tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4203975137662014782024-03-07T01:48:53.483-05:00Left of CentreCommentary on Penn State and the Centre Region from a progressive prospective.veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comBlogger777125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-82828279172569536132012-07-02T12:08:00.000-04:002012-07-02T12:08:18.896-04:00So?......<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">...... anything happen while I was gone?</span>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-64260196799318377262011-07-10T20:49:00.000-04:002011-07-10T20:51:47.640-04:00A Victory Media Friendly School<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>In the comments to my post on <a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-ranking-money-can-buy.html' target='_blank'>The Best Colleges</a> ranking, I received <a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-ranking-money-can-buy.html#comment-239094023' target='_blank'>a heads-up from jhicks23</a> about another questionable accolade which <i>The Penn State Propaganda Portal </i><a href='http://live.psu.edu/story/53973' target='_blank'>has recently pimped</a>:<br/><blockquote>G.I. Jobs magazine has designated <span class='searchword'>Penn</span> <span class='searchword'>State</span> a military friendly school for 2012. It is the third straight time the Pittsburgh-based publication has recognized the University's programs and services designed specifically to help active-duty military service members and veterans pursue an education online through <span class='searchword'>Penn</span> <span class='searchword'>State</span>'s <a href='http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/'>World Campus</a>.<br/></blockquote>I decided to take a closer look at how G.I. Jobs magazine's military friendly school list works. <br/><br/>According to the<a href='http://www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/methodology.aspx' target='_blank'> Military Friendly Schools</a> website, G.I. Jobs starts with a list of 7000 colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide and narrows these down to around 1000 schools. The explanation of how this is done is a bit vague. It supposedly involves "exhaustive research" by the G.I. Jobs Military Friendly Schools Team. And that research <span class='sectionArticle marginL marginB marginT'>"includes government agencies and private entities which administer education benefits and a comprehensive survey administered by <em>G.I. Jobs</em>. A Military Friendly Schools Academic Advisory Panel, consisting of five higher education administrators, helps determine survey questions and weightings.</span>" What does it mean for the research to include government agencies and private entities? Does it mean that the data used in the research comes from these source? No mention of to whom the survey is administered. Anyway, once they somewhat mysteriously assemble the data they use a set of criteria to winnow the list down to about 1000 schools. It is worth noting that the schools on the list are not ranked. <a href='http://sqrl.it/?tte4o' target='_blank'>Here is the nominal reason for that</a><br/><blockquote><span class='sectionArticle marginL marginB marginT'>We purposely do not use a numerical ranking system as we encourage student to use our resources as a starting point for seeking education. School choice is not a one-size fits all process, so we built the Matchmaker tool to help narrow down the field.</span><br/></blockquote>Up to this point everything seems on the up and up. If we take G. I. Jobs at their word the collect and analyze data to come up with a list of schools for vets to select from by purely objective means. <br/><br/>It is the next step in the process where things get dicey. Once the list of military friendly schools is assembled G. I. Jobs sends out <a href='http://www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/MFS_2012_Media_Kit_Web.pdf' target='_blank'>a media kit</a> to the schools on the list soliciting advertizing from them. Here's the pitch from that kit<br/><blockquote>Through its many established brands, long experience, deep relationships and unparalleled rating system, Victory Media’s print and web media products serve as the foundation for any school serious about recruiting the military and veteran student. If you’re one of the 20% of all schools nationwide which made the Military Friendly Schools® list, congratulations on such an elite achievement. Our media products, which start at only $990 per year, stand ready to carry your recruiting message to the enormous and valuable military student market. Only Military Friendly Schools® can run advertising in the print version of the Guide<br/>to Military Friendly Schools® and www.militaryfriendlyschools.com. All other media are open to all schools.<br/><br/>[...]<br/><br/>In September 2011, the Military Friendly Schools® list will be released nationally to the press. <b>Your school is encouraged to issue its<br/>own press release to promote your inclusion. </b><br/></blockquote>That's Penn State's press release that I linked to back in the first paragraph. <br/><br/>Here's the menu of advertizing options from the kit.<br/><center><table style='width:auto;'><tbody><tr><td><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rWgaSa1OeadzuaYHJYZuEzQPn6yA25aPvlWSepJdt9I?feat=embedwebsite'><img width='640' height='468' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0cDfrxqOBL7jHSWujGRxFzCsr0Xw5sZ4EfOqimuBgOHQWZ_kRKvWau865qB1FMTVVh0h9SIiwztLxtf5l3aIeZNZWmj-ew7gSe5uJdkJadNh6cXljSwZYwuujxRP3rr_5vFYdpnLcCk/s640/Screenshot%252520-%2525207_5_2011%252520%25252C%2525208_46_02%252520PM.png'/></a></td></tr><tr><td style='font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right'>From <a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/veblen.thorstein/DropBox?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCEvqT61sPGywE&feat=embedwebsite'>Drop Box</a></td></tr></tbody></table></center><br/>We see here the real reason that G. I. Jobs doesn't assign ranks to the schools. They want to give schools that advertize with them an advantage over those that don't advertize with them. So even if one is generous in assuming no manipulations are involved in compiling the list, we see that the manipulation comes in at this stage. And how big of an advantage do schools that pay for advertizing have over those that don't? Well, here's what the folks at G. I. Jobs provides a partial answer in their media kit.<br/><div align='center'><table style='width:auto;'><tbody><tr><td><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DYdLno3uvlDcRHy_qeaYSzQPn6yA25aPvlWSepJdt9I?feat=embedwebsite'><img width='534' height='159' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLX6fiQ7SlCCxuYPWKd8VM51bUXU3Bwfa2YWIsIp1AEp32aOlSolXYNSYJuCeIo3bziMLcGXNe1eTOhPQHL-Q10bcGTmR562_2FE7Ev8BWtN5YtbPgBGVKtfoCfwC4e8PcxSrJ4kUCmAo/s800/Screenshot%252520-%2525207_10_2011%252520%25252C%2525207_40_06%252520PM.png'/></a></td></tr><tr><td style='font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right'>From <a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/veblen.thorstein/DropBox?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCEvqT61sPGywE&feat=embedwebsite'>Drop Box</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br/><br/>How much does this all cost? Other than the reference to $990 per year in the above quote from the kit, all prices have been redacted from the publicly available media kit. <br/><br/>But apparently no one at G. I. Jobs had a background in military intelligence, they redacted the prices by pasting opaque images over them which I was able to edit out with a PDF editor. <a href='http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/59698619?access_key=key-10qf2s0ic98c07avcuvd' target='_blank'>The uncensored kit is here</a> and here are the price lists from that uncensored kit.<br/><div align='center'><table style='width:auto;'><tbody><tr><td><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/h5HmugNVQe_l-cBrp9rZ2zQPn6yA25aPvlWSepJdt9I?feat=embedwebsite'><img width='640' height='230' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtIbbLO6XBQHcy2BpNPNNmspzPd1x8C0OiCiCx893m0DnY7hFLNAFu9DZmtNXNyfLPBusUygrNIknbkSvbhO-8ZaymhWP3Y1cULNqV7IOh6BfC2oP1SlzbRl_nEBzWhBcHZdFGgi5Nm0/s640/Screenshot%252520-%2525207_5_2011%252520%25252C%2525208_48_54%252520PM.png'/></a></td></tr><tr><td style='font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right'>From <a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/veblen.thorstein/DropBox?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCEvqT61sPGywE&feat=embedwebsite'>Drop Box</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br/><div align='center'><table style='width:auto;'><tbody><tr><td><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1lI31ZvIc8kjO6igwrUeoTQPn6yA25aPvlWSepJdt9I?feat=embedwebsite'><img width='640' height='424' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLlck0t7Zeu8jvnS2yxVaTkELp129ixEEtnU1zudFhveYJlG8tOfTnIb6MfV8n6phEUVsG0V1hZHq18Mn4rdFtKUd9VmZOCK28-8BxNHCHFWufysygO4Fgs2fCg1BbhPUGaaI4EUF9yqc/s640/Screenshot%252520-%2525207_1_2011%252520%25252C%2525209_35_23%252520PM.png'/></a></td></tr><tr><td style='font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right'>From <a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/veblen.thorstein/DropBox?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCEvqT61sPGywE&feat=embedwebsite'>Drop Box</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br/><br/>So has the Penn State World Campus spent any money on advertizing with the nice folks at G.I. Jobs? <a target='_blank' href='http://www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/search/profile.aspx?ID=452336&searchtext=Penn%20State'>You betcha </a><br/><br/><div align='center'><table style='width:auto;'><tbody><tr><td><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NaMyDx17nUYOrrdO6ZiFljQPn6yA25aPvlWSepJdt9I?feat=embedwebsite'><img width='640' height='317' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSo1yXi97aaL30hFtyNvSg2iPH36xL_1SgK-FVKertUTcPFKdak1P9_SKPOC3OIqw-Whqp8LZRtNsEb-PXZZ79obc5_hDaphsTn6S9tHeH0VSIWkIF_AuNZ-VuPFShCMkWvioQlFJNGE/s640/Screenshot%252520-%2525207_10_2011%252520%25252C%2525208_04_44%252520PM.png'/></a></td></tr><tr><td style='font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right'>From <a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/veblen.thorstein/DropBox?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCEvqT61sPGywE&feat=embedwebsite'>Drop Box</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br/></div>Note the "add to my school list" button. Schools that don't advertize don't get one of those which make it harder for vets to compare the schools that don't pay to those that do.<br/><br/>How much has Penn State spent on these ads? Once more I turn to the <a href='http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/the_snyder_report/12959' target='_blank'>Snyder Reports</a> which, unfortunately, do not give a definitive answer to the question. Penn State has been on the list three years running 2009-2010, 2010--2011 and this year, 2011-2012. This years payments will show up in a future Snyder Report, either the 2011-2012 report or the 2012-2013 depending on if the check for his went out before or after July 1<sup>rst</sup> this summer. <br/><br/>What about past years? According to the reports, <a href='http://www.victorymediainc.com/' target='_blank'>Victory Media</a>, the publisher of G.I. Jobs, was paid $24,235 in fiscal year 2007-2008 (p. 471). If the military friendly list came out during the summer of 2009-2010, then this payment predated the World Campus' first appearance on the list. If this is the case, one must wonder how Penn State's prior advertizing with G.I. Jobs influenced its first appearance on the list. And the payment of $17,226 in fiscal year 2008-2009 (p. 551) could be for either of the first two years on the list. <br/><br/>No matter how you slice this, Penn State World Campus is certainly a Victory Media Friendly School. <br/><br/><br /><br /><p class='scribefire-powered'>Powered by <a href='http://www.scribefire.com/'>ScribeFire</a>.</p></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-91209053307388318472011-06-29T11:00:00.000-04:002011-06-29T11:02:25.469-04:00Graham's in Terrible Shape....Just Pass the Damn Thing for God's Sake!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>On Monday, Democrats in Harrisburg<a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2011/06/democrats-in-harrisburg-are-trying-to.html' target='_blank'> held up funding</a> for the four state-related universities and <a href='http://www.govt.psu.edu/' target='_blank'><i>The Old Main Government Bribery and Cajoling Unit</i></a> sprung into action as doctors rushed to the Schreyer House to attend to Graham's skyrocketing blood pressure. A letter was sent to state lawmakers with the urgent message, "Graham's in terrible shape....just pass the damn thing for God's sake!" Ok,not quite, <a href='http://www.pahousegop.com/univletters.aspx' target='_blank'>here is what they wrote</a>, (<a href='http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/inquirer-lawmakers-advance-19-percent-funding-cut-for-penn-state-university-seeks-timely-action-794651/' target='_blank'>via</a>)<br/><blockquote>This has been a most difficult budget season, and it is safe to say that no one is entirely satisfied with the budget bills you will be asked to vote on over the next several days. It is important, nonetheless, to complete your work this week by making sure that the non-preferred bills are passed in a timely fashion — that is, before the end of the fiscal year. </blockquote>It did the trick, the <a href='http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20110629_Pennsylvania_Senate_puts_Gov__Corbett_s_state_budget_on_track_to_passage.html' target='_blank'>Dems folded</a>. Local Democratic representative Scott Conklin said through his spokesman that he didn't want the guilt of being responsible in someway for Graham's stroke..... <a href='http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/inquirer-lawmakers-advance-19-percent-funding-cut-for-penn-state-university-seeks-timely-action-794651/' target='_blank'>if you read between the lines, that is</a>.<br/><blockquote>State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, had said that he would not <br />support any state budget unless it included level funding for Penn <br />State. But the letter from DiEugenio and DiRaimo "has certainly affected<br /> his thinking," Conklin's chief of staff, Tor Michaels, said earlier <br />Tuesday.<br/> <br/> Michaels said Conklin would give the correspondence some weight. <br/></blockquote><br/>And everyone lived happily ever after....well, at least until the tuition bills go out.<br/><br/><br/><br /><br /><p class='scribefire-powered'>Powered by <a href='http://www.scribefire.com/'>ScribeFire</a>.</p></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-522667697315595182011-06-27T18:20:00.001-04:002011-06-27T22:22:04.966-04:00Democrats in Harrisburg are trying to Slowly Kill....<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">....Graham. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.postgazette.com/pg/11178/1156606-100-0.stm#ixzz1QW8jgxcc" target="_blank">The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a> is reporting today that<br />
<blockquote>State funding for the University of Pittsburgh and three other <br />
universities could be in jeopardy as Democratic lawmakers flex what <br />
little muscle they have in a Capitol controlled by Republicans.<br />
Democrats are rebelling against a GOP cuts to the state-related <br />
universities, the only spending bills that require a two-thirds vote of <br />
each chamber.<br />
<br />
"There isn't any doubt that this is the one place where Democrats can<br />
wield some power. It's the one place where they do have leverage," said<br />
G. Terry Madonna, political scientist at Frankin & Marshall College<br />
in Allentown. "This could get very dicey."<br />
<br />
Democrats are threatening to use their votes to get Republicans to <br />
allocate some of an estimated $650 million surplus to state-related <br />
universities as well as other education and health programs.<br />
<br />
But if Democrats block passage, Pitt, Temple University, Lincoln <br />
University and the University of Pennsylvania could wind up with <br />
nothing.</blockquote><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">I'm guessing that about now Graham is wishing that he followed his dream and joined that circus right out of high school.<br />
<br />
[<b>Update 6/27/2011 10:18 pm: </b><a href="http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2011/06/lights-out-budget-update-state-related-funding-bills-shot-down.html">The Dems blocked passage of funding for the state-related universities this evening. </a>No word on Graham's mental and physical states.]</div><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="scribefire-powered">Powered by <a href="http://www.scribefire.com/">ScribeFire</a>.</div></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-62780380696991595052011-06-17T18:41:00.003-04:002011-06-17T21:05:03.396-04:00The Best Ranking Money Can BuyIn early April, the lead story in the <i>Penn State Faculty and Staff Newswire</i>, a product of <i>The Old Main Propaganda Shop</i>, was about <a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/52457" target="_blank">a top ranking awarded</a> to the Penn State <i>World Campus</i> by Best Colleges. <br />
<div align="center"><table style="width: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/veblen.thorstein/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCMCEvqT61sPGywE&feat=embedwebsite#5617078960411053602"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnKO8ALtWCZbFIYssxfBPWnspSIywNyI8A44THy29eo0sVKvtVwJ_VurzfnmWSd15NzetUruMcoJLd8E1HQYbuzC7dPlhEAMYmqJWD6zmxuYyUNcRtydx_XbiwLnEXsmZhyyaf_U-FQKg/s400/Screenshot%252520-%2525206_11_2011%252520%25252C%2525205_23_31%252520PM.png" /></a><br />
<br />
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>The same day the <a href="http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2011/04/07/World_Campus_rankings.aspx" target="_blank">Collegian</a> also ran a story about the <i>World Campus</i> and Best Colleges and the reporter got Graham to weigh-in on the ranking.<br />
<blockquote>Penn State President Graham Spanier wrote in an email that World Campus has been a great success and established itself as a premier online program since its launch.<br />
“We have already served tens of thousands of students with high-quality courses,” Spanier wrote. <b>“I’m pleased to see that it has been recognized for its achievements.”</b></blockquote>I had never heard of Best Colleges and neither had Don Heller, Director of the <a href="http://www.ed.psu.edu/educ/cshe">Center for the Study of Higher Education</a> at Penn State. While I was digging around to see what I could find out about Best Colleges, <a href="http://donheller.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-on-bogus-rankings-best-colleges.html" target="_blank">he was emailing Lisa Powers</a>, Director of <strike>Public Information</strike> Bullshit, at <i>The Old Main Propaganda Shop</i> with a warning:<br />
<blockquote>Last week, Penn State issued a press release touting its World Campus' selection as the "the No. 1 online institution for 2011." This designation was conferred by the website, TheBestColleges.org, which I had never heard of before - and I've seen lots of different rankings over the years. So I spent a little bit of time going through the website, and after about 30 minutes or so, I sent this message to Penn State's Director of Public Information:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>I read your press release, and not having heard of Best Colleges, took a look at the website. Unless you have some information establishing the validity and/or reputation of the website, I d be a little cautious about how much you want to promote the WC and other rankings from this site. While they say We do not accept paid placements for our school rankings, it appears to me that this is a site supported entirely by advertising fees from universities. When you do a search for any of the degrees they show there (not the rankings, but a degree search), no matter what the degree, you get a list of for the most part for-profit and online universities, and very few of what most of us would consider more traditional universities whose quality and rankings are more universally recognized.<br />
<br />
Here are the criteria they say they use to calculate the rankings for the 25 best online universities:<br />
<blockquote>We ve relied on the following criteria to generate our online colleges and universities rankings: student satisfaction (as measured by graduation and retention rates), peer and instructional quality (as measured by acceptance rate and student-teacher ratio), affordability (as measured by tuition costs and availability of financial aid), and credibility (as measured by years of accreditation, reputation and awards). </blockquote><br />
To be blunt, this is garbage. Graduation and retention rates are not measures of student satisfaction, any more than acceptance rates and student-teacher ratios are measures of peer and instructional quality.<br />
We can all agree there are problems with the U.S. News & World Report rankings, but they are at least considered reputable by most parties. <b> I would be cautious about trumpeting rankings from Best Colleges externally unless you know more about this organization (which I d be interested in hearing).</b><br />
<br />
Don Heller</blockquote></blockquote>One can imagine that Lisa responded to Don with <i>Old Main's</i> fallback position whenever they are faced with a ranking problem...."<a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/09/something-is-rank.html" target="_blank">Oh, pshaw...we don't take theses things seriously,</a>" and she might have even tossed in a we're so glad you brought the error of our ways to our attention. But apparently no one set Graham set straight or he refused to see the error of his ways, because at the last Board of Trustees meeting in May<a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/53383" target="_blank"> he bragged to the Trustees that</a><br />
<blockquote>Students also have embraced <b>Penn State s World Campus, which was named the No. 1 online institution in 2011 by the Best Colleges</b>.</blockquote>My research into Best Colleges confirms Don's suspicion that these rankings are paid for by the universities being ranked,or at least some of the universities being ranked. .<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
It turns out that <a href="http://www.thebestcolleges.org/" target="_blank">Best Colleges</a> is an arm of <a href="http://www.educationdynamics.com/" target="_blank">EducationDynamics</a>, a marketing firm which primarily works with for-profit education sector, but also has some non-profit clients, and which hides behind various domain names. Here's an example of their work under the name <a href="http://www.educationconnection.com/" target="_blank">EducationConnection.com</a><br />
<br />
<div class="youtube-video"><object height="390" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OISn3TXFxlI&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OISn3TXFxlI&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="390"> </embed> </object></div><br />
By the way, this particular ad caught the attention of <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/23/qt/are_pajama_clad_women_enticing_students_to_for_profit_higher_ed" target="_blank">Illinois Senator Dick Durbin</a> who said on the Senate floor that <br />
<blockquote>"The ad that just really troubles me shows a lovely young woman who says you can go to college in your pajamas.... You don't even have to get out of bed to go to college, and she's got a computer on her bed there." He added that "I don't believe anybody should fall for that, but some must, and they end up signing up for these for-profit schools, getting deep in debt with a worthless diploma when it's all over."</blockquote>Tracing EducationConnection.com to EducationDyanamics is straightforward because <a href="http://www.whois.net/whois/EducationConnection.com" target="_blank">the domain is registered to</a> EducationDynamics and the EducationConnection <a href="http://www.educationdynamics.com/Find-Students/Products-and-Services/Educational-Web-Portals/EducationConnection-com.aspx" target="_blank">is promoted</a> on the EducationDynamics website.<br />
<br />
But the trail from Best Colleges to EducationDyanmics was a bit harder to trace. <a href="http://www.whois.net/whois/thebestcolleges.org" target="_blank">The domain is registered</a> to a Ryan Caldwell in Sea Isle City, New Jersey who does business as <a href="http://www.sea-waves.net/" target="_blank">SeaWaves Technology LLC.</a> SeaWaves looks like a firm that will do anything web related for a buck. For example, it offers Wi-Fi to B&B's in this Jersey shore town, web design, web hosting and variety of other services . Amongst the websites maintained by SeaWaves, is <a href="http://gradschooljournal.com/" target="_blank">Grad School Journal</a>, <a href="http://www.businessschooljournal.com/" target="_blank">Business School Journal</a>,<a href="http://www.healthcareersjournal.com/" target="_blank">Health Careers Journal</a>,<a href="http://www.superscholar.org/" target="_blank">Super Scholar</a>,<a href="http://www.collegehappenings.com/" target="_blank">College Happenings</a> and <a href="http://topcollegesonline.org/" target="_blank">Top Colleges Online</a>. It's a good bet that Ryan doesn't generate much of the editorial content for these sites. So who does?<br />
<br />
All of these sites, as well as The Best Colleges site,can be traced back to EducationDynamics. For example if you use the "Degree Wizard" on the Best Colleges site it takes you to the a subdomain of elearners.com , thebestcolleges.elearners.com/online-degrees, and <a href="http://www.educationdynamics.com/Find-Students/Products-and-Services/Educational-Web-Portals/eLearners-com.aspx" target="_blank">elearners.com</a> is part of EducationDynamics. In fact, if you poke around on any of SeaWave Technology's education sites you will eventually find yourself at a subdomain of elearners.com.<br />
<br />
How does SeaWaves make money on these sites? According <a href="http://www.sea-waves.net/blog/seawaves-to-develop-education-site/" target="_blank">to the blog at SeaWaves</a> it is lead generation.<br />
<blockquote>SeaWaves is currently exploring the higher education niche with a new website called http://topcollegesonline.org/ Top Colleges Online\ The goal of the website is to provide visitors with information about online education and well as to assist them in choosing a college to attend<br />
<br />
The online education niche will offer us an opportunity to diversify our business away from volume based cpm [<a href="http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/cpm/" target="_blank">cost per thousand impressions</a>] advertising and to focus on lead generation opportunities in the profitable higher education industry. Our goal is to quickly build one of the highest quality resources for prospective students on the Internet<br />
<br />
We are looking forward to this new challenge. </blockquote><a href="http://marketing.about.com/cs/targetmarketing/a/leadgeneration.htm" target="_blank">Here is how lead generation works.</a><br />
<blockquote>There are agencies that specialize in providing qualified leads to businesses. The process of lead generation is actually very easy. An agency develops a website or partnerships with several websites in which they promote and advertise your product or service. A consumer finds these directories or informational sites and <b>they are able to complete an online quote request form.</b>This form is submitted to the agency. The buyers information is verified and matched to the appropriate providers. These matched leads are then sent via email to the prospective providers with full contact information and purchasing requirements. </blockquote><a href="http://leadwatchlive.com/features" target="_blank">LeadWatchLive</a> is <a href="http://www.educationdynamics.com/Find-Students/Products-and-Services/LeadWatch-Live.aspx" target="_blank">EducationDyanamics</a> lead generation software designed specifically for the education sector. <br />
<br />
It should be of no surprise that <a href="http://www.thebestcolleges.org/top-online-schools/" target="_blank">Best College Top 25 Online rankings</a> is part of EducationDynamics lead generation operation. For each of the 25 schools , there is a link for more information (For example, <a href="http://www.thebestcolleges.org/schools/online/boston-university-online/" target="_blank">here's the page </a>the more information link for Boston University lands on.) and for all but six schools the more information page has a request more information button which takes you to request form ( Here's the <a href="http://thebestcolleges.elearners.com/bu.html?cm_mmc=clsu-_-clsu_directory-_-cstbescol1_app-_-clsu_naaid=schoolprofiletsource=cstbescol1%20" target="_blank">BU request form</a>).Those request forms are hosted on a subdomain the EducationDynamics domain elearners.com. For these 19 schools, there is little doubt that they are paying for the leads generated by the rankings.<br />
<br />
Of the six schools without a request form, two,<a href="http://www.thebestcolleges.org/schools/online/penn-state-university-world-campus/" target="_blank"> Penn State </a>and <a href="http://www.thebestcolleges.org/schools/online/north-carolina-state-distance-education/" target="_blank">North Carolina State</a>, have links to the school's own websites and the other four have no links at all. It's not clear if these schools paying anything to EducationDynamics.<br />
<br />
But why would Best Colleges drain away leads and income from the paying schools by placing a link to Penn State and NC State's website for free? This isn't a charitable operation, after all. For example, consider <a href="http://www.elearners.com/campus/214777.htm" target="_blank">the Penn State main campus page</a> at elearners.com. Penn State isn't getting something for nothing there. The page has generic information on Penn State and a linked list of areas in which Penn State has specialized accreditation, but all of those links take you to lists of schools that have clearly paid for their listing. The page has no links to the Penn State website. <br />
<br />
It's reasonable to wonder what EducationDynamics received in return for the linking to the <i>World Campus</i> in their ranking of Penn State. Did Penn State pay Best Colleges for the ranking?<br />
<br />
It's possible, since Penn State has used EducationDynamics services in the past. According to the fiscal year 2009-2010 <a href="http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/the_snyder_report/12959" target="_blank">Penn State Snyder Report</a> (p. 197, Vol. III, Part A) , Penn State Outreach, the unit in which the World Campus is housed, paid EducationDynamics a total of $55, 940. The same year International Affairs paid $2,500 to EducationDynamics (p. 148, Vol. III, Part A).Outreach also paid $12,566 in fiscal year 2008-2009 (p.530, Vol. III, Part C) and $7,000 in fiscal year 2007-2008 (p. 445 Vol. III, Part B) to EducationDynamics, while International Affairs paid the company $1,200 in fiscal year 2008-2009 (p. 392, Vol. III, Part B). <br />
<br />
Because they've done business with EducationDynamics in the past, <i>Outreach</i> and the folks at the <i>World Campus</i> are certainly familiar with the work of this company, which means that even if they didn't pay for the ranking they no doubt knew that this ranking is bogus.<br />
<br />
To see exactly how bogus, consider this. If you don't like the Best College Top 25 Online School rankings for 2011, EducationDynamics has you covered with <a href="http://www.thebestdegrees.org/top-online-schools-ranked/" target="_blank">The Best Degrees Top 25 Online Schools in 2011</a> All of the schools -Penn State isn't ranked- but two in this list have have request forms and for the two that don't the links to for these schools take you to advertizements for other schools. <br />
<br />
Despite the fact that the folks in <i>Outreach</i> and the <i>World Campus</i> should have known the the Best Colleges ranking was a fraud, it was <i>World Campus</i> that broke the news of the ranking on their homepage on April 1<sup>rst</sup> of this year. (The link is no longer up at World Campus,but I <a href="http://sqrl.it/?juymq" target="_blank">archived the page.</a> ) And <i>Outreach</i> went all in on the bullshit in the <a href="http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2011/04/07/World_Campus_rankings.aspx" target="_blank">Collegian</a> article.<br />
<blockquote>Director of Outreach News and Communications Dave Aneckstein said World Campus is excited and appreciative to be regarded as the No. 1 online program in the country.<br />
Aneckstein attributed the success to the growing number of course and program offerings as well as the accessibility of appealing to learners across the world who may not be able to attend a formal university setting but are still looking for the same education.<br />
“We’re very pleased to be considered the top online program and also to have a number of individual programs ranked so high,” Aneckstein said. “We do a lot of work for online students and we’re really appreciative.”<br />
As far as the ranking drawing in a larger number of students, Aneckstein said he wasn’t sure — but the No. 1 title definitely shines a positive light on Penn State and its growing online presence.</blockquote>In the end however, the real story is that <i>Old Main</i> was warned that this ranking was likely bogus and Graham pimped it to the BOT, nonetheless. Of course, if you have been reading this blog for anytime, you are aren't shocked, after all, this is way of the <a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/search?q=weasel" target="_blank">Nittany Weasel.</a> Even though <i>Old Main's</i> failure to heed Don's warning is of no surprise, further investigation is certainly warranted into this scam and Graham's role in it.veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-77899098263085764632011-05-31T22:03:00.001-04:002011-05-31T22:41:28.454-04:00Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2011I'm back. <br />
<br />
It's that time of year when Penn State releases its annual <a href="http://www.controller.psu.edu/Divisions/ControllersOffice/reports.html">Right-To-Know Report</a>. True to <a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/24583">Graham's commitment to transparency</a> the report was released at the end of business on the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend in a image PDF which can't be searched. As has become a tradition here at Left of Centre, I've transformed the report to a searchable PDF and uploaded it to Scribd (<a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/05/penn-state-right-to-know-report-2010.html">2010</a>, <a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2009/06/penn-state-right-to-know-report-2009.html">2009</a>). Behold: <br />
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/56765985/Penn-State-Right-To-Know-Report-2011" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2011 on Scribd">Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2011</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.776649746192893" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_55157" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/56765985/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-24h7igx8kzadfy1q52fm" width="100%"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
</script><br />
<br />
Here's the compensation data for Trustees, Officers and Key Employees.<br />
<br />
<br />
<center><iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Akt_Xcl42NhydEEtdDM3cmNhc2tuME5DdF9GRnRBQXc&single=true&gid=0&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe></center><br />
Here are the salaries of the officers<br />
<br />
<br />
<center><iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Akt_Xcl42NhydEEtdDM3cmNhc2tuME5DdF9GRnRBQXc&single=true&gid=2&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe></center><br />
Here are the top 25 salaries,<br />
<br />
<br />
<center><iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Akt_Xcl42NhydEEtdDM3cmNhc2tuME5DdF9GRnRBQXc&single=true&gid=1&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe></center><br />
<br />
New this year is this tidbit:2158 individuals had reportable compensation of $100,000 or more.<br />
<br />
Look for more postings soon here at Left of Centre. I have a post in the works on Graham cheating on the University's reporting requirements to the Commonwealth and another one on a suspicious ranking which came out about a month ago.veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-31504698311667469742010-10-13T22:20:00.001-04:002010-10-13T22:30:47.492-04:00More Dreck From Beck<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><br />
<center><div class="youtube-video"><object height="505" width="640"><param value='http://www.youtube.com/v/dbjjTLVrkKA?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6' name='movie'></param><param value='true' name='allowFullScreen'></param><param value='always' name='allowscriptaccess'></param><embed width='640' height='505' allowfullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://www.youtube.com/v/dbjjTLVrkKA?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6'> </embed> </object></div></center><br />
Glenn Beck responded, on his radio program, to the <a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/10/brilliant.html" target="_blank">Donald Duck remix posted</a> below by raising the question of<a href="http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/glenn-beck-donald-duck-is-a-government-agent-video.php" target="_blank">....well....</a><br />
<blockquote>"If I'm not mistaken," Beck said, "some of these remix videos, it's very interesting, I believe, get federal funding."</blockquote>That's almost as funny as the video. Anyway, the above video is a response to Beck's innuendo.</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-13475112099263262612010-10-08T22:14:00.001-04:002010-10-08T22:14:18.272-04:00This Should Scare the Shit Out of You....And Motivate You....<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><center><div class='youtube-video'><object width='640' height='505'><param value='http://www.youtube.com/v/3DRkUU-qhjk?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6' name='movie'> </param><param value='true' name='allowFullScreen'> </param><param value='always' name='allowscriptaccess'> </param><embed width='640' height='505' allowfullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://www.youtube.com/v/3DRkUU-qhjk?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6'> </embed> </object></div></center><br/><br/><a target='_blank' href='http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_10/026040.php'>Steve Benen</a>, one of my favorite bloggers and who you should definitely be reading, conceived of this and his friend <a target='_blank' href='http://billsimmon.com/'>Bill Simmon</a> put it together.</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-4881104561573424902010-10-03T10:23:00.001-04:002010-10-03T10:23:57.734-04:00Brilliant<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><center><div class='youtube-video'><object width='640' height='505'><param value='http://www.youtube.com/v/HfuwNU0jsk0?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6' name='movie'> </param><param value='true' name='allowFullScreen'> </param><param value='always' name='allowscriptaccess'> </param><embed width='640' height='505' allowfullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://www.youtube.com/v/HfuwNU0jsk0?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6'> </embed> </object></div></center><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><a target='_blank' href='http://crookedtimber.org/2010/10/03/donald-duck-meets-glenn-beck/'>Via Henry at Crooked Timber.</a></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-36985093195602473042010-09-23T09:51:00.001-04:002010-09-23T09:51:19.639-04:00FYI<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a href='http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/09/cnn_poll_affirms_leads_by_penn.html' target='_blank'>From the Patriot-News:</a><br/><blockquote>....Democrats will send <a href='http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=5396852'>Vice President Joe Biden to State College</a> on Tuesday to rally young voters at Penn State event. <br/></blockquote><br/><br/></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-21600878501892898392010-09-20T12:04:00.001-04:002010-09-20T12:04:11.803-04:00Housekeeping Note<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Sorry about the sporadic postings, but my day job is keeping me rather busy at the moment. Once I hit my stride at work, I should return to a more regular schedule here. <br/></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-86026701618650652202010-09-17T23:27:00.001-04:002010-09-17T23:27:56.773-04:00In Case You Were Distracted by All of the Hockey Porn Today...<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>....I would like to draw your attention to <a href='http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/penn-state-seeks-funding-boost-tuition-increases-of-49-percent-possible-526868/' target='_blank'>this tidbit</a> from this morining's Board of Trustees meeting.<br/><blockquote>In a worst-case scenario [next year], if the federal-stimulus funds disappear and the resulting hole goes completely unfilled, <b>Penn State could face "the most significant budget cuts in our history," Spanier said.</b><br/></blockquote>Graham didn't see fit to mention this little fact <a href='http://president.psu.edu/sou/articles/sou2010.html' target='_blank'>in his latest propaganda film</a>. You would think that a film ostensibly about the state of the university would work that in somehow. But no, it was all ponies, rainbows and empty pride. By the way, I wonder if Graham bribed<a href='http://www.michaelberube.com/' target='_blank'> Micheal Bérubé</a> with the promise of<a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/09/obscene.html' target='_blank'> unlimited ice-time</a> to get him to debase himself in that film.</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-7065611777549444532010-09-17T21:47:00.001-04:002010-09-17T21:47:44.429-04:00Obscene<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>That is the only word I can think of for the <a href='http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10260/1088268-100.stm?cmpid=education.xml' target='_blank'>$88 million tax deductible gift Penn State received</a> to build a hockey arena and to support the University's entry into men's and women's Division I ice hockey. I'm aghast.... Think of all of the better uses to which this money could have been put....Don Heller did just that...<a href='http://donheller.blogspot.com/2010/09/newsflash-penn-state-receives-88.html' target='_blank'>go read what he has to say</a>.<br/></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-49190277677203729162010-09-15T22:29:00.002-04:002010-09-15T22:33:55.073-04:00Only the 109th University in the World, But the Third Party School in the Country<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html" target="_blank">The Times Higher Education World University Rankings</a> were published today. Here is how the the Big Ten schools finished overall.<br />
<ul><li>15. University of Michigan</li>
<li>25 Northwestern University</li>
<li>33 University of Illinois Urban-Campaign</li>
<li>43 University of Wisconsin<br />
</li>
<li>52 University of Minnesota</li>
<li>66 Ohio State University <br />
</li>
<li>106 Purdue</li>
<li>109 Penn State</li>
<li>122 Michigan State</li>
<li>132 University of Iowa<br />
</li>
<li>156 Indiana U</li>
</ul>The Big Ten's newest addition, the University of Nebraska, didn't make the top 200 schools. <br />
<br />
I will have more to say about this on Friday and I'll also weigh in on the recent <a href="http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/corporate-recruiters-rank-penn-state-no-1-522840/" target="_blank">WSJ corporate recruiter rankings of universities</a>. <br />
<br />
And latter this month the long awaited <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/09/nrc_graduate_program_rankings.php#more" target="_blank"> NRC graduate program rankings</a> are scheduled to be released. How will Penn State do? <i>Old Main</i> already knows since the data was released to univerisities earlier this week. My guess is that <i>The Old Main Propaganda Shop</i> is working overtime getting ready to brag and spin as needed once the public gets a look.</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-2440262910348013912010-09-12T22:38:00.003-04:002010-09-12T23:57:46.976-04:00Das Bloat: Administrative Size and Cost at Penn State<img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_0" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">As I mentioned in <a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/09/housekeeping-note.html" target="_blank">the previous post</a>, one of my regular commenters sent me a link to <a href="http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/4941" target="_blank">a study by the Goldwater Institute on administrative bloat at American universities</a>. I've been playing around with the data from the report to see how Penn State fits into the overall pattern of spending on administrators. <br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/file/4943/download/4945" target="_blank">data</a> used by the Goldwater Institute comes from <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/" target="_blank">Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System</a> (IPEDS), which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The report compares administration size in 1993, the earliest year for which IPEDS data available, to size in 2007, the most recent available data at the time the report was issued. The Institute uses two measures of administrative size, the number of administrators per hundred students and administrative cost per student. According to the Institute,<br />
<blockquote>In the employment tables in this report, the “Administration” column consists of the IPEDS categories of “Administration/Executive” and “Other Professionals.”Other Professionals clearly fall within an administrative category because they are defi ned by IPEDS as “persons employed for the primary purpose of performing academic support, student service, and institutional support…. Included in this category are all employees holding titles such as business operations specialists;buyers and purchasing agents; human resources, training, and labor relations specialists; management analysts; meeting and convention planners; miscellaneous business operations specialists; financial specialists; accountants and auditors; budget analysts; financial analysts and advisers; financial examiners; loan counselors and officers; [etc.].” Under any reasonable defi nition, these employees are engaged in administrative functions but clearly not directly engaged in teaching, research or service.<br />
<br />
[...]<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the spending categories in IPEDS are not identical to the employment categories, but we have done our best to map them into similar groupings. For the expenditure tables in this report, the “Administration” spending consists of the “Academic Support,” “Institutional Support,” and “Student Services” categories in IPEDS.</blockquote><br />
The Institute examined both private and public universities. I've restricted my analysis to public universities and I've dropped those schools for which data was missing for one or the other year.<br />
<br />
So whats the story with regard to Penn State? <br />
<br />
First let's look at the number of administrators per one hundred students in 1993 compared to that metric in 2007 as shown in the first graph.<br />
<br />
In all of the graphs of distributions shown below, the green bands show the first quartile, median and third quartiles. You can mouse over the graphs to get information about other universities.<br />
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<script src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><object class="tableauViz" height="502" style="display: none;" width="654"><param name="name" value="DasBloat4/Sheet1" /><param name="toolbar" value="yes" /></object><noscript>Sheet 1 &amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img alt="Sheet 1 " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/DasBloat4-Sheet1_rss.png" height="100%" /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</noscript><br />
<div style="color: black; font: 8pt verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; height: 22px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 654px;"><div style="float: right; padding-right: 8px;"><a href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/public?ref=http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/DasBloat4/Sheet1" target="_blank">Powered by Tableau</a></div></div><br />
<br />
In 1993, Penn State had 6.20 administrators per one hundred students which was below the 75<sup>th</sup> %-tile of 6.40 administrators per one hundred students for that year. By 2007, that number had jumped to 10.70 administrators per hundred students which was substantial above the 75<sup>th</sup> %-tile which had risen to 8.50 administrators per one hundred students. A better picture of how the number of administrators has changed overall in academia and where Penn State fits in in the shift can be seen in this scatterplot.<br />
<script src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><object class="tableauViz" height="512" style="display: none;" width="654"><param name="name" value="DasBloat4/Sheet2" /><param name="toolbar" value="yes" /></object><noscript>Sheet 2 &amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img alt="Sheet 2 " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/DasBloat4-Sheet2_rss.png" height="100%" /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</noscript><br />
<div style="color: black; font: 8pt verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; height: 22px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 654px;"><div style="float: right; padding-right: 8px;"><a href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/public?ref=http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/DasBloat4/Sheet2" target="_blank">Powered by Tableau</a></div></div><br />
Clearly, while Penn State has porked up on the number of administrators, it is not close to the worst offender.<br />
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Next the distribution of cost of administration per student is compared for the two time periods . The seventy-fifth percentile of administrative spending per student went from 4,661 in 1993 to 6,247 in 2007. Penn State's administrative spending per student was already well outside the middle of the 1993 distribution at 5,002. By 2007, that number had ballooned to 12, 556. <br />
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<script src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><object class="tableauViz" height="512" style="display: none;" width="654"><param name="name" value="DasBloat4/Sheet3" /><param name="toolbar" value="yes" /></object><noscript>Sheet 3 &amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img alt="Sheet 3 " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/DasBloat4-Sheet3_rss.png" height="100%" /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</noscript><br />
<div style="color: black; font: 8pt verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; height: 22px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 654px;"><div style="float: right; padding-right: 8px;"><a href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/public?ref=http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/DasBloat4/Sheet3" target="_blank">Powered by Tableau</a></div></div>The extent to which Penn State went from being a big spender on administration in 1993 to being ostentatious in 2007 can best be seen in the following scatterplot.<br />
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<script src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><object class="tableauViz" height="512" style="display: none;" width="654"><param name="name" value="DasBloat4/Sheet4" /><param name="toolbar" value="yes" /></object><noscript>Sheet 4 &amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img alt="Sheet 4 " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/DasBloat4-Sheet4_rss.png" height="100%" /&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</noscript><br />
<div style="color: black; font: 8pt verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; height: 22px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 654px;"><div style="float: right; padding-right: 8px;"><a href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/public?ref=http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/DasBloat4/Sheet4" target="_blank">Powered by Tableau</a></div></div>To recap, the size of Penn State's administration as measured by the number of administrators per 100 students grew substantially between 1993 and 2007 shifting from the upper end of the middle of the distribution to the upper end of the distribution, but the cost of administration per student, which was already in the upper end of the distribution in 1993, blew up by 2007.</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-65492303856524591602010-09-11T12:02:00.001-04:002010-09-11T12:02:35.275-04:00Housekeeping Note<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>...sorry about neglecting the blog. It's been a busy week for me, but I hope to have a few new posts up before Monday. In particular, one of my regulars sent a link to some data on administrative bloat at universities. I've started the process of analyzing it, which requires that I transform tables in a PDF to Excel, I might have something to say about it depending on what the analysis reveals. Anyway, have a good weekend and check back for updates.<br/></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-33949841136055561482010-09-07T18:35:00.001-04:002010-09-07T18:35:12.869-04:00More of This, Please!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Joe Sestak: Toomey a "Bag Man for the Ultra Rich."<br/><center><div class='youtube-video'><object width='406' height='352' codebase='http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0' classid='clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000' id='flashObj'><param value='http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1' name='movie'> </param><param value='#FFFFFF' name='bgcolor'> </param><param value='videoId=602720630001&linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fdailynews%2Fmultimedia%2FBC602720630001.html&playerID=21394222001&playerKey=AQ%2E%2E,AAAABNaNQnk%2E,w9yktOTDkR2USwRJ7U1N5dkKqsypiT6V&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true' name='flashVars'> </param><param value='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='base'> </param><param value='false' name='seamlesstabbing'> </param><param value='true' name='allowFullScreen'> </param><param value='true' name='swLiveConnect'> </param><param value='always' name='allowScriptAccess'> </param><embed width='406' height='352' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash' allowscriptaccess='always' swliveconnect='true' allowfullscreen='true' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' seamlesstabbing='false' name='flashObj' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' flashvars='videoId=602720630001&linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fdailynews%2Fmultimedia%2FBC602720630001.html&playerID=21394222001&playerKey=AQ%2E%2E,AAAABNaNQnk%2E,w9yktOTDkR2USwRJ7U1N5dkKqsypiT6V&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true' bgcolor='#FFFFFF' src='http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1'> </embed> </object></div></center><br/>(via <a target='_blank' href='http://pghcomet.blogspot.com/2010/09/joe-sestak-on-phillyclout-toomey-bagman.html'>The Pittsburgh Comet</a>)</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-60344583702915206402010-09-07T10:54:00.003-04:002010-09-07T21:34:59.511-04:00Something is Rank<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I've been meaning to update you on the reaction from <i>The Old Main Propaganda Shop</i> on Penn State plummeting from 7<sup>th</sup> place last year to 35<sup>th</sup> place this year in the <a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/08/it-beginnig-to-look-like-penn-state.html" target="_blank">Washington Monthly National University Ranking</a>. <br />
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First, let's go back to 2007 when Penn State finished fifth in the ranking due to the erroneously high Pell Grant percentage used by the magazine for Penn State. <a href="http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/09/05/ranking_puts_psu_at_no_5.aspx" target="_blank">Here's the reaction</a>.<br />
<blockquote>"It's something that Penn Staters should be proud of," Penn State [Bullshit Artist] Geoff Rushton said. "It uses scientific criteria that measures how universities impact the nation, and Penn State has done very well. "</blockquote>Geoff had to know that the Pell Grant percentage was off by just shy of a factor of two , yet he was counseling pride on the part of Penn Staters. I'll cut him some slack since empty pride is the Penn State way and even empty pride can be used to <a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/25935" target="_blank">separate gullible alumni from their money</a>.<br />
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Now, let's compare this to the <a href="http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/08/26/penn_state_drops_in_public_goo.aspx" target="_blank">reaction this year.</a><br />
<blockquote>"I have to say that rankings as a whole are something that we don't take too seriously," [Penn State Bullshit Artist Annemarie] Mountz said. "We don't look for ways to rise in the rankings." </blockquote>Not too seriously, Annemarie? Why does Penn State maintain a Web site <a href="http://www.psu.edu/ur/rankings/" target="_blank">Where We Stand:Current Rankings</a>? The site,which was updated last month, still has the 2009 <i>Washington Monthly</i> ranking and not the 2010 ranking. Why is that? You and Graham have to know that the 2009 ranking, like all of that magazine rankings before this year, is based on a too high Pell Grant percentage for Penn State. It's a lie to leave it up.<br />
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By the way, a couple of years ago I pointed out that Penn State slams the <i>Princeton Review </i>rankings as not being scientific whenever its party school ranking draws unwelcome attention to the University (Rushton's quote above is a not too subtle dig at <i>Princeton Review</i>), yet Penn State listed other <i>Princeton Review</i> rankings on the site which made the University look good. Shortly thereafter, <i>The Old Main Propaganda Shop</i> <a href="http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2008/07/well-that-was-quick.html" target="_blank">scrubbed</a> the <i>Princeton Review</i> rankings from the site. Guess what? <i>Princeton Review</i> is listed again this year. I guess they figured no one was paying attention anymore....don't even begin to think about erasing anything this time, Annemarie,<a href="https://www.iterasi.net/Archives/Viewer.aspx?RootAssetID=10113282" target="_blank"> I've notarized the site. </a><br />
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The fascinating claim by Annemarie is, "We don't look for ways to rise in the rankings." No, of course not, Annemarie.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.cumberlink.com/news/article_fc84c540-75aa-5d65-884a-084c23a56980.html" target="_blank">Dickinson School of Law </a>(DSL) is being offered a $60-plus million new home on the Penn State campus in State College if the university's board of governors agrees to forsake Carlisle.<br />
Board approval is the only thing that stands in the way of the proposed relocation by fall 2008.<br />
An agreement made when the law school and the state-affiliated university were merged in 1997 says the 169-year-old school will remain in the Carlisle in perpetuity unless the governors vote to go to another site.<br />
In a 28-page memo marked "Confidential For DSL Board Members Only" in preparation for a Nov. 21-22 board meeting, law school Dean Phil McConnaughay tells the board that the university "is prepared to assume the entire cost of a new facility without any repayment" if the law school "completes the design of a new facility within the next 12 months."<br />
<b>The crux of the dean's argument favoring an exodus from the borough is strongly rooted in U.S. News and World Report magazine's third-tier ranking of the school </b>and "a languishing reputation" that caused "DSL grads" in one firm to inform McConnaughay about "their law firm's decision not to hire any longer from our law school because of our low rank."</blockquote>Penn State was willing to spend $60 million to boost DSL's <i>US News and World Report</i> ranking and ultimately it spent an unknown amount in a legal fees and a pr campaign to abrogate the original merger agreement and to win the right to build a second campus at University Park at the cost of having to renovate the Carlisle facility. That construction <a href="http://www.cumberlink.com/news/article_ae35f1f0-453b-58ea-a0a2-8b999471227a.html" target="_blank">cost $100 million</a>. <br />
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What's a little fiddling with the way it reports its Pell Grant percentage to boost its <i>Washington Monthly</i> ranking in comparison to that?</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-70177610091565044302010-09-06T07:00:00.001-04:002010-09-06T07:00:04.849-04:00Happy Labor Day<img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_2" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_0" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_1" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_2" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_3" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_0" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_1" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_2" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_3" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_0" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_0" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_0" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><img align="absmiddle" class="ife_marker" id="null_ife_marker_1" src="chrome://informenter/skin/marker.png" style="border: 0pt none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 19px; width: 14px;" title="Max field length is unknown" /><br />
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">As a Labor Day treat, I give you a real rabble rousing speech from someone who stands firmly against excessive corporate profits and tax cuts for the wealthy and for wage growth, Social Security, unions, fair employment practices and federal school lunches.<br />
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Happy Labor Day<br />
(via<a href="http://thedonkeyedge.com/2010/09/03/the-original-reagan-democrat/"> Donkey Edge</a> and h/t<a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/quick-hits.html"> Digby</a>) </div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-51365309956682626652010-09-04T10:59:00.002-04:002010-09-04T11:04:28.998-04:00I'm Voting for Sestak....<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">...anyway...no surprise there, I'm sure. But here is one more reason to do so, via <a href="http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/sestak-advocates-stronger-transparency-for-penn-state-other-schools-514904/" target="_blank">Adam at StateCollege.com</a>.<br />
<blockquote>Joe Sestak believes Penn State and the other state-related universities in Pennsylvania ought to be more transparent about their spending, the U.S. senatorial nominee said Thursday.<br />
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"Everybody should be transparent," Sestak, a Democrat, said during a campaign stop at the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair. "That would discipline a lot of things. ... I think it incentivizes better behavior because it's open."<br />
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But "my take on it is, we just need to know more," Sestak said. He said public calls for government accountability -- in general -- are among the most repeated refrains he hears on the campaign trail.<br />
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If elected, Sestak said, he will work on the university-transparency issue. He said it fits into his larger emphasis on encouraging federal-government accountability. That drive for transparency, he said, asks the question: "If you are taking federal money, how transparent are you?"</blockquote>Of course, the details matter and I look forward to hearing exactly what Joe has in mind.<br />
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</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-86799707288036251082010-09-03T22:47:00.001-04:002010-09-03T22:47:17.784-04:00Letting a Commenter Do My Work For Me<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>There's a slow motion back and forth going on between my regular commenter <a href='http://disqus.com/MoonDragon/' target='_blank'>MoonDragon</a> and teabagger extraordinaire <a href='http://disqus.com/psumba/' target='_blank'>psumba</a> on the comment thread of this<a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-one-for-you-psumba.html' target='_blank'> post</a>. I highly recommend giving it a read. MoonDragon has far more patience than I do when it comes to arguing with our paranoid defender of all things Palin and he/she is doing a very good job of of it.<a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-one-for-you-psumba.html#comment-74034238' target='_blank'> Here's a taste</a>,<br/><blockquote>Everyone getting the same shot you had is problematic, considering disparaties of the original circumstances from which people start (I, myself, was very lucky - caring parents, choosing a major that didn't become obsolete before graduation, remaining relatively healthy.) Government can help remediate some circumstances, particularly of institutional, disadvantage. Support of such policies is one of the family values I inherited from caring parents.<br/><br/>I hope your students learned about unions in their studies, that may be the only way to a better life than that of their parents. The decline of the middleclass parallels the decline of union membership.<br/><br/>The biggest boosts to the "ruling elite" over the last few years have been in the tax code that has fed the growing gap between the top 2% and the bottom 98%, especially the recinding of the "death tax" is particularly amusing, as it is creating a defacto aristocracy. Just watch an episode of BRAVO's NYC Prep.<br/><br/>It's the railing against unions and taxes on the top 2% by the Tea Party, two things that will help people get back in the game, amuses me.<br/></blockquote><br/>Why do I call psumba paranoid, you may ask? Well, consider these remarks. This is from his first response to my post about him from over a month ago.<br/><blockquote><a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-one-for-you-psumba.html#comment-64277222' target='_blank'>You must really have some "juice" to have the CDT</a> take down the Palin article & comments that the above remarks were posted against ... <br/></blockquote>This one is from three days ago.<br/><blockquote>What was represented as my original posting was really my fifth posting in a long thread. <a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-one-for-you-psumba.html#comment-64722250' target='_blank'>Hence my compliment to Veblen about getting the original article taken down ... destroying the context of the original remarks.</a><br/></blockquote><br/>Of course, I had nothing to do with the vanishing comment thread. The CDT puts most of their articles behind a paywall after two weeks and the comment thread for an article vanishes when the article goes behind the paywall. But psumba's first instinct was to accuse me of conspiring with the powers at the CDT to victimize him and more than a month latter he still thinks that he's the victim of a conspiracy to make him look bad....did I mention that psumba is huge<a href='http://freecharlotte.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/top-10-glen-beck-conspiracy-theories/' target='_blank'> Glenn Beck</a> fan, too?</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-18806223354767633922010-09-02T23:15:00.001-04:002010-09-02T23:15:39.471-04:00On a Related Note<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>After reading <a href='http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com/2010/09/elsewhere-in-academia.html' target='_blank'>the last post</a> on Texas A&M's capitulation to corporate interests, one may ask what is the future of public higher education? <a href='http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/124292' target='_blank'>The Chronicle of Higher Education</a> has a piece up this evening which looks at that question.<br/><blockquote>The mid-20th century suddenly appears to have been a golden age for higher education, said Wendy Brown, a professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley.<br/><br/>"That era offered not only literacy but liberal arts to a mass public," Ms. Brown said. "But today that idea is eroding from all sides. Cultural values don't support the liberal arts. Debt-burdened families aren't demanding it. The capitalist state isn't interested in it. Universities aren't funding it."<br/><br/>The danger, Ms. Brown said, is that the public will give up on the idea of educating people for democratic citizenship. Instead, all of public higher education will be essentially vocational in nature, oriented entirely around the market logic of job preparation. Instead of educating whole persons, Ms. Brown warned, universities will be expected to "build human capital," a narrower and more hollow mission.<br/><br/>And faculty members are unlikely to resist those changes at a time when two-thirds of them are on contingent appointments instead of the more secure tenure track, said Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors. They simply do not have enough power within the institution.<br/><br/>During a plenary lecture earlier Thursday, Mr. Nelson, who is also a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said he believes that the era of "incremental state funding for public higher education is basically over." For the foreseeable future, he said, the traditional battles for higher state appropriations are bound to be losing ones.<br/></blockquote>This is not a pretty picture, but I think it may be an accurate one.<br/><br/></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-66125545271309859932010-09-02T16:40:00.001-04:002010-09-02T16:40:09.688-04:00Elsewhere In Academia<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The Texas A&M system is about to introduce<a href='http://www.theeagle.com/am/A-amp-amp-M-grades-faculty' target='_blank'> a radically new way to rank professors.</a><br/><blockquote>A several-inches thick document in the possession of A&M System officials contains three key pieces of information for every single faculty member in the 11-university system: their salary, how much external research funding they received and how much money they generated from teaching.<br/><br/>The information will allow officials to add the funds generated by a faculty member for teaching and research and subtract that sum from the faculty member's salary. When the document -- <b>essentially a profit-loss statement for faculty members</b> -- is complete, officials hope it will become an effective, lasting tool to help with informed decision-making.<br/><br/>"If you look at what people are saying out there -- first of all, they want accountability," [Frank] Ashley [,the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System,] said. "It's something that we're really not used to in higher education: For someone questioning whether we're working hard, <b>whether our students are learning</b>. That accountability is going to be with us from now on."<br/></blockquote>This does not begin to measure if students are learning, in fact, it should result in a system in which students are guaranteed to learn less. <br/><br/>Does anyone think that hiring a shitload of contingent faculty, paying them a pittance and putting them in front of several hundred students is the best way to teach students? Because that obviously dumb approach would undoubtedly lead to a very favorable outcome on this metric and therefore is one likely end result of the use of this metric, particularly in the humanities where the opportunities for large outside grants is severely limited. <br/><br/>In the sciences and engineering, one might expect that faculty will be encouraged to seek out industry funding which may do little if anything to push back the frontiers of knowledge. This could be particularly problematic in the medical school,<a href='http://www.insidehighered.com/content/search?SearchText=conflict+of+interest+medical' target='_blank'> where conflict of interest arising out of pharma research is a growing national problem</a>. This metric induces the wrong incentives all around.<br/><br/><a href='http://www.theeagle.com/am/A-amp-amp-M-bases-bonus-on-student-input' target='_blank'>This is not the first boneheaded idea</a> introduced at the Texas A&M system recently.<br/><blockquote>[A]wards of between $2,500 and $10,000 to faculty members based on <br />anonymous student evaluations... was implemented at Texas <br />A&M University [in the fall of 2008] and has been expanded to all <br />A&M System campuses. <br /><br/></blockquote>Can you say grade inflation?<br/><br/>This is Texas, which has been screwing up education for year through the <a href='http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/texas-state-board-of-educ_n_582733.html' target='_blank'>Texas State Board of Education's textbook standards</a>, so there should be no surprise that the dumb is seeping into the Texas higher ed community. By the way, both of these ideas come from <a href='http://www.theeagle.com/am/A-amp-amp-M-regents-push-reforms' target='_blank'>a list of seven proposal introduced by the Texas Public Policy Foundation</a>, a conservative think tank, which shares a board member with the Texas A&M board regents, Phil Adams who is also a major contributor to the Governor Rick Perry's reelection campaign. The good news is, that unlike the situation with the textbooks which impact textbooks nationwide because of the size of the Texas market forces textbook publishers to write their books to accomodate Texas, there is no natural mechanism for this to spread outside of the Lone Star state. Nonetheless, there may be pressure from the rightwing business community for other state's to adopt these ideas. Hence vigilance is required. <br/><br/></div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-24427428627694795702010-09-01T10:12:00.005-04:002010-09-01T13:18:25.529-04:00Stupid On Parade<div class="youtube-video"><object height="405" width="660"><param value='http://www.youtube.com/v/ht8PmEjxUfg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1' name='movie'></param><param value='true' name='allowFullScreen'></param><param value='always' name='allowscriptaccess'></param><embed width='660' height='405' allowfullscreen='true' allowscriptaccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://www.youtube.com/v/ht8PmEjxUfg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1'> </embed> </object></div>It's like they rounded up everyone's dumb relatives and bused them off to DC last week.<br />
<br />
By the way, doesn't the guy with the binoculars look and sound like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Panetta" target="_blank">Leon Panetta's</a> fatter, dumber brother? Or, just maybe, it was Leon doing some undercover surveillance of the rally...think about it, binoculars?...better get out the chalkboard, Glenn.<br />
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The video comes via <a href="http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2010/08/31/inarticulate-speech-of-the-teatard/" target="_blank"> TBogg</a>, who noted that <br />
<blockquote><a href="http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/04/17/dean-broder-i-presume/" target="_blank">Someone</a> once said:<br />
<blockquote><div>If the terrorists are smart, they will give up on trying to attack us and just sit back and wait, because eventually our entire country is going to be so stupid that people will start sticking their tongues in wall sockets just to see what electricity tastes like.</div></blockquote>We are <i>way</i> past that now.</blockquote>That someone was very wise.veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-420397513766201478.post-89693749808545353982010-08-31T10:57:00.003-04:002010-08-31T14:00:31.760-04:00GT:National Security Demands That We Assure That the Next Generation of the Koch Family Has the Assets to Continue the Fight on the Middle Class<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><a href="http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/thompson-at-penn-state-terrorists-keep-trying-511948/" target="_blank">GT spoke last night</a> at Penn State on national security which he interpreted very broadly. Let's compare and contrast a couple of his statements.<br />
<br />
First up:<br />
<blockquote>"What my generation is providing you, unfortunately, is a legacy of debt," he said. "It's just not American.<br />
<br />
He said the Obama administration needs to present -- and Congress needs to enact -- a responsible budget. </blockquote>Next:<br />
<blockquote>Meanwhile, Thompson said, if steep estate taxes are reinstated next year, a family passing a farm from one generation to the next may be forced to pay a 45 percent levy. That threatens to take still more farms out of business, a trend that could force more reliance on imported food over which the U.S. has little control, Thompson said.</blockquote>To sum up, GT wants to deal with the national debt <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/estatetaxmyths.pdf" target="_blank">by adding $1.3 trillion dollars</a> over the next ten years to the national debt by stopping a reinstatement of the estate tax. To be fair, perhaps GT just wants the tax to go back to last year's level, then the cost to the US Treasury over the same time span would be $609 billion. He justifies adding this huge burden to the national debt, which he himself says is "not American," by suggesting that the tax will impact family farms.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3223" target="_blank">But it is estimated</a> that that in 2011 the estate tax, if reinstated at 2009 levels, would only effected 110 family farms and small businesses and these estates on average would pay a rate of 11.3%. (The 45% number that Thompson uses for the tax rate only applies to the portion of the estate in excess of $3.5 million and of the portion above the threshold much of it can be shielded from taxes.) Further, there is absolutely no evidence that farms would have to liquidated to pay for the estate tax. In 2001, the American Farm Bureau Federation could not cite a single example of a farm being sold off to pay the estate tax and the CBO has estimated that under the 2009 conditions only a handful of family farms would not have sufficient liquidity to pay the tax, but it said that it likely overestimated this number since the it couldn't include certain assets held in trust. <br />
<br />
The take away is that GT thinks that it is in our national security interest to help <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer" target="_blank">the Koch brothers</a> pass on their wealth to their heirs so that those heirs can continue the family war against ordinary Americans.</div>veblenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09947720720209037530noreply@blogger.com