23.9.03
22.9.03
WORKING ON THE RAILROAD. The For Better or For Worse comic strip has focused on the adventures of the kids with college, dating, and starting their own families of late. The model railroad that figured in some strips a few years ago has been absent. Not so in real life. Cartoonist Lynn Johnston is really married to a dentist, who is semi-retired, and his business for retirement is manufacturing and selling 1/12 actual size model trains you can ride on (the company recommends bringing your own grandchildren.) Model Railroader (registration required) has some coverage of the company, which also serves as Rod Johnston's latest model railroad. (I would guess that he still has the smaller stuff in the basement, as an outdoor railroad in North Bay, Ontario, really has to contend with snow and ice on the tracks, and frost heaves in the spring.)
BEER AND CIRCUSES. Via Number 2 Pencil comes A Small Victory's coverage of a football camp hazing incident gone horribly wrong (warning: involves numerous violations of the Royal Navy's Articles of War for which the bugger violator shall suffer death). But in addition to the injury suffered by some of the participants in the hazing comes a protest by some of the campers and their friends. It transpires that the school administration showed some backbone, and cancelled the entire football season. That was reason enough for the team members, cheerleaders, and hangers-on to boycott classes in protest, and for the booster club to get up in arms. As A Small Victory notes, the whole team is to blame, and the whole team must suffer the consequences (which did not include any hangings from the yardarms.) If It Takes A Village, clearly here is a village with much to recommend it. Not. Reminds me: got to follow up on that chumming incident powder-puff football game and underage drinking party that got out of hand. Got to discover whether some of the perps have since been amnestied (or enrolled here??)
WELCOME BACK. Tongue Tied is back in operation, after a transoceanic move, with lots of goodies. This report ties in well with Highered Intelligence and SCSU Scholars commentary on Boston Globe coverage of Harvard President (and economist extraordinaire) Larry Summers's call for a hard look at general education.
Clearly, when a weak department challenges criticism of its academic weaknesses because the criticism neglects -- indeed, allegedly is stronger because of -- the diversity of the department in question, the dilettantes are in charge.
The Highered Intelligence post ties in with my previous post on mission differentiation among universities, something that I perceive to be eroding inefficiently. My focus was on the evolution of a different kind of academic pecking order among faculty members, with research-based tenure track coexisting uneasily with insecurity-based adjunct track as the modern norm, rather than different kinds of tenure tracks for different kinds of colleges and universities, as I perceive was the case long ago. Highered Intelligence focuses on the nature of education and the purposes of students, in a way that also ties in with the holding pen meme. Consider "UCLA (motto: On! Wisconsin!) undergraduates are really two different types of people: science majors and non-science majors. The difference is, at times, striking. (Please remember that I am generalizing here, so don't send me email complaining about it unless you really mean to argue with the generalization.) The Science Majors are dedicated to their work, and interested in their work. They work hard at their work. They have to, because the departments don't allow you to coast through. Math and science majors at UCLA (repeat motto) know their subjects, and quite often this approach spills over to their other classes. Many of the chemistry majors I knew were more conversant in literature than the English majors.
"The social sciences and humanities, while they certainly have their stars, are populated by and large with students whose goal is simply to get a diploma... and it doesn't really matter in what that diploma is. The humanities diploma from UCLA (motto) is a credential... a signifier to the rest of society that the bearer is a reasonably competent individual who knows how to read and can probably learn new things with little difficulty. As far as substantive knowledge goes, the humanities undergraduate who was able to discuss their major coherently was a rare creature at UCLA. They're not there for the knowledge, they are there for the sheepskin."
While I disagree in part with the generalization about social and behavioral sciences, I am prepared to grant for the sake of discussion that relatively few people who are in university for the signalling value of the degree will major in chemistry, or mathematics, and it's a perpetual struggle to disabuse the people who have not made the cut at the college of business that an economics major is a cheap substitute. Hence the signalling value conflicts with the human capital value of a degree.
So what's the connection to the service differentiation post? Only this: at one time the dilettantes went to the finishing schools or sometimes the converted normal schools; the strivers went to the undergraduate programs at the research universities or to the land-grants. Today's more-or-less-undistinguishable comprehensive university attempts to serve the dilettantes and the strivers alike, and as Number 2 Pencil notes, perhaps the admissions policies are supposed to yield a mix of strivers and of dilettantes.
Clearly, when a weak department challenges criticism of its academic weaknesses because the criticism neglects -- indeed, allegedly is stronger because of -- the diversity of the department in question, the dilettantes are in charge.
The Highered Intelligence post ties in with my previous post on mission differentiation among universities, something that I perceive to be eroding inefficiently. My focus was on the evolution of a different kind of academic pecking order among faculty members, with research-based tenure track coexisting uneasily with insecurity-based adjunct track as the modern norm, rather than different kinds of tenure tracks for different kinds of colleges and universities, as I perceive was the case long ago. Highered Intelligence focuses on the nature of education and the purposes of students, in a way that also ties in with the holding pen meme. Consider "UCLA (motto: On! Wisconsin!) undergraduates are really two different types of people: science majors and non-science majors. The difference is, at times, striking. (Please remember that I am generalizing here, so don't send me email complaining about it unless you really mean to argue with the generalization.) The Science Majors are dedicated to their work, and interested in their work. They work hard at their work. They have to, because the departments don't allow you to coast through. Math and science majors at UCLA (repeat motto) know their subjects, and quite often this approach spills over to their other classes. Many of the chemistry majors I knew were more conversant in literature than the English majors.
"The social sciences and humanities, while they certainly have their stars, are populated by and large with students whose goal is simply to get a diploma... and it doesn't really matter in what that diploma is. The humanities diploma from UCLA (motto) is a credential... a signifier to the rest of society that the bearer is a reasonably competent individual who knows how to read and can probably learn new things with little difficulty. As far as substantive knowledge goes, the humanities undergraduate who was able to discuss their major coherently was a rare creature at UCLA. They're not there for the knowledge, they are there for the sheepskin."
While I disagree in part with the generalization about social and behavioral sciences, I am prepared to grant for the sake of discussion that relatively few people who are in university for the signalling value of the degree will major in chemistry, or mathematics, and it's a perpetual struggle to disabuse the people who have not made the cut at the college of business that an economics major is a cheap substitute. Hence the signalling value conflicts with the human capital value of a degree.
So what's the connection to the service differentiation post? Only this: at one time the dilettantes went to the finishing schools or sometimes the converted normal schools; the strivers went to the undergraduate programs at the research universities or to the land-grants. Today's more-or-less-undistinguishable comprehensive university attempts to serve the dilettantes and the strivers alike, and as Number 2 Pencil notes, perhaps the admissions policies are supposed to yield a mix of strivers and of dilettantes.
SO YOU CAN LEARN PLAYGROUND WORDS. Joanne Jacobs links to some research on the real socialization effects of high school, and Arnold Kling looks at the extension of the holding pen metaphor in that research to the university.
(An explanation of the rather obscure header: my parents were not happy with some of the new vocabulary I acquired at first grade. Their way of explaining the rule was that there were playground words not to be used inside the house, especially around guests. I have long asked people who have good things to say about the socialization kids get in school whether that includes learning the playground words.)
(An explanation of the rather obscure header: my parents were not happy with some of the new vocabulary I acquired at first grade. Their way of explaining the rule was that there were playground words not to be used inside the house, especially around guests. I have long asked people who have good things to say about the socialization kids get in school whether that includes learning the playground words.)
QUICK QUAGMIRE QUIZ. Fill in the blanks: "__________ years later, __________-administered __________ is still not sovereign, and __________ was there __________ saying "I think we belong here until our job is finished." (Answer here (for the registered). Hat tip: Milt's File.)
QUICK STUDY. Milt Rosenberg is now using permalinks on each post. (But are he and Dan Drezner singing "I get by with a little help from my friends?")
AT WAR. What are the facts on the ground? InstaPundit has a roundup of reports from the front, and commentary on the coverage. Representative Jim Marshall (D.-Georgia) offers some impressions, Black Five (refers to paratroops, not steam locomotives) has a survey of recent literature, and Glenn Reynolds also devoted his Big Media site to the topic. Christian Parenti reports a different set of facts on the ground.
UPDATE: Virginia Postrel provides some perspective on why the snapshots of reality are messy, and notes the difficulty of making sense of it all from Stateside. She also finds news that U.S. combat troops are no longer quartered in Saudi Arabia. One bin Laden objective achieved, albeit not under circumstances entirely favorable to al-Qaeda?
UPDATE: Virginia Postrel provides some perspective on why the snapshots of reality are messy, and notes the difficulty of making sense of it all from Stateside. She also finds news that U.S. combat troops are no longer quartered in Saudi Arabia. One bin Laden objective achieved, albeit not under circumstances entirely favorable to al-Qaeda?
TOYS FOR IRAQI CHILDREN. Chief Wiggles is taking the initiative in getting toys for children in Iraq. He has a few suggestions for what would be useful, and a few suggestions for what would give offense, and a mailing address. (His own, and commendations for making it happen.) Pass the word along.
21.9.03
GETTING BEYOND THE WELFARE ECONOMICS PARADIGM? Semi-Daily Journal seeks a positive theory of "government success" in order to bring what he views as "mainstream economics" back into the conversation about political economy, which in his view has come to be dominated by the public choice theorists (aren't there a few Marxists and institutionalists still thinking about these things?) to the detriment of economics, and to policy making. The place to begin might be with basic economics. The welfare economics paradigm begins with some fairly tight theorizing (under conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4, a competitive equilibrium exists and is Pareto optimal. The role of government becomes either to provide the basic rules of trading, or to make transfers of endowments to provide the initial allocation from which the Pareto optimal equilibrium will emerge) and continues with additional theorizing (under any of conditions 1', 2', 3', and 4' existence or Pareto optimality do not follow) leading to proposals for policies that a properly-informed government can implement. Here is where the paradigm breaks down, as there is a great deal of research, which the public choice advocates view as persuasive, to the effect that traders can discover and improvise ways to eliminate the inefficiencies, or that the theoretically preferable policies break down, or that the agents of the government are themselves rational maximizers.
INCEST IS BEST? Marginal Revolution links to evidence and commentary on the extent and possible effects of consanguinity (the son marries his father's brother's daughter) on the evolution of nation-states rather than tribal states, Marginal Revolution find it difficult to establish causal connections. Let me complicate things further: any family historian who checks out a Mayflower connection in a serious way is likely to discover several lines of descent from the same Mayflower Compact signer, particularly in the fourth to eighth generations (the generations that were involved in the War of Independence and the Founding of the Republic.)
SCORING FIRST DOESN'T ALWAYS MATTER, NOR DOES SCORING LAST. North Carolina's Michael Waddell returned the opening kickoff 97 yards, and C. J. Stephens passed to Jesse Holly for a touchdown on the last play of the game, but Wisconsin won the remaining 59 minutes 53 seconds, 38-13. (And what's with this business about referring to the University of North Carolina as "Carolina." That's almost as goofy as referring to the Chicago Great Western Railway as "the Great Western." Everybody knows that "the Great Western" gets no closer to Chicago than Penzance.) Wisconsin's kickoff coverage teams continue to imitate a sieve, and their goal-line offense continues to be inefficient, but the game made for good drive-time listening.
Later the same day, Alabama's red elephants scored an early touchdown on a long pass, and a late touchdown on a long run, not quite enough, however, as Northern Illinois prevailed 19-16.
Later the same day, Alabama's red elephants scored an early touchdown on a long pass, and a late touchdown on a long run, not quite enough, however, as Northern Illinois prevailed 19-16.
20.9.03
OPPORTUNITY COSTS. Invisible Adjunct finds some special pleading by UIC's Stanley Fish (registration required) about the difficulties of being a university administrator these days. "You're telling me that state funds are being withdrawn at the same time expenses are exceeding tuition by a factor of three to one. How can you stay in business?" Dean Fish would rather whinge than do what the times call for. His reaction to some proposals to cap tuition increases is interesting: "And now, on top of this, comes the threat of Mr. McKeon's bill. First of all, it seems curious to find members of the free-market Republican Party advocating price controls. In fact, it is downright unbusinesslike. Because if a business were to find itself with rising costs and falling revenues it would lop off unprofitable lines, close units, downsize the work force, relax quality control and, of course, raise prices to whatever level the traffic would bear. In university terms, this would mean offering fewer courses, closing departments, sending students elsewhere, skimping on advising, hiring the pedagogical equivalent of migrant workers, eliminating remedial programs, ejecting the students for whom remedial programs are necessary, reducing health and counseling services, admitting fewer students and inventing fees for everything from registration to breathing." In Dean Fish's world, the remedial programs are necessary, not a drag on the education enterprise. Likewise the therapeutic offices. Presumably, the diversity boondoggles and the assessment of the obvious are all Totally Necessary. Not only that, Dean Fish is reluctant to raise tuitions. To repeat: the private benefits to a university degree recipient are large, and universities ought not be ashamed to make that point, and harvest a share of those gains from trade for themselves.
Swarthmore's John Burke notes, "What [Fish is] wrong about is the implication of his rhetoric, that sweeping threat to all programs and services, that higher education must choose to cut everything indiscriminately, that there cannot be a systematic logic to the reduction of its mission." I've put my little list out for all to see and to react to. Via Milt's File (another newsie who has yet to discover permalinks) I discover a Manhattan Institute working paper (warning: think tank with a point of view) that claims "Only 70% of all students in public high schools graduate, and only 32% of all students leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges." The problems confronting the government-assisted universities will not be solved until the problems of the government-operated schools are solved. Moreover, Professor Burke, in attempting to link Dean Fish's plea with New York University President John Sexton's proposal (also requires registration, via The Little Professor) that professors become more active in teaching. Burke's fear: "[Sexton is] not talking about the reduction of higher education, but at least on the surface, about its expansive re-invention. If many are skeptical when they read his proposals, it may not be because they have any particular reason to doubt Sexton's sincerity or even the conceptual attractiveness of his ideas, but because they know that established and powerful interests within the NYU faculty will not permit those ideas to be implemented in their most desirable and idealistic form. Sexton might say that a new 'teaching faculty' ought to be viewed as the peers of the traditional tenured research-oriented faculty, but even if he desperately wants that, the established faculty will rapidly subordinate and denigrate such faculty as being second-raters.
"Such a faculty would have no external source of validation to draw upon: no publications, no peer networks, no reputation capital. Or worse yet, their only source of external validation would derive from academically oriented Departments of Education, which would simply draw a teaching faculty back into the usual hierarchies of academic value, as experimental animals for education researchers. A 'great' teacher in John Sexton's new NYU would only be great in my estimation by what they did in the classroom, and there are and can be no external standards commonly agreed upon that would allow us to compare one such great teacher with the next, to create a platform for the accumulation of reputation capital that would put Sexton's teaching faculty on an equal plane with the established ranks of academic scholars."
Both The Little Professor and Apt. 11-D weigh in with comments on the Sexton proposal and the Burke editorial, raising similar questions about the creation of another job classification that is essentially steerage. Perhaps a review of some history is in order. Long ago, there were the famous research universities (Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Chicago), the land-grant universities (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan State), the finishing schools (Macalester, Carleton, Middlebury), and the normal schools (Superior State, Northern Illinois, Indiana State.) I might have to spend some time in the archives looking at the job descriptions, tenure criteria, teaching and administrative responsibilities, and research output among these types of universities. These at one time coexisted yet were different (I have no way of judging what sort of social pecking order would have existed among those institutions.) More recently, I perceive them as becoming more alike in their strategies, their requirements of faculties, and their problems. The NYU president's recent proposal might mean nothing more than a rediscovery by some of these institutions, including my own, of their original roles.
Swarthmore's John Burke notes, "What [Fish is] wrong about is the implication of his rhetoric, that sweeping threat to all programs and services, that higher education must choose to cut everything indiscriminately, that there cannot be a systematic logic to the reduction of its mission." I've put my little list out for all to see and to react to. Via Milt's File (another newsie who has yet to discover permalinks) I discover a Manhattan Institute working paper (warning: think tank with a point of view) that claims "Only 70% of all students in public high schools graduate, and only 32% of all students leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges." The problems confronting the government-assisted universities will not be solved until the problems of the government-operated schools are solved. Moreover, Professor Burke, in attempting to link Dean Fish's plea with New York University President John Sexton's proposal (also requires registration, via The Little Professor) that professors become more active in teaching. Burke's fear: "[Sexton is] not talking about the reduction of higher education, but at least on the surface, about its expansive re-invention. If many are skeptical when they read his proposals, it may not be because they have any particular reason to doubt Sexton's sincerity or even the conceptual attractiveness of his ideas, but because they know that established and powerful interests within the NYU faculty will not permit those ideas to be implemented in their most desirable and idealistic form. Sexton might say that a new 'teaching faculty' ought to be viewed as the peers of the traditional tenured research-oriented faculty, but even if he desperately wants that, the established faculty will rapidly subordinate and denigrate such faculty as being second-raters.
"Such a faculty would have no external source of validation to draw upon: no publications, no peer networks, no reputation capital. Or worse yet, their only source of external validation would derive from academically oriented Departments of Education, which would simply draw a teaching faculty back into the usual hierarchies of academic value, as experimental animals for education researchers. A 'great' teacher in John Sexton's new NYU would only be great in my estimation by what they did in the classroom, and there are and can be no external standards commonly agreed upon that would allow us to compare one such great teacher with the next, to create a platform for the accumulation of reputation capital that would put Sexton's teaching faculty on an equal plane with the established ranks of academic scholars."
Both The Little Professor and Apt. 11-D weigh in with comments on the Sexton proposal and the Burke editorial, raising similar questions about the creation of another job classification that is essentially steerage. Perhaps a review of some history is in order. Long ago, there were the famous research universities (Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Chicago), the land-grant universities (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan State), the finishing schools (Macalester, Carleton, Middlebury), and the normal schools (Superior State, Northern Illinois, Indiana State.) I might have to spend some time in the archives looking at the job descriptions, tenure criteria, teaching and administrative responsibilities, and research output among these types of universities. These at one time coexisted yet were different (I have no way of judging what sort of social pecking order would have existed among those institutions.) More recently, I perceive them as becoming more alike in their strategies, their requirements of faculties, and their problems. The NYU president's recent proposal might mean nothing more than a rediscovery by some of these institutions, including my own, of their original roles.
THE BURDENS OF RESPONSIBILITY. Of all the evenings to leave the radio off so as to grade papers!
Daniel Drezner puts in an appearance on Milt Rosenberg's Extension 720, along with two other scholar-webloggers. The audience inspires Professor Rosenberg to get started in weblogging (he had been doing something similar on the WGN server previously) and the show may have teased out the identity of the "Australian listener on the Internet" who often sends challenging e-mails to the Extension 720 panel.
Daniel Drezner puts in an appearance on Milt Rosenberg's Extension 720, along with two other scholar-webloggers. The audience inspires Professor Rosenberg to get started in weblogging (he had been doing something similar on the WGN server previously) and the show may have teased out the identity of the "Australian listener on the Internet" who often sends challenging e-mails to the Extension 720 panel.
ANTIPHONY. King Banaian at SCSU Scholars explains trading fours, then offers further commentary on my proposal that university administrators help earn the university's keep. Professor Banaian's objection, stated simply, is that many administrators might be failures as teachers, as well as failed scholars. ("And as for getting these people to have any empathy for the daily rhythm of teaching faculty? I don't think they can lay down that beat.") Or enter a fifth above, or a fifth down. (Classic O Scale and Baroque counterpoint, hard to beat that combination.) Perhaps not. Turf 'em out then, I say. I base my argument on a management insight from Admiral Daniel V. Gallery, the commander of the task force that captured the German submarine U-505 now anchored in Chicago. (And if you enjoyed The Hunt for Red October and never read U-505 (details or comparison shop) lay to the wardroom and do so.) Admiral Gallery made friends after the War with Captain Loewe, who commanded the crew of plank owners. Loewe was seconded to another submarine and he was not in command when the Admiral's task force captured U-505. One of Loewe's strategies to maintain crew morale was to stand the watch of the winner of the weekly revolution count contest. (This might strike the landlubber as dumb, to hold a contest to guess what the number on the meter counting screw revolutions would be at 1500 hours, Berlin time, each Sunday, but recall that naval warfare is long periods of boredom interspersed with minutes of sheer terror. The revolution count contest adds a break from the routine of motoring to station.) In order for Loewe to do that, he had to be sufficiently familiar with the workings of a submarine to be able to handle whatever duties that watch entailed, which might be the headphones (no active sonar on German boats) or the torpedo room or the power plant.
All I'm asking is that any administrator who comes from the ranks of the faculty be prepared to stand one kind of watch, which is to teach a section or two of an introductory class in his field. And if I were Grossadmiral, any administrator who offered some excuse or objection would be off my staff as quickly as I could arrange a hearing. Professor Banaian is correct to fear that there are some in the 8 to 4.30 set who have no ear for scholarship or teaching. That state of affairs is something that I would like to see changed.
All I'm asking is that any administrator who comes from the ranks of the faculty be prepared to stand one kind of watch, which is to teach a section or two of an introductory class in his field. And if I were Grossadmiral, any administrator who offered some excuse or objection would be off my staff as quickly as I could arrange a hearing. Professor Banaian is correct to fear that there are some in the 8 to 4.30 set who have no ear for scholarship or teaching. That state of affairs is something that I would like to see changed.
WORKING ON THE RAILROAD. A new locomotive has arrived at Cold Spring Shops headquarters, and some classic freight cars have arrived to provide additional work for the locomotives. One of the freight cars has already been weighted and otherwise brought up to interchange standards, inspected, and placed in service.
For those of you who are inspired to get into model railroading, Where Worlds Collide has some suggestions about getting started. Joining a club, or simply assisting your neighbors at their construction sessions, is a particularly useful bit of advice. You can see a lot just by watching.
For those of you who are inspired to get into model railroading, Where Worlds Collide has some suggestions about getting started. Joining a club, or simply assisting your neighbors at their construction sessions, is a particularly useful bit of advice. You can see a lot just by watching.
18.9.03
RENT SEEKING IN A NUTSHELL. Marginal Revolution, from Harper's Index, suggesting it's time to go looking for Smarter Harper's.
REAL LIVE DEATH OF OCEAN VIEW PARK. Fox News has tape of a maintainer at Virginia Beach battening down a sky tower ride as Force Four grows. Batten the hatches, secure all loose objects, take in the to'gns, and reef the mains. (The tape is from daylight, presumably the man finished his task and went inland. The title refers to a rather hokey movie about an amusement park that committed suicide.)
17.9.03
OPPORTUNITY COSTS ONLY. There has not as yet been any response to the Northern Star proposal to raise admission standards in the school paper, although the SCSU Scholars have weighed in. It sounds as if their reality is somewhat different. Our trustees also approved a tuition increase, but the Demand Curve has been shifting to the right in such a way as to swamp the ceteris paribus effect of a higher price. Result: closed classes, larger classes, frustrated students.
So, what would it cost to have some administrators teach real classes? (I am ruling out the learn-about-college-for-college-credit courses here, and, yes, some Deans do teach a class, but it's the converted professors or Ph.D.s with few publications who serve as assistant-tos that I'm thinking about here. Presumably they could teach sections of basic courses in their fields.)
First, we lose some administrative meetings and some scheming up of new requests for information to send to the faculty. Second, we might get some sense from the 8.00 to 4.30 crowd about what our reality on the faculty has been, i.e. we can find time in our schedule to teach more courses, we can find time in our schedule to teach more students per course, we can find time in our schedule to fill in assessment reports, we can find time in our schedule to develop new forms of assessment, we can find time in our schedule to fill in the same human resources form for each external speaker. Third, we'd be less subject to criticism for relying on part-timers and inexperienced graduate students to teach courses. On that last point, Invisible Adjunct located the University of Phoenix job descriptions. I suppose if you want to talk shop for three hours a week and call it college (Adam Smith: "People of the same trade seldom gather together ...) you can, but there's got to be a selling point in offering a serious education in the foibles of the world as opposed to some tips to get through your next promotion review. And it does no good for the University to be expanding its administrative tail and filling it with people who have no experience in the classroom.
(A PS to King: what is "trading fours?")
So, what would it cost to have some administrators teach real classes? (I am ruling out the learn-about-college-for-college-credit courses here, and, yes, some Deans do teach a class, but it's the converted professors or Ph.D.s with few publications who serve as assistant-tos that I'm thinking about here. Presumably they could teach sections of basic courses in their fields.)
First, we lose some administrative meetings and some scheming up of new requests for information to send to the faculty. Second, we might get some sense from the 8.00 to 4.30 crowd about what our reality on the faculty has been, i.e. we can find time in our schedule to teach more courses, we can find time in our schedule to teach more students per course, we can find time in our schedule to fill in assessment reports, we can find time in our schedule to develop new forms of assessment, we can find time in our schedule to fill in the same human resources form for each external speaker. Third, we'd be less subject to criticism for relying on part-timers and inexperienced graduate students to teach courses. On that last point, Invisible Adjunct located the University of Phoenix job descriptions. I suppose if you want to talk shop for three hours a week and call it college (Adam Smith: "People of the same trade seldom gather together ...) you can, but there's got to be a selling point in offering a serious education in the foibles of the world as opposed to some tips to get through your next promotion review. And it does no good for the University to be expanding its administrative tail and filling it with people who have no experience in the classroom.
(A PS to King: what is "trading fours?")
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