EKU Announces Presidential Finalists

This afternoon Wm. Craig Turner who chairs the EKU Presidential Search and Screening Committee as well as the EKU Board of Regents announced three finalists competing to become the 12th President of Eastern Kentucky University. "Each of the candidates differentiated themselves by their education, experience, diversity, achievements, style of leadership and vision for EKU," Turner said in an email to the campus. The finalists are:

·         Michael T. Benson, Ph.D. Dr. Michael T. Benson Bio

President, Southern Utah University and Professor of Political Science

Dr Benson will visit EKU Sunday Evening, March 24 to Tuesday Noon, March 26, 2013. Dr. Michael T. Benson’s Campus Schedule here.

·         Alan T. Shao, Ph.D. Dr. Alan Shao Bio

Dean, School of Business, College of Charleston and Professor of Marketing

Dr Shao will visit EKU Monday Evening, April 1 to Wednesday Noon, April 3, 2013 Dr. Alan Shao’s Campus Schedule

·         Gregg Lassen, Ph.D. Dr. Gregg Lassen Bio

Vice President for Finance and Operations, Lamar University.

Dr Larsen will visit EKU Tuesday Evening, March 26 to Thursday Noon, March 28, 2013 Dr. Gregg Lassen’s Campus Schedule

Turner praised each of the finalists saying, "This is an outstanding group of presidential finalists, each of whom has demonstrated proven leadership in all aspects of higher education administration, classroom instruction and scholarship.  Drs. Benson, Lassen and Shao are each recognized by their respective institutions and constituencies to have the vision, fortitude, passion and leadership necessary to meet difficult and complex challenges and seize opportunities to take EKU to the next level of academic excellence. Additionally, the finalists have demonstrated an active and productive engagement in their respective communities and service regions by developing and enhancing business, industry, government and educational collaborations."

Bio for Dr. Michael T. Benson, President, Southern Utah University

Dr. Michael T. Benson is the 15th President of Southern Utah University, a position he has held since November 2006. In addition, he holds the rank of full Professor within the Department of Political Science.

Born in Salt Lake City and raised in Texas, Dr. Benson has nearly 20 years of administrative experience in higher education, over a decade of which has been spent as an institutional president.

Prior to his tenure at SUU, he was the 14th President of Snow College where he helped raise more money in his five-year tenure than in the previous 117 years of the institution’s history combined. Currently, Dr. Benson is leading efforts at SUU to raise $30 million for the Southern Utah Center for the Arts; to date over $28 million of the required amount has been secured.

He has also directed the development and implementation of SUU’s largest and most ambitious comprehensive campaign, The Future is Rising. Over $85 million of the $100 million goal has already been raised and pledged. In December 2012, Dr. Benson announced the largest gift in the University’s history – $5 million – for the construction of a new Shakespeare Theatre. This news came on the heels of a $4 million gift to establish a scholarship and research endowment within the College of Science and
Engineering.

During the 2009 Legislative session, Benson was successful in procuring state support for SUU’s Science Center – an expanded undergraduate classroom and laboratory complex totaling nearly $20 million in new construction.

Named by Utah Business magazine in 2011 as among the “100 Most Influential People in Utah,” Dr. Benson serves as Vice Chair of the Big Sky Conference Presidents’ Council, as well as on the Wells Fargo Southwest Utah Board of Advisors, the Rocky Mountain Power Regional Advisory Board, and on the Utah Appellate Nominating Commission.

Dr. Benson has worked and studied abroad for seven years in Italy, England and Israel.

He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post as a featured blogger on higher education issues. His book, Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel (Praeger 1997) has been hailed as a landmark work in the area of American foreign policy and the U.S. presidency.

He completed his doctorate in modern Middle Eastern history from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College) where he was a recipient of the Oxford Graduate Overseas Fellowship and a Rotary Foundation Scholarship. He also earned a master’s degree cum laude from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame in non-profit administration, and a B.A. cum laude from Brigham Young University with a major in political science and double minor in English and history.

Bio for Dr. Alan T. Shao, Dean and Professor of Marketing,

School of Business, College of Charleston

Dr. Alan T. Shao serves as Dean of the School of Business at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, a position he has held since March 2009. During his time as Dean, he served as the Jack Tate Distinguished Professor at the College of Charleston from 2009 to 2011.

As Dean of the College of Charleston’s School of Business, Dr. Shao has established an MBA degree program, obtained AACSB reaccreditation for the school, developed new academic majors, significantly raised funding to record breaking levels for the School of Business, created the School of Business “Wall of Honor” to recognize philanthropy and long-term impact, and increased globalization throughout the School of Business.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Dr. Shao came to Charleston after nearly 20 years at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, where he was North Carolina Ports Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of Professional and Global Programs. While at UNC Charlotte, he created self-supporting graduate business programs in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mexico and Denmark.

In 2005, the Journal of Advertising named Dr. Shao one of the most prolific contributors to advertising research. In his career, he has published more than 50 articles in leading journals, made more than 100 presentations on a variety of international business topics and has authored three books, most recently Marketing Research: An Aid to Decision Making, 3rd edition. As a Pacific Cultural Foundation Fellow, he has studied foreign culture influences on advertising in Taiwan.

In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Shao has worked as an Executive Director of Marketing Research and a Manager of Computer Operations, and has developed import businesses that manufactured furniture, motorcycles and crystals in China. He is a frequent traveler, having visited China more than 100 times and lectured in more than 30 countries.

Dr. Shao has consulted for major companies that include Coca-Cola, Nissan, HSBC, Wells Fargo, North Carolina State Ports Authority, Hendrick Motor Sports (NASCAR) and the Carolina Panthers football franchise. He is a Past-President of the North Carolina World Trade Association, has served on the Board of the North Carolina District Export Council and is a past member of the Charleston Metro Chamber.

Among his honors and achievements, Dr. Shao was named a Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence Finalist at UNC Charlotte, where he also received the Excellence in Teaching and the Gray’s MBA Outstanding Teaching Awards from the Belk College of Business Administration.

Dr. Shao earned his Ph.D. in Marketing, with a minor in Statistics at the University of Alabama–Tuscaloosa; an M.B.A. with a concentration in Management at Old Dominion University, and a B.S. in General Business, also from Old Dominion University.

An athletic enthusiast, his hobbies include jogging, basketball, weight training and golf. Dr. Shao and his wife, Carol, are the parents of three children: Janine (24), Victoria (22) and Alan II (17).

Dr. Gregg Lassen, Vice President for Finance and Operations,

Lamar University

Dr. Gregg Lassen is Vice President for Finance and Operations for Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, a position he has held since February 2011.

Prior to moving to Beaumont, Dr. Lassen served as Executive Vice President at the University of Texas at Tyler, and Vice President for Finance at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Higher education is a second career for Dr. Lassen. He enjoyed 18 years in the energy industry in a variety of positions across all facets of the business working for Amoco and then BP following the merger of those two companies. Among his duties were work in finance, audit, marketing, regulatory affairs, international business development, and management in both upstream and downstream divisions worldwide.

Dr. Lassen has developed a track record for strategic management and analysis at regional universities facing significant financial constraints. His work has resulted in the successful implementation of cost saving measures while simultaneously improving operational performance. The resulting improvement in the financial condition of the university allows for a renewed focus on growth.

At Lamar University, Dr. Lassen has led the University community through a new Campus Master Plan that includes a $15-million project to renovate an outdated, unused residence hall and convert it into offices for administrative services and a student service center.

While at the University of Texas at Tyler, Dr. Lassen was responsible for business affairs. Student affairs was later added to his administrative oversight which included the offices of admissions, registrar, and housing, and a Division III athletics program.

Dr. Lassen helped create for the University of Texas at Tyler a strategic enrollment management department and a one-stop shop for student services. He also led a committee and engaged a market research firm to enhance an understanding of the University’s brand and to improve its student recruiting performance in the Dallas metropolitan area.

Dr. Lassen has an appreciation for the academic life of a campus and continues to teach and act as an advisor to a variety of student groups. He also is active in community service having served in leadership roles at the Texas Energy Museum, Leadership Tyler Executive Program and Leadership Utah.

He completed his Ph.D. in political science and international affairs from the University of Southern Mississippi, a law degree from the University of Houston, and an MBA and B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Dr. Lassen and his wife Jackie are the parents of three daughters, aged 14 to 20. All three daughters have been actively involved in the performing arts and in the equestrian sport of eventing.

Learn more about each finalist by clicking on http://presidentialsearch.eku.edu/finalists, as well as the links above. 

Turner announced that there will be an open forum for each finalist and interested parties may still provide feedback to the Presidential Search and Screening Committee. 

The Presidential Candidate Forums will be available to the EKU campuses via a live video stream and on the EKU homepage (www.eku.edu).

Maya Angelou: Teachers Are 'Rainbows in the Clouds'

This from Teaching Now:

Renowned poet Maya Angelou just finished a moving keynote address in front of a packed ballroom here at the ASCD conference. She spoke above all of "rainbows in the clouds," or the people who bring us hope and change our lives.

"I had rainbows in my clouds—men and women who had enough courage to encourage me." She spoke specifically of her Uncle Willie, who taught her to do her times tables. "Black, poor, crippled ... born during the lynching years. This man was a rainbow in somebody's cloud." Courage, she said, is the key to being someone's rainbow. "Without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

Angelou mentioned that despite a tumultuous childhood, which included sexual abuse and six years suffering from selective mutism, she has now taught around the world and holds 70 honorary doctorates. "You might think I'm bragging on myself ... I'm bragging on the rainbows in my clouds."

With the gentle, joyful touch for which she's known, Angelou implored the educators in the room to keep talking and encouraging each other with "some sass ... some flair, some passion, some
compassion, some humor."

"You are rainbows in the clouds," she said. "It delights my heart to encourage you to continue."

Finalists for EKU president may be announced today

This from the Richmond Register:

The committee seeking the next president of Eastern Kentucky University expects to announce a group of finalists this afternoon.

Craig Turner, the EKU regents chair who also heads the 12-member search panel, said it would be bringing a “really exciting” group of candidates “to town” for campus visits and interviews.

Asked if his choice of words hadn’t inadvertently revealed that no local residents or current members of the campus community would be among the finalists, Turner said it did not.

The announcement of finalists today won’t be the only big news coming from EKU this week. The regents will meet in a special called session at 10 a.m. tomorrow, mainly to consider recommendations for reducing university staff.

Among the proposals will be buyouts and placement assistance for staff who have been employed for at least five years. Retirement incentives for those with longer employment also will be presented, Turner said.

The regents have been given drafts of the recommendations in advance of the meeting, he said. Local government leaders and members of Madison County’s legislative delegation have been briefed on what will be proposed.

In late January, President Doug Whitlock charged a specially appointed task force with recommending ways the university could cut its expenses by 10 percent. About a week later, he announced that cuts of such magnitude could not be attained without reducing staff.

With 70 percent of the university’s budget taken up by pay and benefits, cutting staff would be unavoidable if expenses are to be cut by 10 percent, Turner said.

Although the task force is reviewing all campus operations and programs, the regents won’t be considering program evaluations on their limited Tuesday agenda, in part because the reviews are incomplete, he said. However, no program is exempt from review. But, this is much too early to predict how prominent or longstanding programs such as the Model Laboratory School may be affected by the review.

Potential staff reduction efforts will be acted on first to give affected personnel as much advance warning as possible, Turner said.

The move to reduce expenses and reallocate resources after reviewing programs is being done for the long-term as Eastern expects to end the fiscal year June 30 with its budget in balance, the regents chair said.

The purpose is to capitalize on EKU’s strengths, eliminate some weaknesses and generally make the university more efficient, Turner said. That will put it and the incoming president in a better position to prosper as a challenging future approaches, he said.

One thing that won’t happen is an across-the-board cutting of expenses, Turner said. Such indiscriminate action would weaken successful programs and penalize those that have been efficient. Some programs could very well receive increased investment after the review, he said.

“We can’t be all things to everyone,” Turner said, adding that Eastern should concentrate on things that it does best as well as those that are central to its mission.

The business model for higher education is changing, he said, and all must move to shore up their foundations because the waves that threaten to erode them have begun to break against them all.

Auditor Edelen and Education Commissioner Holliday Call for Superintendent Contracts, Benefits, Evaluations to be More Transparent to Taxpayers

Move Comes on the Heels of Scathing School Examinations by Auditor’s office

Push by Holliday to Require Strengthened Superintendent Evaluations

Training for School Board Members

Education Commissioner Terry Holliday supports a recommendation by Auditor Adam Edelen to require superintendent contracts, benefits and annual evaluations be made available online after a series of school district special examinations found a lack of transparency and oversight.

The Auditor’s office last week released a scandalous special examination that found the former superintendent of Dayton Independent Schools received $224,000 in benefits and payments over an eight-year period that were not authorized by the board. An examination released last fall found the former superintendent of the Mason County School District also received compensation in excess of his contract.

“When school boards are in the dark about the benefits and payments their own superintendents are receiving, how can the public ever be confident their tax dollars are being spent to provide our children with the world-class education they deserve?” Auditor Edelen said.

The recommendation follows a recent announcement by Commissioner Holliday of his plans to impose stricter requirements for superintendent evaluations and ethics and fiscal oversight training for school board members.

“We’re seeing far too many cases where adults are making choices that are right for them rather than what’s really right for students and their future,” Commissioner Holliday said. “The focus needs to be on supporting what happens in the classroom and ensuring all our students graduate college/career-ready.”

Superintendent salaries are currently posted on the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) website, but more information about superintendent contracts and benefits is needed to give a complete picture of superintendents’ total compensation packages.

Later this spring, KDE will send a letter to all school board chairs outlining the reporting requirements, process and deadline for submission, Commissioner Holliday said. Once the information is assembled, it will be available to anyone on the Kentucky Department of Education website.

In addition to copies of contracts, the department will be asking for information including:

• Monthly travel allowances
• Exclusive use of a district vehicle, including if it is for personal use
• Use of district fuel or district credit card to purchase fuel, including if it is for personal use
• Payment or reimbursement for cell phone and Internet services
• Insurance
• Leave time and maximum leave allowed to be accumulated
• Reimbursement for personal retirement contributions
• Reimbursement for the purchase of retirement service credit
• Payment or reimbursement for retirement annuity
• Payment or reimbursement for educational tuition assistance
• Association memberships

This move comes at the same time the Office of Education Accountability, at the request of the Education Accountability and Assessment Review Subcommittee (EAARS) of the Kentucky General Assembly, is looking into superintendent employment issues as part of its 2013 study agenda.

“State and local government have come a long way in becoming more transparent, making everything from state contracts to our basketball coaches’ compensation packages readily available, yet important information about our schools is still cloaked in darkness,” Auditor Edelen said.

Under KRS 61.870-61.884, the Kentucky Open Records Act, all the information that will be collected is currently available to the public. But it isn’t always easily accessible, Holliday said. These efforts will make the information available to anyone, anytime in one location in a format that is clear and straightforward, Auditor Edelen added.

“I have always been an advocate for openness and transparency,” Commissioner Holliday said. “I welcome the auditor’s recommendations and hope this will result in a greater level of fiscal oversight and responsibility in our school districts. It is the duty of us all to be accountable and good stewards of the taxpayer’s money.”

SOURCE: Press release

How The Ryan Budget Will Hurt Higher Education

This from Campus Progress:

Former Republican vice-presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin unveiled a budget blueprint [yesterday] for fiscal year 2014 titled "The Path to Prosperity."

As the chair of the House Budget Committee, Ryan is best known as the architect of a House budget plan to slash discretionary spending, including federal research funding, student loans and the Pell Grant program, over the next decade.

The Ryan Budget would have a severe impact on students across the country. In his report, he writes that Pell Grants, the federal  program for undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need, is "on an unsustainable path" after numerous award increases and easing of eligibility requirements during the recession.

Under the House Republican Budget, Pell Grants would be capped at the current level of $5,645 for 10 years, and eliminate all mandatory funding. In other words, under Ryan’s plan, Pell Grants would not keep up with the pace of inflation and rising tuition costs, and would be worth less each successive year. Ryan's Budget also proposed to fund the minimized Pell Grant program with discretionary funds, which would be impossible given the caps without deep cuts to other programs or eligibility changes. So to meet this, the Ryan Budget proposed just that: to change the method of calculating how much a student's family can pay for higher education, making these loans harder to get and less generous.

As Lauren Asher, the president of TICAS, explained how these changes to pell would make college less accessible for the neediest of students in a recent statement. "The maximum Pell Grant already covers less than one-third of the cost of attending a public four-year college this fall—the lowest share since the start of the program. Freezing it for 10 years would lower its value even further, to 17 percent of college costs by 2023."

In the long run, it's predicted this budget plan will save the federal government $1.1 billion, but in return it will make higher education more unattainable for low-income students. During the 2011-2012 school year, there were 19 million valid applicants for Pell but only less than half were supported by the program, according to the Department of Education. Without access to these federal grants, low-income students that continue to pursue a higher education will likely become even more reliant on student loans, a debt crisis affecting our entire economy. And the House Republican Budget barely mentions the $1 trillion issue, and stays eerily silent on the student loan interest rates that are set to double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8, in the summer...

Equity and Quality in Education

This from Global Learning:

The highest performing education systems are those that combine quality with equity. Equity in education means that personal or social circumstances such as gender, ethnic origin, or family background are not obstacles to achieving educational potential (the definition of fairness) and that all individuals reach at least a basic minimum level of skills (the definition of inclusion). In these education systems, the vast majority of students have the opportunity to attain high-level skills, regardless of their own personal and socio-economic circumstances. Within the Asia-Pacific region, for example, Korea, Shanghai, and Japan are examples of education systems that have climbed the ladder to the top in both quality and equity indicators. Canada is a good example in North America. The United States is above the OECD mean in reading performance but below the mean with regard to equity.

One of the most efficient educational strategies for governments is to invest early and continue investing all the way through upper secondary. Governments can prevent school failure and reduce dropouts using two parallel approaches: eliminating education policies and practices that hinder equity; and targeting low-performing disadvantaged schools. But education policies need to be aligned with other government policies, such as housing or welfare, to ensure student success.

Eliminate Policies and Practices that Contribute to Failure
The way education systems are designed can exacerbate initial inequities and have a negative impact on student motivation and engagement, eventually leading to dropout. Making education systems more equitable benefits disadvantaged students without hindering other students' progress. Five recommendations can contribute to preventing failure and promoting completion of upper secondary education:

• Eliminate grade repetition.
• Avoid early tracking and defer student selection to upper secondary.
• Manage school choice to avoid segregation and increased inequities.
• Make funding strategies responsive to students' and schools' needs.
• Design equivalent upper secondary education pathways to ensure completion.

Help Disadvantaged Students and Schools Improve
Schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged students are at greater risk of low performance, affecting education systems as a whole. Low-performing disadvantaged schools often lack the internal capacity or support to improve, as school leaders and teachers and the environments of schools, classrooms, and neighborhoods frequently fail to offer a high-quality learning experience for the most disadvantaged. Five policy recommendations have shown to be effective in supporting the improvement of low performing disadvantaged schools:

• Strengthen and support school leadership.
• Stimulate a supportive school climate and environment for learning.
• Attract, support, and retain high-quality teachers.
• Ensure effective classroom learning strategies.
• Prioritize linking schools with parents and communities.

For more, please see the report, Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, from which this piece was excerpted. The report is by the OECD Education Directorate and was written as background for the first Asia Society Global Cities Education Network Symposium, Hong Kong, May 2012.

Arne Duncan plays "Not My Job"

This from "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" on NPR:

Arne Duncan is President Obama's secretary of education, and if, while he's on this show, a disaster befalls the president, the vice president, the speaker of the House and every other member of the Cabinet except Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, he would be president.

We've invited Duncan to play a game called "Now, don't be fresh ... I just take dictation!" Three questions for the secretary of education about the education of secretaries.

PETER SAGAL, HOST:
And now, the game where smart people end up wondering why they spent all that time learning useful stuff. The game is called Not my Job. Arne Duncan is President Obama's Secretary of Education and if, while he's on this show, a disaster befalls the president, the vice president, the speaker of the house and every other member of the cabinet, except Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, he would be president.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Arne Duncan, welcome.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Wow.
ARNE DUNCAN: Hello. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
DUNCAN: We are officially the 16th family.
SAGAL: You are.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
(LAUGHTER)
ROY BLOUNT JR: Who's after you?
DUNCAN: Not too many people. If I ever stand up and say everything's OK, everything is not OK.
SAGAL: I understand.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So you're from Chicago, native born, right?
DUNCAN: Right.
SAGAL: And your mother was a teacher here in Chicago?
DUNCAN: My dad taught at the University of Chicago and my mother ran an inner city tutoring program, started in 1961. She raised my sister and brother as a part of her program. We've all gone into education and all have tried to follow in her footsteps. It was an amazing formative experience.
SAGAL: Wow, that's kind of amazing.
DUNCAN: It was.
SAGAL: So your mother was your after school teacher.
DUNCAN: Yes.
SAGAL: So you had detention with your mother your entire childhood.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: She ran a tight ship.
SAGAL: Really. Now you also grew up as a basketball player.
DUNCAN: I tried.
SAGAL: But you weren't good enough to get into a good school, so you went to Harvard.
DUNCAN: True.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: That is absolutely the truth.
SAGAL: Really? Did you actually try to get into like some decent basketball school?
DUNCAN: You know, if DePaul would have called or Notre Dame, I would have been there in a heartbeat.
SAGAL: Really.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Now here's the question. President Obama selected you to be Secretary of Education for his first term and now you're continuing in the second. Is it only because you can give him a game on the basketball court?
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: I hope not but we do have some good fun together. That's our stress relief and it's a chance where he can just be normal and we can relax play and it's a real good camaraderie.
SAGAL: Right. Now, how long have you been playing basketball with President Obama?
DUNCAN: It actually goes back to when he was teaching as a professor at U of C and we used to play at the old Henry Crown Field House there.
SAGAL: Really?
DUNCAN: Really.
SAGAL: And keeping in mind that hardly anyone listens to this show...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...is he any good?
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: He can play.
SAGAL: He can play.
DUNCAN: When we play, he's not out there to make a few baskets or break a sweat; he's out there to win.
SAGAL: Right.
JR: You think he would have gone further in life with that sort of...
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
POUNDSTONE: Do you think this, do you think that were there not a stipulation that you cant use drones on American citizens...
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: ...that that urge to win would have interrupted said speak on the basketball court? That would be awful, wouldn't it, just to...
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: You know, you're about to go up for that lay up and darn.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: Aw, man, that was a drone. That's not...
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: That is not cool.
DUNCAN: I plead the fifth on that one. I'll stay out of that one.
SAGAL: All right.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Is it true that your mother played basketball with President Obama?
DUNCAN: It is true. And my mother played into her, I'm not even sure, late 50s, early 60s, and she was a tough cookie in lots of different ways.
SAGAL: So your mother is going up against the president of the United States.
DUNCAN: Well this was long before he was the president.
SAGAL: Yeah, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: But they had a battle. She's a tough cookie. And, you know, if she fouled him, he'd let her know. And, you know, it was a...
SAGAL: How did he let her know? Did he punch her?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Or did he say, oh, excuse me, you fouled me. He's competitive.
DUNCAN: They're both competitive. So they had some good rivalries.
SAGAL: So...
JR: Did your mother ever play against Dennis Rodman?
(LAUGHTER)
FIROOZEH DUMAS: So you didn't go to your first choice of college. Is this job your first choice?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: He'd rather have Commerce just so he can have a slightly closer chance...
(LAUGHTER)
DUMAS: Wouldn't we all?
DUNCAN: It's an amazing, amazing job. And honestly, going back, every day I think about my mother starting in a church basement in 1961 and working with a small group of kids on the south side of Chicago and having a chance to have those roots and then now trying to impact education across the country. I pinch myself some days. It's pretty amazing.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: So, I mean you're dealing, though, as secretary of education with some pretty serious problems. Our educational system doesn't seem to be doing well. We always hear that our scores in math and science are falling behind other countries.
Have you ever thought of instead of trying to get the kids to do better in those things, come up with careers that the kids can do with the skills that we are teaching them? Like, for example, lying around.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, my gosh.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Texting, for example. My kids can text like nobody's business. So if we can...
POUNDSTONE: Oh, man, the world of competitive texting.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: If we can build an economy on the skills...
DUNCAN: Based on that.
SAGAL: ...that we're actually teaching our children, it might...
DUNCAN: I can retire and go to the Bahamas...
SAGAL: Exactly, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. You have kids in public school.
DUNCAN: I do. We had parent-teacher conferences this morning.
SAGAL: Really?
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: OK. So...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So I'm a teacher...
POUNDSTONE: Oh my gosh.
SAGAL: ...and in walks the secretary of education, and the secretary of education says, "So, how is my child doing in your class?" And the teacher says to him or herself, the funding for the entire district is relying on my answer.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: No, no, far from it. It's actually, I go in, I'm Claire and Ryan's dad.
SAGAL: Right.
DUNCAN: You know, total separation of roles...
POUNDSTONE: No, there's not.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: There might be for you but there's not for the teacher. What, are you out of your mind?
DUNCAN: You sit in a chair much smaller this and squeeze in...
SAGAL: Yeah, yeah, those tight little chairs, yeah. And you're a big guy.
DUNCAN: And the power is all - you know, you're sitting there hoping your children are doing OK, so that, you know, the power is all there and you're trying to figure out...
SAGAL: Really?
DUNCAN: Absolutely. Absolutely.
SAGAL: You know...
POUNDSTONE: You're out of your mind.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I mean, they tell you your kid is failing geometry and you're like, whoa, nice federal funding you got here.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: It'd be a shame if something happened to that.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I'm sorry. I just want to ask you a couple more questions about playing basketball with the president. You still do, right?
DUNCAN: We do. We do.
SAGAL: You do. If you foul the president hard, do they kill you immediately or...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...do they take you to Guantanamo? I mean do like the Secret Service guys every leap out and like...
DUNCAN: They don't.
SAGAL: It'd be really fun if they had like just one guy with like shades and suit and an earpiece standing under the basket just totally goal tending.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: Well I'm not giving up any state secrets, but there was one time when he got an elbow and got stitches in his mouth.
SAGAL: Yeah.
DUNCAN: And he went down, boom.
SAGAL: Right.
POUNDSTONE: Who did that? Who hit him?
DUNCAN: He never came back, so.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That man has not been seen since.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah.
DUNCAN: No, he's a good friend. We still play.
SAGAL: Have you ever said to the president, when you say dunk over him, have you ever said, "Well, I'm the secretary of education and you've just been schooled?"
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
DUNCAN: I haven't but I will remember that line.
SAGAL: Secretary Duncan, we have asked you here to play a game that this time we're calling?
BILL KURTIS: Now don't be fresh, I just take dictation.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So you're the secretary of education, but what do you know about the education of secretaries?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: We looked at how secretaries were taught to behave in the bad/good old days. Answer two questions correctly and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners. Plus, of course, we'll consider hiring you for our secretarial pool.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, who is Secretary Arne Duncan playing for?
KURTIS: Josh Glitz, a high school English teacher from Dallas, Texas.
SAGAL: There you go.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Josh, the secretary is working for you. So you ready to do this?
DUNCAN: Got to take care of Josh.
SAGAL: I know. This is a little intimidating because, you know, secretaries of education usually don't take tests; you give them. If you don't do well on this test, we will cut your funding.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Here we go. Here is your first question. It comes from a 1946 pamphlet put out by the Remington Typewriter Company. And the pamphlet was called, Memo: How to be a Super Secretary.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And the pamphlet was written in the second person. It's telling the secretary things like: You are efficient and you are cheerful. It also says what? A: You are the receptacle of all of your boss' desires? B: You are a clam? Or C: You are an expensive piece of office equipment?
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: A.
SAGAL: You are the receptacle of all your boss' desires? No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Why, Secretary Duncan, I'm surprised.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It's you are a clam, and it meant you should never speak of what goes on inside the office outside the office.
DUNCAN: Got it.
SAGAL: Well you still have two more chances. In 1941, the New York Times said that among the many things a modern secretary was expected to do for her boss was which of these? A: be willing to cover up any of his crimes? B: hold his pencils admiringly? Or C: give her life for him if necessary?
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: B.
SAGAL: Yes, it is B.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Advice is to hold his pencils admiringly. We're not sure how you're supposed to do that.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Last question, if you get this, you win the game. In the early 1930s, one secretarial school helped its students get used to then newfangled technology by doing what? A: shocking them repeatedly with electricity so they wouldn't be scared of it anymore?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: B: teaching them to make their own ballpoint pens? Or C: building a four-foot tall rotary dial phone for demonstration purposes?
(LAUGHTER)
DUNCAN: Let's go with C.
SAGAL: Yes, it is C.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Students were invited up to use this crazy new dial, this rotary phone and listen to the funny sounds it made as it spun past.
DUNCAN: Wow.
SAGAL: And then the little ones they'd see in the office wouldn't scare them. They'd be like, oh, look at the little baby phone.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Secretary Duncan do on our show?
KURTIS: Two out of three, what a game.
(APPLAUSE)
KURTIS: He's got game.
SAGAL: Arne Duncan is an awesome basketball player and also the Secretary of Education of the United States. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much.
DUNCAN: Thanks.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Thank you for the good work.

Jon Stewart spanks preschool critics

This from the Answer Sheet in the Washington Post:


Take six minutes and 12 seconds to watch this.

Jon Stewart continues to be the best critic of silly education thinking with this “Daily Show” piece about the stupidity of some of the criticism of the idea of government support for high-quality preschool for all kids, an idea President Obama advanced in his State of the Union speech.

Said Stewart:

…. If these children want an education, they should get jobs and pay for it themselves. But that’s illegal, Thanks nanny state…

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The First Lady of Literacy

As part of the third annual Kentucky Literacy Celebration First Lady Jane Beshear stopped by the Noel Studio in the EKU library last week to share stories with second graders from Model Lab School. In cooperation with the Collaborative Literacy Center, Beshear has been traveling the state this week spreading the gospel of good readin'. The students were prepped for today's visit by preservice teachers at Eastern. The Teacher Ed candidates questioned Beshear about the rate of improvement in state-wide literacy. Beshear's last stop was the library's Grand Reading Room where several projects under the theme "Bridges to Literacy" were showcased.

Public Higher Ed Per-Student Spending Drops To 25-Year Low

When I was a kid, the state of Kentucky placed great value on a more highly educated workforce than is the case today. Seventy percent of my college-going costs were supported by the state.  I left UK after four years with a degree and no debt, ready to contribute to the economy.

Today's students find that the state's support has slipped to about a third, so tuition has skyrocketed in response. Today's students tend to leave college after five years with a mound of debt.


This from The Huffington Post:

The amount being spent per student by public colleges and universities has fallen to its lowest level in at least 25 years, a result of state budget cuts a new report warns are rapidly eroding the nation’s educational edge over its international competitors.

The report, by the Boulder, Colorado-based State Higher Education Executive Officers, or SHEEO, shows that state and local financial support for public universities and colleges fell 7 percent last year, on top of a 9 percent drop the year before. And while enrollment also fell slightly—a result, the organization’s president said, not of lower demand, but of higher tuition—it’s still higher than in 2008, when the steep budget cuts began.

The result is that the amount being spent, per student, is $5,896, the lowest level in the 25 years since it’s been tracked by SHEEO. And a much higher proportion of that is being charged to families in the form of tuition than is being covered by states.

Nearly half of the cost of public higher education is now borne by students in the form of tuition, more than double the proportion of 25 years ago, SHEEO said.

“Students are paying more, while public institutions are receiving substantially less money to educate them,” said SHEEO President Paul Lingenfelter, who said the annual decreases in funding and increases in tuition were the biggest in his 41-year career in higher education.

Lingenfelter said that last year’s decline in enrollment, which has been previously detailed by The Hechinger Report, was a result of higher tuition and, in some states, enrollment caps imposed by institutions in response to lower legislative subsidies.

State and local support for higher education last year was $81.2 billion, When inflation is taken into account, the one-year decline in funding was 9 percent.

Since 2008, the amount collected from students in the form of tuition and fees has grown from $41 billion a year to about $60 billion.

Public universities and colleges enroll more than 70 percent of all U.S. students.

“Other countries are rapidly improving the postsecondary education of their citizens,” said Marshall Hill, director of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education and chairman of SHEEO’s executive committee. “If the United States falls further behind in either quality or the number of students who enroll and graduate it will not be easy to catch up.”

There's a Plan, but is there a Vision?

Has the Opportunity for Transparency and Shared Governance 

Already Passed Us By?

In the P-12 world, especially since KERA, springtime budget cuts and staffing reallocations have been common place. Every March, teachers and other support staff await news of whether their positions will be funded, or if they will be "pink slipped."

Underpinning that decision-making was a philosophy, which we in the Fayette County schools would repeat out loud. "Don't touch programs that directly impact students." It guided the tough choices that had to be made. The positions of folks who worked directly with students were much safer, if you will, than those who supported that instruction. In that way, the school district was sure to support its core mission - assuring student success.

If there is a similar philosophy guiding the work of EKU's Strategic Reallocation Task Force, it is less apparent. The Task Force is looking broadly to increase efficiency, cost-containment, and focus on core mission. That certainly sounds good, but I'm not sure what it really means. 

This sort of reorganization is relatively new to EKU. But not completely.

Ask any "old timer" about the brief administration of EKU President Robert W. Kustra (1998-2001) and you get raised eyebrows and a reference to "The April Fool's Day Massacre." According to Bill Ellis's History of EKU, the issues back in those days were pretty much the same as today. Kustra, an Illinois Republican politician who had served as Lt. Governor, entered the presidency with a $13 million cushion from President Funderburke and began to concern himself with campus culture, shared governance, increasing enrollment, student retention, and technology. 

Believing he had a mandate from the Board of Regents, on April 1, 1999, Kustra unilaterally and apparently without warning, announced a restructuring that he claimed would save a half million dollars. Despite his stated support for shared governance, the news shocked the campus community. A few discussions with a retired Vice President about the project did little to prepare the faculty for a immediate reorganization of nine colleges into five, and the reaction was huge. Amid the reorganization, Kustra created two new Associate Vice Presidents. 

A firestorm developed and the April Fool's' Day Massacre moniker was born. Stricken faculty members rebelled, claiming that they had not been a party to any discussions. Kustra had apparently followed the "Administrative Playbook," telling the Deans that "no decisions have been made" and leading them to believe that change was not imminent -  then dropping the bomb unexpectedly. Kustra defended his position, claiming that Eastern needed to get in line with its benchmark institutions by the end of the fiscal year.

Kustra had hoped the faculty would quickly put the matter behind them. "He could not have been more wrong," Ellis wrote. The issue turned into an on-going discussion, in the Eastern Progress, around the departmental coffee machines, around campus, and off. Before long the Progress began to ask, "We're reorganized, but where's the money?" Funderburke's $13 million cushion was pretty much gone. Kustra's promotion of athletics, and the reorganization, coupled with the "Buck Study," which was meant to provide pay equity, only added to the confusion, and perhaps provided the means for administrative obfuscation. The university entered a period of instability and by his third year the faculty was considering a vote of no confidence. Then on Valentine's Day, 2001, with a year left on his contract, Kustra resigned. During an informal gathering he said, "I created a few people who took me off their Christmas card list, you could say."

The lack of transparency in 1999 cost the university. What will be the result of the current Task Force's inability to get to a point where it could share specific information with the campus in advance of the Board of Regents meeting scheduled right after spring break.

It appears that once the plan is presented to the Board, it will move toward being "a done deal" rather quickly - much like Kustra's bomb. We can see this one coming, but no one knows what it will look like when it arrives.

As previously reported, Martin & Hill's study of the factors that drive costs at public universities underscored the importance of shared governance in universities' budget decisions. 

Those who hold the purse strings have a natural incentive to hire more employees like themselves...Sharing decisions about hiring and other spending across different types of people, including faculty, administrators, and governing-board members, [Martin] said, acts as a natural check and balance, ensuring that no individual side's interests rise to the top.

But the study highlights a staffing trend, seen over two decades, of colleges' hiring more administrators than faculty. Universities reduced costs by hiring part-time instructors instead of tenure-track faculty, while hiring relatively more full-time administrators, the study shows. In 1987, the ratio of tenure-track faculty to full-time administrators at public research universities was 0.96, a balance of about one-to-one, with a slight tilt toward administrators. By 2008, however, the ratio of faculty to administrators had fallen to 0.56, reflecting a strong shift toward administrators.

Over that same time, the number of tenure-track faculty per 100 students at public research universities grew by 3 percent, while the number of part-time faculty per 100 students grew by 60 percent. Meanwhile, executive and managerial staff at those institutions increased by 9 percent per 100 students and noninstructional professional staff grew by 57 percent per 100 students.

EKU was not immune to this trend.

 

From 2004 to 2011, EKU reported the following increases and decreases in the number of positions by category.

• Executive/Administrative and Managerial: +44
• Other Professional: +82
• Clerical and Secretarial: +230
• Technical and Paraprofessional:  -165
• Skilled Crafts:  +63
• Service/Maintenance:  -51
• Faculty:  +64

These categories can be misleading in some rare cases (i.e., where a "Director" has no budget and no reports and arguably should show up under "Other Professional" rather than Admin), but overall, it mirrors the national trend. This bureaucracy has only been built over the past decade. Now that cuts have been mandated, will this administrative bloat come under the microscope? Or will we simply try to save money by eliminating our least expensive instructors (who directly serve students), while driving up class sizes? Opinions differ, even among members of the Task Force. Off the record, one member expressed serious doubt that the Task Force would reduce many, if any, administrators, while another believed there would be reductions, even if those reductions did not occur this spring, but were planned reductions over the next year or two.

 

Martin & Hill argue that the optimal ratio of faculty to administrators should be should be 3:1. According to the most recent data I've seen, at EKU it is more like 1 1/2 :1. As of the Fall of 2011, EKU reported 426 administrators (those in the Exec/Admin/Manag and Other Professional categories above). The faculty numbered 626.

One can disagree with the findings of the study, but one thing is clear, there are universities operating efficiently and successfully with a much leaner administration. It can be done. It is being done by others.

We have a plan. Set aside $23 million. But is there a vision? 

Some faculty had hoped that the Presidential Search Committee, also chaired by Turner, would set the course by calling for a President with a proven track record of success as a university president - a scholar who understood the critical importance of teaching and service. But that guidance did not come. Instead the search committee cast its net widely, setting the qualifications low enough that another politician could be considered.

Lacking a vision for the future, how can one tell if the cuts that will be recommended by the Task Force are likely to be fair and ultimately effective? For faculty, the test is likely to be whether significant administrative reductions are in the mix.

Will EKU become a leaner and more nimble?  Or will personal relationships among top administrators and those who support their positions trump Chairmen Turner's desire for a new kind of business model?

Apparently we will need to wait a little longer to find out.