculty fellows, including Berggren, will join an “implementation team”
consisting of a librarian, someone from the information technology staff and a
representative from Cornell’s Center for Learning and Teaching with the “objective of
infusing information competency skills into the coursework,” said Thomas Mills, a cochairman of the program who teaches online legal research at the Cornell Law School.
Those teams will continue to meet over the next semester to monitor how the course is
progressing and evaluate research-based assignments.
“It’s certainly one way to encourage faculty who probably were taught in a very lecturestyle format and have grown up in a largely lecture-style format — maybe augmented
by PowerPoint — to share with undergraduates the genuine excitement of what learning
in a university is all about, and that does involve research,” said Tracy Mitrano, the
director of Cornell’s Computer Policy and Law Program and, like, Berggren, both a
faculty fellow and an institute facilitator. “It might also involve service....”
Mitrano incorporated what she calls “active learning” techniques into her course on the
culture, law and politics of the Internet, an experience one of her former students, now a
teaching assistant, will discuss this week at the institute, she said. When she brought up
the music recording industry’s anti-piracy tactic of sending “pre-litigation letters” to
colleges, “the room erupted,” she remembers. To bring in real-world concepts and to
encourage collaborative research, she broke the class into groups, each of which was
assigned a different project: on the history of piracy, on current issues, on new business
models for music, protest movements and other topics.
“Man, they woke right up,” Mitrano recalled. “I didn’t see any more yawns.”
An instructor “winds up learning so much that it’s an enormous benefit to them, and
moreover, it reminds them of why they wanted to be in higher education in the first
place, because it’s all about this process, and it’s exciting.”
The germ of the Cornell initiative started with a visit to the University of California at
Berkeley last spring, where faculty and librarians learned about the Mellon
Library/Faculty Fellowship for Undergraduate Research, which for several years has
tested a similar model but on the scale of an even larger research campus, and with
funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
During Berkeley’s accreditation renewal process several years ago, said Elizabeth
Dupuis, the project’s director, one of the campuswide goals was to define “what it
means to be at a research institution.” Of course, she said, one of the fundamental
aspects of that experience was research itself, but not just in lab courses or classes on
research methods.
“There’s no course that everyone takes, and there’s not really a very clear trajectory for
most students,” Dupuis noted.
“It’s really important that these skills are taught in the context of a course, and really
learning the content and material of a discipline, as opposed to learning these skills
separate from a course.” The answer, she said, is “to try to infuse these skills in a wide
range of courses” and “work into those assignments the sort of critical thinking skills
along the way” — “a net gain of exposure throughout [students’] career.”
Berkeley’s Mellon-funded program, renewed after its initial grant for several years, is
now in a hiatus phase in which the university is working with external evaluation
consultants to conduct focus groups and interviews with participants. Last fall, a
modified version of the program was established that focuses on full departments rather
than on individual faculty members.
But as the trajectory of the program indicates, the movement is from the grass roots
rather than from on high, a necessity at large and often unwieldy institutions like
Berkeley and Cornell.
So for now, the participants in the Cornell institute are “academic guinea pigs,” said
Anne Kenney, the university librarian.
“[B]eing able to understand the importance of navigating a complex information
landscape and being good-quality consumers of content rather than passive receptors
of what’s pushed at them is important,” she said. “We know that ... when faculty who
have used librarians to provide information competency components in their classes,
there has been a concomitant increase in the quality of papers presented.”
— Andy Guess
June 17, 2008
Garrison: WVU ‘larger, stronger’
Alumni attend annual address given in D.C.
BY CASSIE SHANER The Dominion Post
In his first and only State of the University address, outgoing WVU President Mike
Garrison said the collective strength of the university — which lies in the students,
faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, donors and supporters who comprise the
Mountaineer family — can help the university conquer any obstacle.
“The strength of WVU is the aggregate strength of all of us — all of us for whom the
university and its mission is paramount — the reason for hard work, for pursuing
excellence, for giving back and for moving ahead,” Garrison said. “We all know that
WVU is always much more than any single person or any single story — all of our
individual stories weaves the tapestry of our historic strength. We know that WVU is
larger, stronger and more enduring than any of us individually.”
Garrison delivered the speech to a crowd of about 260 people Monday at the
Newseum in Washington, D.C. The National Capital Area Chapter of the WVU Alumni
Association hosts the annual luncheon event for West Virginia’s congressional
delegation, as well as alumni and friends of WVU.
During his speech, Garrison said, he decided to step down as president Sept. 1
because WVU should always be more important than any single person or issue.
Garrison announced his plans earlier this month, following an investigative panel’s
report in April that found WVU awarded Heather Bresch, the governor’s daughter and
chief operating officer of generic drug-maker Mylan Pharmaceuticals, an executive MBA
degree she did not earn. Garrison has said he was not involved in the decision to award
the degree.
“As we move through the months ahead, it is now time for all of us to renew the
conversation about our university — and its success, its prominence, its rightful place in
the state, the country and the world,” Garrison said. “We must get back to the
celebration of our greatness, our honor and the success of our academic mission.”
Tara Curtis, assistant director of the WVU Alumni Association, said the Bresch
scandal did not affect the mood at Monday’s event.
“This was a great day,” Curtis said. “People are very proud of WVU. They love WVU,
and this was a day of celebration.”
Bruce Walker, general counsel for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy
Commission, said Garrison is not required by law to give an annual State of the
University address, but Barb Howe, director of WVU’s Center for Women’s Studies and
a member of Mountaineers for Integrity and Responsibility, said it was appropriate for
him to do so as president, even though he’s stepping down.
“That is what the president does every year. I guess it was already on his schedule
...,” Howe said. “It probably would have been more awkward to cancel it.”
Howe, who did not hear or read Monday’s speech, said Garrison’s remarks, as
summarized in an interview with The Dominion Post, were similar to the comments he
made to the Board of Governors when he announced his plans to leave the presidency.
“I don’t know what else he can say at this point,” Howe said. “He’s a lame duck, and
everybody knows it.”
Professors Boyd Edwards and Michael Perone, members of MIR, did not return calls
to The Dominion Post for comment by the end of the business day Monday. Faculty
Senate chairwoman Virginia Kleist and Steve Kite, the BOG’s faculty representative,
also did not return calls by the end of the business day.
The president of WVU has delivered a State of the University address in the nation’s
capital for the past 30 years.The event and luncheon is sponsored by National Capital
Area Chapter and WVU Alumni Association. Curtis said Monday’s speech — which is
different from an annual report the president gives to WVU faculty in a meeting of the
university assembly each September — was geared toward alumni and donors in the
Washington, D.C., area.
“This is an opportunity to invite them to come and hear what’s going on at the
university,” Curtis said. “It’s really important for them to hear the success stories and the
good things we’re doing at the university.”
Though Rep. Alan Mollohan was the only congressional delegate to attend the
luncheon, Curtis said the event, which was scheduled at a smaller venue than in
previous years, sold out in about 24 hours when tickets went on sale earlier this year.
Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, WVHEPC Chancellor Brian Noland and several
BOG members were in attendance.
“We have enormous backing of sponsors for this event,” Curtis said. “It was extremely
successful. Alumni love WVU, and they are going to continue to support the efforts
moving forward.”
Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the John F. Nicholas Jr. National Capital Area
Chapter Scholarship Fund, which provides financial assistance to students in the D.C.
Metro area attending WVU, as well as the new alumni center building campaign.
Curtis said the amount of money raised by Monday’s event will not be finalized for a
week or so, but the National Capital Area Chapter presented $25,000 in contributions
raised throughout the year to the WVU Alumni Association at the luncheon.
About $15,000 will go toward the chapter’s scholarship fund, and the remaining
$10,000 will go toward the alumni center being constructed near WVU’s Health
Sciences Center.
June 17, 2008
Concord, New River sign credit transfer agreement
by The Associated Press
BEAVER, W.Va. (AP) -- Concord University and New River Community & Technical
College have signed an agreement that aims to encourage community college students
to pursue a four-year degree.
The agreement announced Monday allows New River students to seamlessly transfer
credits to Concord.
New River President Ted Spring says the agreement will allow students to study for two
years at his college and then transfer to Concord for the remaining two years.
Initially, New River students can opt to pursue a bachelor's degree in fine arts or social
services.
Concord President Jerry Beasley says such cooperation between schools will improve
the likelihood of students earning a four-year degree.
June 16, 2008
WVU Tech to receive $25,000 grant from PPG
By Fred Pace, Register-Herald reporter
The West Virginia University Institute of Technology will receive a $25,000 grant from
PPG Industries, which will allow students to continue groundbreaking research in
renewable energy.
Natrium plant manager and Tech alumnus Jim Rock will present the award at 1 p.m.
today on the WVU Tech campus.
“PPG is pleased to make a significant donation to the West Virginia University Institute
of Technology’s new Biochemical Teaching and Laboratory initiative to provide handson chemistry experiences for students,” Rock said.
The funding is part of a $1.7 million campaign supporting the biochemistry lab. These
grants will continue the institution’s research into coal as a cleaner energy resource,
according to Rock.
“PPG has hired many exceptional WVU Tech graduates who continue to make
important contributions to our business,” Rock said. “This $25,000 donation is the first
installment of a total $50,000 contribution to the university program over the next two
years.”
Richard Schoening, chair of Tech’s chemistry department, added, “This grant will
provide vital instrumentation needed in our lab as WVU Tech students continue their
groundbreaking energy research. We’ve already been awarded patents on our process
removing mercury from the byproducts of coal energy production, and this award will
continue the development of this technology and research in renewable resources.”
The grant was facilitated by and made to Tech Foundation Inc., a nonprofit corporation
whose mission is to raise, manage and disburse funds on behalf of WVU Tech.
June 17, 2008
A National Community College?
The University of Phoenix markets itself as a national private university (and the largest
one at that). With more than 100,000 individuals now enrolled in its young two-year
degree granting college, Axia, has it morphed into a national community college, too?
“In some ways I guess [Axia] could be considered to be a national community college.
That’s not the way we have represented it,” said William J. Pepicello, the University of
Phoenix’s president. “Our real thought is it’s a college where the student demographic
that it appeals to can come and get a grounding in higher education and have some
early success leading to the two-year degree that we hope then will inspire them to go
from there.”
Sound a bit like (at least one function of) a community college?
The number of associate degrees awarded by the for-profit Phoenix swelled to 13,000
in 2007, just three years after Axia’s establishment in 2004. The all-online college now
offers associate of arts degrees in fields including accounting, communication, health
care administration, information technology and paraprofessional education. Students
take two courses at a time in nine-week blocks.
Few Axia students are traditional college-aged: Phoenix’s president reports that only 16
to 17 percent are under 22. But the students, many of whom are first-generation college
students and 80 percent of whom transfer 15 credits or fewer into Phoenix, differ
substantially from the white-collar, mid-career professionals that Phoenix has historically
served. In a January conference call on earnings, the president of Apollo Group,
Phoenix’s publicly traded parent company, said that while the average Phoenix student
is 33 or 34, the average Axia student is 28 or 29, with a lower income. The Axia student
is more likely to hold an entry-level job.
Yet, these students are paying more than their peers at community colleges. As of July
1, Axia College courses will cost an average of $325 per credit hour. At public two-year
institutions, the College Board calculates that the average annual tuition bill for full-time
students is $2,361, which boils down to about $98 per credit for a student taking 24.
But other parallels between the two beasts are striking: Phoenix, much like community
colleges, has built a reputation for serving a diverse pool of students who are otherwise
underserved in higher education. And the university regards Axia as an entryway into
higher education, and yes, the University of Phoenix in particular.
Axia “was a response to a changing demographic at University of Phoenix,” explained
Pepicello. The university began as a degree completion institution, in which mid-career
professionals with some college experience transferred large numbers of credits and
finished off their programs. “What we discovered in the late ’90s and early 2000s, there
were lots of students who fit our profile, they were working adults, but they had almost
no prior experience in higher education.”
“Why we focused on the associate degree level was that we realized that bringing
someone who is older and who has probably been outside education for a number of
years, and has no previous college, into a four-year program is very daunting,” Pepicello
continued. “If a student needs an associate degree, they can get it, go to work. And they
can choose to come back to us — which we hope — for a bachelor’s degree.”
That hope meshes with the business model, which is based on the premise that the
associate degree won’t ultimately be sufficient. In the January call, Brian Mueller,
Apollo’s president, declined to offer detail on the transfer and completion rates of Axia
students moving into Phoenix’s bachelor’s degree programs, saying it was proprietary.
But, he said, “That pool of people who can potentially transfer into our bachelor’s
program is growing month over month which is a very good thing from our standpoint.”
Asked later in the call whether there “is there any reason why those Axia students would
not at some point in time in their growth not want to get a bachelor’s degree,” Mueller
replied, “No, I don’t think so.”
“Because if you look at — if you look at the Axia College programs that we have, you
will notice that there are a few where there is some direct benefit from having an
associate’s degree. There is some increased capability from an income standpoint. But
there is still a much greater differentiator at the baccalaureate level and so there’s not
— it’s not a scenario where an associate’s degree will give you an opportunity close to
or equivalent to a baccalaureate degree so that people would be tempted to stop there.
We are not seeing that happen.”
Axia in Context
Given Apollo’s profit motive, Axia, unlike a traditional community college, does not exist
in part for the purpose of exporting students to complete their four-year degrees
elsewhere. While Phoenix has many articulation agreements for bringing students in,
the same can’t be said for students going out. But Axia students graduating with an
associate degree will have a regionally accredited credential they could transfer
elsewhere on their own — begging the question of what an Axia associate degree
means. Where do Axia degrees fit in, both within Phoenix’s own mammoth structure
and in higher education’s super-structure more generally?
“It’s not a technical degree; it really is only about helping you into a four-year school,”
said Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with the investment group, Signal Hill. He said he
wonders about the expectations and outcomes for the two-year online degree itself.
Many traditional University of Phoenix students, he pointed out, take courses on the
company dime because a supervisor suggests that a M.B.A. might be beneficial, or
because they need a credential for a particular promotion.
“Generally speaking they’re not using the University of Phoenix to change the directions
of their lives,” said Urdan. Whereas, “the Axia program, I think it’s being pitched as
transformative. You’re waiting tables or you’re driving a truck or you’re doing something
you don’t like and here’s a chance to move into the business world. I just don’t know. I
don’t know what it gets you.”
For those Axia graduates who move on to a Phoenix B.A., “That probably has some
value,” Urdan said. “But the two-year associate from University of Phoenix is brand
new.”
“You certainly wouldn’t want a two-year degree from a university where there was any
doubt about your ability to finish your bachelor’s degree somewhere other than Phoenix,
I would think,” said David W. Breneman, a professor of education and head of the
University of Virginia’s new Batten School of Public Policy and Leadership. “There are
still a lot of institutions that are very reluctant to accept anything from Phoenix.”
At the same time, he added, “There are a number of states where the articulation
agreements between the community colleges and four-years are not very good.”
“We know that the United States is falling behind many of the industrialized countries in
the world in terms of the percentage of our population that is obtaining higher education.
So I think any increased options for higher education are generally good,” said Linda
Thor, president of Rio Salado College, an Arizona community college with aggressive
online operations (which, incidentally, have caught the attention of a private investor).
“That said, it’s very difficult for those of us in public education to compete with the forprofit institutions because we only have a small fraction of the marketing dollars they
have available.”
“I think that some students who are enrolling in for-profit institutions may not be aware
that comparable programs of comparable quality are available to them at a significantly
lower price in the public sector,” continued Thor, who counts the University of Phoenix
as a neighbor. “Here’s where somehow we all need to collectively do a better job of
educating the consumer about their options.”
“I particularly think it’s a shame for somebody to be coming out of an institution with an
associate degree and a significant debt when that same associate degree was available
at a public community college at a fraction of the cost.”
Competition
Phoenix’s Pepicello, however, said he doesn’t see Axia in competition with community
colleges. “Clearly students have that choice,” he said.
“Many of our students indicate that they might have considered the community college,
but that the community college did not particularly have the format they’re looking for.”
“If I were to opine on why students choose us, I think it’s probably ease of access,”
Pepicello said, citing small classes (20 students or less in Axia’s case), extensive
interaction with faculty and advisers, and the online platform. “In short I think it’s
because we tried to design Axia to be something that students can integrate into their
lives and I think that resonates.”
Phoenix’s first annual report on academic outcomes, released this month, does not
include any data on Axia’s outcomes specifically. It does indicate a 27 percent
completion rate for its cohort of associate degree seekers in 2003 (the year before
Axia’s establishment), consistent with national norms. In calculating its completion rate,
the university used a different formula than the federal standard, which counts only firsttime students (who, as the report states, are anomalies at University of Phoenix).
Urdan, of Signal Hill, pointed out that Axia’s growth is consistent with that of other forprofit colleges pursuing the two-year degree market, including Colorado Technical
University, owned by Career Education Corp., and American InterContinental University
Online. “It’s clear that this new category is very popular,” Urdan said.
“There’s a growing awareness of the importance of the two-year degree on the part of
business and industry,” said George R. Boggs, president and CEO of the American
Association of Community Colleges. Boggs added that while community college leaders
have paid some attention to the expansion of for-profits in the two-year degree market,
“I haven’t heard a lot of broad concern about it yet. And I think it’s mainly because
community colleges have all they can handle right now.” (Boggs added, too, that
community colleges are concerned with many functions beyond conferring associate
degrees. Nationally, community colleges award only about 550,000 associate degrees
annually, while there are 11.5 million enrollments in U.S. community colleges.)
“There are some things we can all learn from each other,” Boggs said. “For example,
Phoenix does one course at a time” [or two, in the case of Axia]. “I think for some
students that’s a great model, and some community colleges should be doing that or
thinking of doing that, offering classes in a more compressed mode.”
“We can’t completely emulate for-profits because in many ways they have a lot more
resources. They charge a lot more money and can devote more time to following
students into the job market, for example,” Boggs said.
“It just shows there’s competition out there and big companies like Apollo are interested
in serving this audience and think they can be competitive,” said Sean Gallagher,
program director and senior analyst for Eduventures, a research and consulting firm for
higher education. “It just means that community colleges need to be more flexible in
their offerings and be aware of the competition.”
— Elizabeth Redden