While attending a student success workshop a few years ago and gaining strategies to connect with students, I thought, “What about how hard I work just to be friendly and kind?” Although the workshop was beneficial, it seemed like a foundational portion of my labor was invisible. What about the herculean, behind-the-scenes self-regulation that I … Continue reading
Report: Federal income-driven repayment ‘built to be a debt trap’
The federal government’s systems that allow student borrowers to repay loans based on their income are flawed and can end up saddling them with more debt, a new report argues. This can affect borrowers’ financial health and well-being, it says. While debt under these income-driven repayment plans can theoretically be forgiven after 20 to 25 years, … Continue reading
We’ve seen ‘The Chair’. Now it’s time for ‘The Adjunct’
The Netflix series The Chair, which follows the struggle of a newly appointed English department chair, debuted to much fanfare. It was hailed In The Atlantic as “Netflix’s best drama in years” and in the Wall Street Journal as a “sharp take on academia”. Continue reading.
Why Higher Education is Failing to Close The Racial Wealth Gap
For all too many Black students, a college degree isn’t a ticket into the middle class….As our society engages in a historic reckoning over its persistent racial disparities — in employment, income, healthcare, life span, on-time high school graduation, homeownership, incarceration, political representation, poverty rates, school suspensions and wealth — we, in the academy need … Continue reading
Blackboard, Anthology to Merge, Creating Ed-Tech Behemoth
Anthology, which emerged a year ago from the combination of three higher education administrative software firms, will merge with Blackboard, long the most visible company in learning technology, the two companies announced today. The deal will result in the end of Blackboard as a freestanding company, and could bring the end of its well-known, and sometimes … Continue reading
These Colleges Are Betting That Culturally Relevant Textbooks Will Improve Student Outcomes
Millie González and her colleagues aren’t here to argue about whether open educational resources are on par with traditional textbooks一she says research has borne that out. González and Framingham State University, where she is interim director of Whittemore Library, are part of a consortium in Massachusetts looking to answer different questions. Like: What would happen if students … Continue reading
Los Angeles School District Mandates Vaccines for Students 12 and Older
Los Angeles already has a strict vaccine mandate for teachers and staff members, and the new student mandate will further increase the safety of the classroom. But it is also likely to be more divisive, with far-reaching educational repercussions. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 58 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds … Continue reading
Virtual Learning Can Be a Gateway to Increasing Equity in Higher Education
While many are eager to return to campuses this fall, it became increasingly obvious that virtual course delivery would need to be an integral and lasting part of our curriculum moving forward, even prior to the uncertainty surrounding the surges of the delta variant. It’s undeniable that many of our students have greatly benefited from the … Continue reading
How Biden’s New Vaccination Policy Affects Colleges
Thousands of colleges could be subject to a new federal rule mandating Covid-19 vaccination or testing for large private-sector employers, the Biden administration announced on Thursday. The Department of Labor’s emergency, temporary rule will require all employees of businesses with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or to be tested weekly. That mandate will cover more … Continue reading
How Sociologists Can Battle COVID Denialism
…The behaviors that usually get thrown into the black box of “irrationality” are sociology’s specialty. And that’s why it’s an especially useful discipline for dealing with the national public-health emergency we face. Insights from sociological theorists like Robert Merton and Erving Goffman can do more than explain the strange pandemic behavior we’ve seen in recent … Continue reading
Professor Van Ry 