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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

NJ professor’s quixotic quest to be Iran president

The man who wants to be the next president of Iran sits in a hotel lobby, steps from his office and thousands of miles away from the country he wants to lead, a distance surpassed only by the hurdles he needs to clear even to land on the ballot, the Associated Press reports. Hooshang Amirahmadi, a bespectacled professor of public policy at Rutgers University, declared his candidacy for the Iranian presidency last year. He’s now well into a quixotic quest that has taken him on fundraising jaunts from New York to California to Dubai and, finally, to Iran next month. Amirahmadi, 65, has lived in the United States for 40 years, calling it “my country.” He married his wife here, and his daughter was raised in New Jersey. But he feels compelled to run for office in Iran to reconcile the conflict he and other Iranian-Americans feel within.

“I feel like, you know, it’s not easy to be an Iranian originally and be here, and be a citizen of this country, and see the two sides of you fight each other every day,” Amirahmadi said…

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Student project creates a bomb scare

A student at Salem International University in West Virginia who tried to get creative by using a fake bomb in an English class presentation is in custody after a scare that disrupted the campus and had students in tears, the Associated Press reports. Harrison County Prosecutor Joe Shaffer says he’s charging 33-year-old Clarksburg resident Joshua John Richards with manufacture and possession of a hoax bomb. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in prison upon conviction. Shaffer says he’ll also seek thousands of dollars’ restitution for the cost of the emergency response, which involved fire and police departments, sheriff’s deputies and a bomb squad…

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Iowa college students seek support from lawmakers

About 20 student leaders at Iowa’s state universities lobbied lawmakers Wednesday, imploring them to approve a tuition freeze backed by the Board of Regents, the Associated Press reports. Students from all three universities met with legislators for “Regents Day,” where they said holding the line on tuition was the most important issue to students. In February, the Board of Regents told lawmakers if they approved a 2.6 percent increase in state funding, the board would freeze tuition for in-state students beginning in August. Gov. Terry Branstad’s budget proposal includes the funding increase, which could allow for the first tuition freeze at the schools in 30 years. Nic Pottebaum, the University of Iowa undergraduate student body president, said 12,000 UI students would benefit from the freeze in the next school year…

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House panel introduces school disclosure bill

For-profit higher education institutions in Idaho that provide courses but cannot issue degrees may be required to disclose more information about job placement rates under a bill making its way through the House, the Associated Press reports. The House Education Committee agreed Tuesday to introduce legislation requiring those institutions to be more transparent about cost, job placement rates and ability to provide transfer credits. Boise Democrat Rep. John Gannon said the measure could help alleviate high loan and default rates among students who enroll in the programs…

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Reports: Harvard secretly searched deans’ emails

Harvard University administrators secretly searched the emails of 16 deans last fall, looking for a leak to reporters about a case of cheating, two newspapers reported, according to the Associated Press. The email accounts belonged to deans on the Administrative Board, a committee addressing the cheating, The Boston Globe and The New York Times reported, citing school officials. The deans were not warned about the email access and only one was told of the search afterward. Harvard will not comment on personnel matters or provide additional information about the board cases that were concluded during the fall term, Michael Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in an email Sunday. If the committee’s work were compromised, Harvard College would protect the process, he said.

“Generally speaking, however, if circumstances were to arise that gave reason to believe that the Administrative Board process might have been compromised, then Harvard College would take all necessary and appropriate actions under our procedures to safeguard the integrity of that process, which is designed to protect the rights of our students to privacy and due process,” he said…

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Pacts for profs, teachers before right-to-work law

Wayne State University professors in Detroit and teachers in a suburban school district separately agreed to eight-year contracts, weeks before Michigan’s new right-to-work law takes effect, the Associated Press reports. The law bans mandatory payments from employees to the unions that represent them under collective bargaining agreements. It takes effect in late March. Some schools are seeking to circumvent it by signing agreements before then, according to backers of the legislation. At Wayne State, the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers Local 6075 announced the contract ratification Thursday. The union said 93 percent of professors who voted approved the deal. The school’s board of governors must approve the pact. The 1,950 employees represented by the union won’t get pay increases this year but will get $1,000 bonuses, 2.75 percent raises next year and 2.5 percent raises in future years. The contract replaces one that expired July 31, 2012…

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Ivy League vs. UCLA: Garcetti and Greuel’s paths to power

He’s a Rhodes scholar. She’s UCLA. He can burn up the piano keys. She loves to watch her son playing soccer. He could become Los Angeles’ first Jewish mayor; she would be the first woman elected to the job, the Associated Press reports. Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel, rival Democrats headed for a May 21 runoff, would put a different stamp on the top office in the nation’s second most populous city. But despite the contrasts, what really stands out about them is how much they are alike. Both come to the race with left-leaning pedigrees, roots in the San Fernando Valley, where each grew up, and years of experience working the hallways and committee rooms inside City Hall. A key challenge for both will be standing out and connecting with voters who supported someone else in the primary, or didn’t go to the polls Tuesday.

“In order to win the election, you have to change people’s minds,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles…

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Mystery of the Chinese zombie Yalies

U.S. universities have responded to China’s exploding demand for American higher education with branch campuses and aggressive recruiting, the Associated Press reports. Now, some are trying to boost their brands by casting photos and other snippets of campus life out into the confounding sea of Chinese social media. How confounding? Consider the mystery of the Chinese Yale zombies. That’s “zombies” as in “zombie followers” on Sina Weibo — the hugely popular “weibo,” or microblogging, site that’s roughly akin to Twitter and has attracted more than 500 million followers since debuting in 2009. A common feature on Chinese social media, these zombie accounts could represent actual users who lurk inactively online. But often they’re fake, mass-produced accounts that mindlessly follow (hence the name “zombie”) and artificially boost another account’s follower numbers — and thus prestige. Since its debut in December, Yale’s new Sina Weibo account — sharing photos and other assorted items from its Ivy-covered Connecticut campus — has exploded in popularity, apparently far faster than any other U.S. institution’s…

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Famed free NYC college may start charging tuition

For more than a century, Cooper Union has been a one-of-a-kind meritocracy: Open to any student qualified to walk through its doors. For free, the Associated Press reports. Its founder envisioned higher education open to all — regardless of race, gender or class — an ideal that has remained the prestigious school’s most cherished principle since 1902. But a lot can change in 100 years. Cooper’s Board of Trustees is expected to vote later this month in favor of a proposal to charge its undergraduates something — anything — for their education. Angry alumni have penned letters. Students have protested, even occupying part of university building where Abraham Lincoln gave a famous anti-slavery speech. But they’ve all run up against a hard reality: Money woes caused by the economic collapse and rising costs mean Cooper can no longer afford the perk that has been held up as a sacrosanct part of the school’s identity…

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U.S. Army offers citizenship track for needed skills

Carolyne Chelulei came to the United States from Kenya on a student visa for a college education, but now the Army is offering her the chance to stay for good as a citizen, the Associated Press reports. The 23-year-old is one of several hundred immigrants whose specialized skills, either in languages or in their professional background, make them eligible for a Pentagon program that repays service in uniform with an accelerated path to citizenship.

“I am excited about it,” Chelulei said while visiting in her recruiter’s office. “I like helping people, and I think I will be a great asset to America, to the Army.”

As debate swirls in Washington about changing the nation’s policies on immigration, the Army is going ahead with offering some legal immigrants living temporarily in the U.S. a path to citizenship if they can fill certain critical jobs……Read More