Colleges and Universities Books

In this very well written article, Stein and Gal-Or point out that when the topic is Israel, "an anti-intellectual approach that seeks to limit debate, free speech, and academic freedom has been increasingly present on Canadian campuses. It has manifested itself in a number of major strategies: preventing speakers from arriving at their destination, preventing speakers from being heard, restricting opposing views, exploiting emotion and using propaganda, and preventing rebuttal."

The authors note that while arguments on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict have often been "skewed," it is the anti-Israeli camp "that has exceeded the bounds of civilized debate" by using the above strategies. They make the point that students and faculty are supposed to listen to all points of view to form their opinions. They shouldn't want or need others to tell them which speakers are acceptable. And one can presume that those who are against freedom of speech have something to hide, and that facts would discredit their cause.

The authors give some examples of intimidation and harassment on campus. And they insist that pro-Israel speech be given the same protection as its anti-Israel equivalent. That protection ought to extend to grades on papers: the article shows that many students were downgraded on papers that showed Israel in a good light.

This eight-page article makes quite a few good recommendations, but I think the best is the following:

"Although opinions can be held freely, patently false statements of 'fact' should bear some censure in the form of cumulative academic consequences similar to acts of plagiarism or 'cooking of results' in academic experiments."

I would like to applaud Inroads for publishing this article. I highly recommend it.

It's a great book for anyone who is in college and don't want to rack up debts.! Recommend it!

I teach at a large state school. Reading John McGowan's book renewed my commitment to teaching as an intellectual and transformative act. I especially liked the essays on teaching literature, the ABCs, pragmatism, and the overview of the "culture", as I am a teacher of the critical/cultural study of science and American studies.

Great transaction. I highly recommend this text for anyone who is in a leadership position (or wants to be) in academia.

Dr. Nichols provides a good overview of the assessment process in this book. It follows on his several others. Most important: This book has sample assessment records in it - thus it is excellent for those trying to set-up an assessment program in their department. We used it for our initial template for ABET and SACS records. Even the most confused (stubborn?) came around after reading it. For beginners and veterans alike.

"Harvard is the Emory of the North," said Atlanta boosters in the period following World War II. But it wasn't true, and Harvard was not the Duke of the North, either. The presidents and faculties of five elite southern schools - Duke, Emory, Tulane, Rice and Vanderbilt - knew their institutions were inferior, by orders of magnitude, to the Ivies, Stanford and the University of Chicago. Morally and pragmatically, segregation stood in the way of advancing their schools. To become a research university and to mount competitive graduate programs required outside funding, principally from large national philanthropic foundations and from the federal government. But such funding sources as the Ford, Carnegie and Rockefeller organizations began to attach a string to their largesse - abandonment of Jim Crow restrictions on race. And beginning with Truman, each succeeding federal administration increasingly pressured the private schools to end segregation voluntarily or risk losing grants and other major sources of funds.

University trustees manned the barricades, barring transformation of the institutions. Uniformly well-fed, white, and backward-facing, these worthies dedicated their tenure to the maintenance of racism in their beloved schools. Melissa Kean avoids an "inside baseball" study of the five universities. Instead, she offers a well-written, fast-paced account of the faceted conflicts between the academicians and their well-intentioned superiors. University presidents, sometimes aided by a conservative but practical trustee, became whitewater guides, steering through political rocks and hazards. Readers know the outcome of the struggles, and Kean gives us a thoughtful and absorbing account of how it happened.

It's got to be. I wrote it.

How the hell did my Thesis from 1994 undergrad get on this site?

This book presents the course design process-clarifying values, determining goals and content, structuring the course, preparing flexible learning opportunities, deciding goals and objectives for units of study, selecting teaching strategies, and assessing. The last chapter is about implementing a new course. References, index, and a page of information about The Society for Research into Higher Education are at the back of the book. This is a very scholarly, academic book. It is well documented and incorporates research findings. It focuses on strategic decisions that need to be made before a course is developed and provides realistic advice for designing courses. It is not about teaching techniques. This 6 by 9-inch book has relative small print. It has very few figures or tables. Most pages are filled with words. This is a good book for a scholar of education who likes verbiage.

This text has been selected for the Institute on the College of the Community, June 2000.

The book describes the issues, anxieties, and problems in dealing with the new U.K. credit-based modular system (CBMS) for curriculum. The debate and the issues are precisely the same as those facing U.S. curriculum designers as we look toward the needs of 21st century learners. The book frames the issues of accreditation, quality, flexibility, transferability, and equity in load across programs. It also addresses the friction between the higher education legacy approach and a new more flexible system for learners. This is a must read for curriculum designers attempting to develop global curricula.

The outcome has been written. But for those that really enjoy college football, and The Ohio State University Buckeyes, specifically, this is the book for you.

Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Hope Springs Eternal
Chapter 2: Outside the Lines
Chapter 3: Great Expectations
Chapter 4: The Journey Begins
Chapter 5: Eyes on the Prize
Chapter 6: The Game
Chapter 7: Waiting for an Opponent
Chapter 8: The Long Layoff
Chapter 9: The Heisman Trophy
Chapter 10: The BCS Championship Game
Chapter 11: Moving Forward
Appendix

Diary of an Unforgettable Season, by Steve Snapp, takes you inside big time college football. Snapp, the Associate Director of Athletics for Broadcasting for The Ohio State Buckeyes, kept a diary during the 2006 season which has been turned into this 166 page book. He brings you right inside the coaches and player meetings, the preparations for the season, the awards season, and the BCS Championship Game. It is a wonderful insiders look at big time college football told in a very personal manner.

Even if you are not a fan of the Buckeyes, the entries on the season ending awards (Lombardi, Heisman, etc.) are eye opening as to the amount of travel, meetings, dinners, and interviews that the winners and finalists go through. That they are able to play a game after all of that travel is incredible. Snapp spends time on most of the major players from that team, allowing the reader to learn more about their development and the highlights of their season. He also writes about the coaching staff, giving you another perspective of the season, one that was probably not in any media outlet.

While a good, fast read, it needed a little tighter editing. My only complaint with the book is that some of the word choices were curious, causing me to pause on some entries to try to figure out what Snapp meant. On the plus side, he adds pictures to the diary, giving a nice visual from select games and events. Even though this is a diary of a specific season, Snapp infuses some of the entries with the history of the Buckeyes to give you a look at the past and how it is used to motivate the current team. If you are fan of The Ohio State University Buckeye football team and you would like a remembrance of the 2006 season from someone that had inside access to the coaches and team, this is a great addition to your library. If the Buckeyes aren't the team for you, you will appreciate Snapp's insights of the awards ceremonies and mainstream media.

Go Bucks!