"Between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 scientists who had worked at Los Alamos returned to the PRC to support a variety of domestic research and development (R&D) programs. Fifteen of those scientists worked as permanent staff members at Los Alamos. Of those fifteen, thirteen were recruited into PRC government talent programs; some were responsible for sponsoring visiting scholars and postdoctoral researchers from the PRC, and some received U.S. government funding for sensitive research. At least one of these staff members held a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 'Q Clearance' allowing access to Top Secret Restricted Data and National Security Information." – Strider Intel
How can colleges prepare for the possibility the Supreme Court will strike down race-conscious admissions?
"At a Thursday session of the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s annual meeting, a panelist posed a question to the room: Do you feel prepared if the U.S. Supreme Court were to strike down race-conscious admissions? Not one college enrollment management official raised their hands to say yes. It’s far from a hypothetical, though." – Higher Ed Dive, 9/23/22
Asia Likely to Follow U.S. on Open Access
"Asian research powerhouses will introduce open-access mandates within the next 'two to three' years, experts have predicted, in the wake of last month’s landmark order by the Biden administration. ... Home to four of the top 10 research-producing countries—China, Japan, South Korea and India—Asia now appears poised to become the next battleground." – Inside Higher Ed, 9/23/22
British Universities Show Why “More” Does Not Mean “Better”
"The Biden administration is seeking to 'cancel' student debt by transferring what individual students owe to the American taxpayer. ... What both sides ought to ask is why we are sending so many young Americans to take college degrees in the first place. If students really are struggling to pay off college debts, does that not raise some fundamental questions about the value of what they are being taught?" – James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 9/23/22
Prestige Hiring Across Academe
"Some 80 percent faculty members with Ph.D.s in the U.S. trained at just 20 percent of universities. So found the team behind a new study on faculty hiring and retention patterns at Ph.D.-granting institutions. ... Researchers also found that the five most common doctoral training universities—the Universities of Michigan; Wisconsin at Madison; and California, Berkeley; plus Harvard and Stanford Universities—account for one in eight U.S.-trained faculty members." – Inside Higher Ed, 9/23/22
Texas university pays $165K to professor fired for writing a joke in the teachers’ lounge criticizing microaggressions
"In a victory for free speech on public university campuses, the University of North Texas has agreed to pay $165,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees for violating a math professor’s First Amendment rights when it fired him for writing a joke criticizing microaggressions on a chalkboard in the teachers’ lounge." – Alliance Defending Freedom, 9/22/22
Yeshiva University will restart clubs without recognizing LGBTQ organization
"Yeshiva University plans to soon restart clubs after reaching an agreement with a group that wants it to recognize a student LGBTQ organization, the university’s lawyers said Thursday. ... Now the university and Pride Alliance have agreed the trial court’s order should be stayed, or put on hold, while appeals are heard — potentially all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court." – Higher Ed Dive, 9/22/22
Florida A&M students sue state over funding, allege discrimination of HBCUs
"A group of six students at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee filed a class-action lawsuit against the state Thursday alleging decades of discriminatory underfunding of the public historically Black university. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, has many of the hallmarks of past fights in Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina for equitable treatment of public HBCUs." – Washington Post, 9/22/22
Bill Would Make Colleges Pay for Defaults
"U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, wants universities to pay for student loans in default and the Congress to make other changes to the Higher Education Act of 1965 as part of a new bill introduced Wednesday. Under the Make the Universities Pay Act, a university would have to pay 50 percent of its students’ loan balances in default." – Inside Higher Ed, 9/22/22
Biden’s Abusive Title IX Rewrite
"In June, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona proposed rewriting Title IX to better reflect fashions in progressive ideology. Owing to the foresight of his predecessor, Betsy DeVos, the department was required to open a two-month window for public comment. That period closed late last week after over 200,000 comments. Many of the comments expressed alarm — warranted alarm." – National Review, 9/22/22
All this moaning and groaning about “corruption” in the admissions process assumes that there is a Platonic standard for “fairness.” Just SAT’s? And, does this Platonic standard apply equally to all schools? Can somebody enlighten me on this ideal standard. Once established we can then calibrate degree of unfairness. Until that time, this is all posturing.
My wife’s brother is managing partner of a large venture capital company. He told me they won’t even look at applicants that haven’t graduated from a very short list of schools (MIT, Caltech, most Ivy’s, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, UT Austin, U. of Washington) . They are also unlikely to fund entrepreneurs who haven’t graduated from the same list.
This is just the Nordstrom version, I’m waiting for the WalMart version to break.
There are lots of mid-level state schools and I have no doubt the same sorts of games being played there as well.
And it’s not just to get in but to stay in — to get junior back in after he’s been booted for misbehavior. For example, UMass Amherst kicked a lot of kids out for the various riots, with some mysteriously reappearing without explanation. Rumor had it that $30K-$40K in cash would get junior back in.
I agree that this story has a long way to go – and I’m waiting for the Massachusetts nexus to appear as there has to be one for the Massachusetts US Atty to be bringing these cases. The other two wild cards are the failed Mt Ida College and the failing Hampshire College — who knows what an intrepid forensic accountant might have found, or who so found might have been willing to make a deal.
And could this be the pin that bursts the Higher Ed Bubble?
It’s important to pay people who might otherwise be corrupted well. That’s one if the reasons why we shouldn’t complain about police officer pay. Test center proctors and administrators are given next to nothing. Big mistake.
The students who were admitted under false pretenses should forfeit their degrees, whether they knew or not.
If our best and brightest aren’t actually our best and brightest, the future of our country is certainly compromised.