Secretary of Education Arne Duncan speaks to the NSTA
FERPA text
This is the Federal law that governs privacy in education. You can read what it has to say.
Australia thinking of a seriously re-examining higher education
A Spellings commission-like inspection of goals and means.
The Council on Higher Education and Accreditation recognizes three institutions for their progress
Accreditation:
The issues around accreditation seem to be quiet but tense right now as some of the regional accreditation agencies are in litigation. Here is an example: In what may be a groundbreaking ruling that upsets what some believe is a monopoly by the regional accreditors, De Vry University, a for-profit institution based in Illinois which ran campuses in California, tentatively won a federal lawsuit against the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). WASC had maintained that De Vry violated California law by not revealing that some of its courses would not transfer to other colleges. Federal judge Margaret M. Morrow of the Central District Court of California found that WASC had violated the commerce clause of the US constitution since De Vry was accredited by the North Central Association and local regulations (i.e., whatever WASC said) can not impede interstate commerce. Under California law it is possible for an institution to operate while not under direct supervision of a local accreditor.
It is not at all clear how this tentative ruling will affect non-profit schools, those not in California, or those with distance learning components. Note, again, that local law had a role in upsetting WASC’s apple cart. In less happy news for a college, St. Andrews (in North Carolina) lost an appeal for its loss of recognition and is suing SACS. The reason SACS cited is lack of stability in its finances.
I share all HAPSters concerns about this issue and continue to research it but need more help! Richard Faircloth has been very helpful but if you read or hear anything about accreditation, ship me the information as quickly as possible.
False Claims and academia
The US Government can levy heavy fines for those who falsely take money from it, including educational institutions. For example, a western US university had to conduct a significant legal defense in a case where some instructors were claiming the institution was encouraging evening students to leave their classes early. Many of the students were on some sort of federal aid program so, if the allegations were proven correct, the government could have claimed the institution was defrauding it by not delivering on its promises to educate. The university would have had serious problems, the most serious of which would have been a threat to its accreditation.
The specific case I mentioned above is pretty involved and I am not sure it would be easy to explain clearly here plus I am conscious of the possibility of presenting inaccurate information about this specific matter; therefore, I am being vague in these details and will not provide a link to a news site about it. At least one other Western institution is being investigated for something similar as I write these lines.
The federal code is pretty simple to understand and I pass along its link:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/31/usc_sec_31_00003729----000-.html
So what does this matter to you as an anatomy and physiology instructor? Making sure students get their money’s worth is the ethical thing and, in any case, the Feds mean business here! Consider that the students and the governments pay us for a job and we don’t do it, we could lose…
Financial issues threaten accreditation
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has place Florida A & M University (FAMU) on probation, giving financial and managerial issues as a reason. FAMU in their statement says they are working on a plan to address these issues.
Budgetary and management problems also seem to be facing LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis since SACS placed it on probation in 2005. However, the Memphis City Council is giving the college one million dollars each year for the next three years to help it out. The college still requires additional money but there may be some hope by the end of this year.
Senate moves forward on Higher Education ACT
A measure to reauthorize the Higher Education Act was released Monday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is 534 pages long. This behemoth has been abstracted already and the provisions relevant to us in HAPS include a revision of the Accreditation and Institutional Quality and Integrity Advisory Committee is proposed: 5 members each from the Senate, House, and the Dept. of Ed. The supposition is that the new committee will be able to act more freely from the constraints of D of E. Another provision as the bill now is to require accreditors to employ empirical and “external indicators” as evidence to prove that an institution is doing various things such as getting students through licensing exams. The Senate’s version would also provide that institutions of higher education have more latitude than what the D of E currently allows.
This all sounds like it is going in the right direction for HAPS.
Additionally, There are numerous other provisions including a lot about financial aid and some things about transferring credit to and from different types of institutions..
Read the Chronicle’s article:
Accreditation hearings end in deadlock
At the last in a series of meetings between the US Dept. of Ed., institutions of higher education, and the accrediting bodies, there were almost no decisions about anything at all. For example, they spent almost 2 hours trying to decide whether to call the event “hearings” or “meetings.” What does this mean to HAPS? It means that theoretically the Department can now go ahead and make up its own rules about accreditation without any further public input. Will they be able to do this politically? Who knows for sure? However, the House subcommittee on higher education may be asked to step in.
The Department may be in a fairly weak position politically because this is not the only issue where recent formal hearings have ended in deadlock. The issues surrounding oversight of the lenders of student loans also loom over the Department and its legislative managers. HAPSters need to sharpen their pencils: we may need to start writing to our various congressional delegations!
Read the highlighted link and decide for yourself.
Missouri House passes intellectual freedom bill
The Missouri House of Representatives has passed the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act (H.B. 213). It seems that last year at one of MO’s institutions of higher learning Ms. Brooker had a divergence in religious views with her social work professor especially in regards to an assignment. She was unhappy that her views were not attended to and this is the fruit of that event.
The bill has 13 provisions in it but the one that is most likely to impinge on human anatomy and physiology instruction prohibits discrimination against discrimination founded on personal views including: “…intellectual diversity concerns in the institution’s guidelines on teaching and program development and such concerns shall include but not be limited to the protection of religious freedom including the viewpoint that the Bible is inerrant….”
The Missouri Senate Education Committee recommended passage to the whole senate and the bill is awaiting placement on that body’s calendar.
The Theory of Evolution is the first thing that everyone thinks about here but there are other areas that give pause to a professor or teacher:
1. Psychopharaceutical use and the Church of Scientology;
2. The use of human blood and certain religious groups;
3. Geologists and physicists very frequently provide information at odds with the literal Bible;
4. Psychology professors should realize that their very practice is at odds with the views of many Moslems;
5. And the old issue was that the Roman Catholic Church at one time found that there was an issue with the use of human cadavers—will this be “resurrected?”
Student on student sexual harassment
The New Jersey Supreme Court has found that schools are liable for sexual harassment between students. This decision is in line with federal guidelines as well. Therefore, if you see this going on, your dean or department head will most likely require that you try to stop it. Check with your Human Resources person, supervisor, or compliance officers concerning this issue.
Accreditation:
It may surprise you to learn that college accrediting agencies themselves must also pass muster. The US Department of Education has a series of guidelines and sometimes an agency loses its oversight powers.
Here is where to find that information
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has a bone to pick with US Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The AAUP maintains that research and teaching independence is essential to the maitanence of the US democracy and feels that the Commission's report last year, "A test of leadership: Charting the future of U.S. Higher Education" advocates measures that will undermine this independence. Amongst the complaints is the observation that the report favors a more consumer-based educational policy. Such a policy, they believe, will tend to destroy freedom of thought in the lecture hall and in the laboratory.
