Welcome to CHE Review

This page is dedicated to review and commentary on items appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

CHE is required reading for anyone who works in higher education.  It’s interesting reading for a lot of other people too.  Let me start by acknowledging the highest compliment that one can pay to a periodical: I pay to read it.  And I read it every week (or every other week June through August and the last three weeks of December).

But, howlingly silly things appear in each issue.  That is usually attributable to the beat they cover–professors, administrators, and grad students say the darndest things.  But sometimes CHE itself is pretty odd itself.  And it’s about as conventionally leftist as the institutions and people it covers.  I think it might be entertaining and instructive (for me, at least) to poke a little fun at them.

About me: I’m a college administrator.  I’d like to remain anonymous.  I’m not affiliated with CHE.  You can email me at chronreview@gmail.com.

“Preppy douche bags”–hate speech?

Impolite, no doubt.  But hate speech?

I will leave aside for the moment the question of whether, when applied to University of Virginia students, it is true.

Jeannine Lalonde, senior assistant dean of admission at UVa, maintains a blog as part of her duties for the purpose of “demystifying” the admissions process for students and parents.  (Link, sub. req.)  The day admissions decisions arrive is a busy one in the comments section.  A scorned high-schooler left the above comment.  “The dean deleted it, and posted a reminder that she would not permit hate speech.”

What have we come to if preppies and douche bags are now protected classes?

I’m not aware of any definition in the law of what constitutes hate speech.  Moreover, I’m not aware of any “hate speech” exemption to free speech doctrines.  I’ll leave it to the folks at FIRE to figure out what kind of forum a public university blog comment section is.  The blog itself I’m certain is a non-public forum, but it seems to me that the comment section is probably a limited public forum.

Don’t worry, Dean Lalonde, I’m not siccing FIRE on you.  Even if you did trample the free speech rights of a pouty high schooler, I’m pretty even FIRE would consider your violation de minimis.

Different Degree Requirements for the Deaf-Blind?

Deaf, Blind, and Deserving of a College Degree by John Lee Clark (link, sub. req.).

The general point being that, for the most part, those both deaf and blind can’t complete the required coursework within a semester because reading in Braille is much too time-consuming, in comparison with sight reading on the page or listening to audio.  The result is that “[o]nly a handful of fully deaf-blind people have graduated from college.  Almost all of them had full-time companions, who can be described only as their co-students.  They put forth team efforts that went beyond the mere use of the companions’ eyes and ears and interpreting services.”  That arrangement, notes Clark, is no longer acceptable to neither the higher ed institutions nor the deaf-blind, who reject it for “empowerment” reasons.

Clark’s solution is that the deaf-blind should get degrees for doing less coursework.  “If someone gains knowledge and facility, proper recognition is due.  Equal knowledge must be rewarded with equal credit.”  In other words, I worked hard (no doubt about that), and I learned the material, so give me the degree.   The problem is that, for the most part, we judge whether you’ve learned the material by how well you do the coursework.

I think the stronger argument would be that extending the time to complete the coursework is a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.   I don’t know if there is any authority for that, but it seems analogous to extended test time which is routinely granted as a reasonable accommodation.  Awarding credit for reduced coursework, however, is a non-starter–no one thinks that the ADA requires different course requirements to accommodate disabilities.

Tough issue.  Wouldn’t want to trade places with that guy.

Community college chiefs “underpaid”?

Community College Chiefs Are Underpaid Relative to Their 4-Year Peers.

A better headline would have been “Community College Chiefs Paid Less Than Their 4-Year Non-Peers.”

They average about $165,000.  Nothing in the piece, a straight-forward report on a Chronicle salary survey, supports the notion that anyone is underpaid.  In fairness to Jennifer Gonzalez, it should be noted that editors often write headlines without input from the reporter.

It’s a different job.  I’m not sure where the idea that there ought to be parity between 2 and 4-year institution executive pay comes from.

Stephen R. Covey on positive tickets

Motivational author Stephen R. Covey, interviewed on his appointment to an endowed chair at Utah State University (link, sub. req.):

I have 10 books I’m working on, and one of them is dealing with the end of crime.  We show a way of reducing crime 90 to 95 percent by getting the policemen to give positive tickets, catching people doing good things, rather than just negative tickets.

Discussing the 4th Amendment issues with a scholarly lawyer friend who defends cops, he came up with the following dialogue:

Do you know why I pulled you over?

Er, because my tail light isn’t out?

Count me among the doubtful.