The Future of Higher Ed?

I was alerted to two articles that speak to the future of higher education and they are both sobering.  Perhaps you are an administrator or a faculty member who is experiencing some of what is being talked about in the articles.  Either way, there is a concerted effort to cheapen what educators do in this country and if we do not take a stand we will find ourselves to be falling further and further behind Inda, China, and the rest of the world that is taking a bolder brighter path to educate its people and compete and win for the future.

Read the first article at appeared in the Nation by William Deresiewicz--"Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education" http://www.thenation.com/article/160410/faulty-towers-crisis-higher-education

The second appeared in the Chronicle and penned by Margaret Miller:
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Profession-More-Pressure/123918/

Lecture heureuse!

Taking Students Seriously in the College Classroom

This e-mail came from Helen M Bergland, PhD, Faculty Support, Student Learning Assessment Academic Integrity, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Eastern Washington University, hbergland@ewu.edu.  It is definitely worth the time to read the article she mentioned in her e-mail because it applies to culinary arts education.

If you haven’t read Vincent Tinto’s article “Taking Student Success Seriously in the College Classroom” yet, I strongly suggest that you take a few minutes to read it. You can read the article at the following address: http://coredogs.com/blog/coredogs-way.

This article provides information that could be used to significantly support the value of faculty development programs (e.g., Teaching & Learning Centers, etc.) – something this listserv has discussed in the past as we have watched one Center after another closed due to budget cuts. Some of the recommendations/studies are based on community colleges and technical/vocational programs’ efforts; nevertheless, there is much outstanding food for thought for four-year institutions.

What do you think of this article?

NRA Show in Chicago

I have been going to the NRA show in Chicago since the late 80's and have to admit that this has been one of the best.  The show is buzzing with the prospects of growth in the industry this year.  Of course there are the products and services that have been at the show for years to promote plates, cooking equipment, clothing, knives and such.  But there is no mistake that healthy eating has gone mainstream big time.  It was also hard to go an aisle without finding someone who was marketing gluten free baked goods and other food products. The weather has also been excellent!

I really enjoyed a presentation on NRA's Conserve: Walking the Pathway to a Greener Restaurant.  This program can be a great teaching tool and great industry tool for those who really want to know what it takes to go green in restaurant businesses and just how much energy is being wasted right under the noses of operators.  There is a membership fee of $125 per year but worth every penny to have a one stop shop for educators and industry people going Green.  The program is chock full of video vignettes on ways to save money on energy and more.

You can check out a couple of links to get familiar with this program through NRA who is working with the Foodservice Technology Center to role out and manage the program:
http://www.fishnick.com/greenrestaurant/
http://conserve.restaurant.org/
Here is also a food business green checklist available in San Diego and quite comprehensive:
http://www.foodnbeverage.org/images/pdfs/green_business_app.pdf

International Lilly Conference on Teaching Call for Proposals

There is a call for proposal submissions for the 31st International Lilly Conference on College Teaching, in Oxford, Ohio, on November 17-20, 2011. The conference theme this year is "Teaching for Brain-Based Learning," but contributed paper topics do not have to be connected to this theme. 

You can view the conference website for a listing of the plenary sessions confirmed thus far at:
http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/

If you have not been to a Lilly Conference you are missing out on one of the most straight up gatherings on teaching and learning in higher education attended by those on top of their game who study teaching and learning for a living.  To submit a contributed paper proposal for the Conference, go to the website and click on "Proposal Submission" at http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/ .  The due date is July 11, 2011.

Also, visit the Conference website to register for the Conference (register by October 1 and receive the $50 early registration discount): http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/reg_info.php

If you cannot attend the Lilly Conference this year, please pass this message along to a colleague.  We hope to see you in November!

Regards,
Milt Cox and Gregg Wentzell

Pearson Higher Education Requesting Feedback

Pearson sponsored the Ultimate Teaching Competition.  They are seeking feedback from educators. If you are currently teaching with MyManagementLab, MyMarketingLab, MyIBLab, MyBIZLab, MyBCommLab or MyMISLab, please take a few minutes to complete the following survey to share your experience with Pearson so they can continue to improve their products, service, and support. To access the instructor survey, please copy and paste this URL into a new browser window: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3LQVZZT

Please also pass along the following message to the students you taught this semester with MyManagementLab, MyMarketingLab, MyIBLab, MyBIZLab, MyBCommLab or MyMISLab so they can help Pearson improve the student experience.  To access the student survey, please copy and paste this URL into a new browser window: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3LCD29H

I Always Get Nervous

I just put in the last of my grades.  They were for the sales course which is a totally hands-on class where the students go through a process to ultimately sell a product for real dollars that earns them a seat in a limo and dinner in Indianapolis if their team hits its profit target.  They did $15,000 in glassware sales and generated $6,000 for our student run restaurant -- not bad for 10 sales teams, each with 5-6 members on each team.  I had already entered grades for the HR class, the independent study classes that students take to be an undergraduate TA for me in HR and sales class (that I explained at the last Summit), and my University Honors Program course (which is only open to the best and the brightest at Purdue and a realy joy to teach).

I do not know why, but I always get butterflies when posting grades.  I know that grades are the currency of higher education for students.  And all grades do not mean the same to all students.  Some students will literally come unglued if they do not get an A; you know those kids because they tell you so at the beginning of the semester.  Some kids will take a D, no problem, because they are just filling in their bingo sheet to get the sheepskin (showing my age) and pursue the career that awaits them upon graduation.  There are a million other reasons to be sure and somehow I am sensitive to each one.

Perhaps it is because I was high strung myself and achievement oriented and typically the top student in my class for all the degrees I took as an undergraduate and graduate student.  Of course, those were the days that grades were not posted online like today on Blackboard so students know their grades all along the way.  I used to be on pins and needles for over a week waiting for my grades to arrive in in the mail to see if my final grades matched those I had calculated on my own.  Speaking of seeing grades online, even my son can get daily feedback on his grades in middle school by going online which is insane because there were no computers other than calculators when I was in middle school.  

Maybe I am nervouse because I care.  Maybe I want the students to be like me when I was a student and dedicated to earning an A and disappointed when many fall short of the mark.  Who knows, all I can says is that I am always nervous when posting grades because of what they mean now and will mean later in the life of each and every student.  Anyone else feel the same?