Dear Commons Communuty,

Toms dispatch.com and AOLNews have an insightful piece by Andy Kroll on the job market.  On April 19th, McDonald’s launched its first-ever national hiring day, signing up 62,000 new workers at stores throughout the country. For some context, that’s more jobs created by one company in a single day than the net job creation of the entire U.S. economy in 2009. And if that boggles the mind, consider how many workers applied to local McDonald’s franchises that day and left empty-handed: 938,000 of them. With a 6.2% acceptance rate in its spring hiring blitz, McDonald’s was more selective than the Princeton, Stanford or Yale University admission offices.

“According to a recent analysis by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the biggest growth in private-sector job creation in the past year occurred in positions in the low-wageretail, administrative, and food service sectors of the economy. While 23% of the jobs lost in the Great Recession that followed the economic meltdown of 2008 were “low-wage” (those paying $9-$13 an hour), 49% of new jobs added in the sluggish “recovery” are in those same low-wage industries. On the other end of the spectrum, 40% of the jobs lost paid high wages ($19-$31 an hour), while a mere 14% of new jobs pay similarly high wages.

The hardest hit industries in terms of employment now are finance, manufacturing, and especially construction, which was decimated when the housing bubble burst in 2007 and has yet to recover. Meanwhile, NELP found that hiring for temporary administrative and waste-management jobs, health-are jobs, and of course those fast-food restaurants has surged.

Indeed in 2010, one in four jobs added by private employers was a temporary job, which usually provides workers with few benefits and even less job security. It’s not surprising that employers would first rely on temporary hires as they regained their footing after a colossal financial crisis. But this time around, companies have taken on temp workers in far greater numbers than after previous downturns. Where 26% of hires in 2010 were temporary, the figure was 11% after the early-1990s recession and only 7% after the downturn of 2001.

As many labor economists have begun to point out, we’re witnessing an increasing polarization of the U.S. economy over the past three decades. More and more, we’re seeing labor growth largely at opposite ends of the skills-and-wages spectrum — among, that is, the best and the worst kinds of jobs.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Dean Johnston at Hunter College passed along a piece that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  In return for a  $1.5 million gift from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation to Florida State University,  an advisory committee appointed by the foundation gets to screen and sign off on any hires for a program promoting “political economy and free enterprise” and can withdraw the foundation’s financial support if the committee is unhappy with how those new employees perform, according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times.  Opponents  argue that the deal undermines academic freedom, however, the dean of the College of Social Sciences defended the arrangement , saying it would have been “irresponsible” not to accept the donation.

Hello Free Enterprise!  Good-Bye Academic Freedom!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The NY Times editorial today calls for the US Congress to do more to regulate the for-profit higher education industry.  The US  Justice Department took the unusual step of joining a lawsuit brought by former employees of the Education Management Corporation, one of the largest for-profit college companies in the country. The employees charged that the company knowingly defrauded the government by illegally paying recruiters based on the number of students they enroll. The court papers describe a “boiler room” atmosphere in which recruiters enrolled students who stood no chance of graduating and saddled them with debt they were unlikely to be able to pay off. They say the academic requirements laid out in Education Management’s advertisements were a sham and that the company accepted all students who completed applications and submitted 150-word essays.   The editorial concludes that instead of protecting the industry, lawmakers should be looking out for constituents who have been ripped off by unscrupulous schools and for the taxpayers who foot the bills for both student aid and loan defaults.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Educational Researcher, a journal published by the Association of Education Research (AERA) has a featured article entitled, “The Lecture as a Transmedial Pedagogical Form:  A Historical Analysis” by Norm Firesen.  Dr. Friesen makes the point that  the lecture has been much maligned as a pedagogical form, yet it persists and even flourishes today in the form of the podcast, the TED talk, and the “smart” lecture hall.  He questions “the sage on the stage” criticism in favor of a “the guide on the side” format made popular by online learning proponents. He further poses that the lecture as a pedagogical genre, is “a site where differences between media are negotiated”.  His  examination shows the lecture as bridging oral communication with writing and newer media technologies, rather than as being superseded by newer electronic and digital forms. He concludes that the lecture is a remarkably adaptable and robust genre that combines textual record and ephemeral event, and that is capable of addressing a range of different demands and circumstances, both practical and epistemological.   The full article is available at: http://edr.sagepub.com/content/40/3/95.abstract but a paid subscription is required.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Paul Krugman in his Monday NY Times column, provided a succinct commentary on why the economies in the United States and other parts of the world are in trouble.  He specifically calls out the “policy elite” for getting us into this mess.  He concentrates specifically on what happened to the budget surplus that the United States had in 2000 when President Clinton left office that  now in 2011,  is in trillions of dollars of deficit.  To quote:

“So who was responsible for these budget busters? It wasn’t the man in the street.

President George W. Bush cut taxes in the service of his party’s ideology, not in response to a groundswell of popular demand — and the bulk of the cuts went to a small, affluent minority.

Similarly, Mr. Bush chose to invade Iraq because that was something he and his advisers wanted to do, not because Americans were clamoring for war against a regime that had nothing to do with 9/11. In fact, it took a highly deceptive sales campaign to get Americans to support the invasion, and even so, voters were never as solidly behind the war as America’s political and pundit elite.

Finally, the Great Recession was brought on by a runaway financial sector, empowered by reckless deregulation. And who was responsible for that deregulation? Powerful people in Washington with close ties to the financial industry, that’s who. Let me give a particular shout-out to Alan Greenspan, who played a crucial role both in financial deregulation and in the passage of the Bush tax cuts — and who is now, of course, among those hectoring us about the deficit.”

Unfortunately it will be the man on the street, the single mother taking care of her kids while working one or more jobs, the small businessperson, the teacher, the fireman,  and lots of everyday people who will be asked to sacrifice to make the economy whole again!

Tony

Dear Commons Colleagues,

Last night the CUNY Board of Trustees reversed its decision from last week in a special executive session.  Tony Kushner’s nomination for an honorary degree from John Jay College was approved after a week of incredibly bad publicity for CUNY because of the Board’s earlier action to table his nomination.  It remains to be seen whether Mr. Kushner will accept the degree.  It seems to me that he should since John Jay College initiated his nomination and has stood by its decision from the beginning.   The John Jay administration should also offer him the opportunity to speak at its commencement.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Last night I watched the 60 Minutes interview with President Obama regarding the plan  to” take out”  Osama bin Laden.  In listening to the President, I could not help but thank God that we have someone who has intelligence, clarity of thought, and a focus on what had to be done.  Furthermore, in not one response did the President show any partisanship.

Andy  Rooney concluded the program by commenting that the death of bin laden was comparable to the day, while serving in World War II,  when he heard that Adolf Hitler was dead.

Well-Done CBS!

Tony

Thank you to all moms on this day!

We can never say it enough that we love you and appreciate all you have done for us!

Dear Commons Community,

My colleague, Jeff Seaman (Babson College  Survey Research Group) and two other researchers, have just completed a survey commissioned by Pearson Education on the use of social media by teaching faculty.   Jeff is one of the top experts on the use of online technology in education.   The full report can be accessed at the Pearson website but it will require a brief (free) login.   The survey used a stratified sample (N=1,920) of teaching faculty.

I found the survey report enlightening.  For me, the most important finding was the contrast in use of social media by faculty for personal use versus for instructional use.   Three tables that summarize these findings are below. Essentially these tables indicate that faculty are aware of and use social media in a variety of ways in their personal lives but when it comes to teaching they are very selective.  Online video and youtube are by far the most popular (almost 80%) with Facebook and Twitter being of much less use (less than 30%).

For those of you interested in online learning tools, I think you will find reading the full report very helpful.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

After three days of backlash against its decision to table an honorary degree for Tony Kushner, it appears that the CUNY Board of Trustees will be reconsidering its decision.  The NY Times has a scathing editorial about the Kushner affair today stating that “CUNY Shamed Itself”.

“Freedom of thought and expression is the bedrock of any university worthy of the name. It is not right for the board to consider politics in connection with the award of honorary degrees except in extreme cases not presented by the facts here” said,Benno Schmidt, chairman of the CUNY  board, and admitting it had erred in failing to approve an honorary degree for Mr. Kushner.  Mr. Schmidt scheduled a meeting for this coming Monday of the board’s seven-member executive committee, which has the power to reconsider any board decision that is detrimental to the university.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa!!!

Tony