Dear Commons Community,

According to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, few Americans want the United States getting involved in policing the political turmoil in the Ukraine, even though a plurality say they think Russia’s military incursion into the country qualifies as an invasion.

Americans are more likely than not to say that the United States has no responsibility to get involved in Ukraine even under extreme circumstances, the new survey shows. Forty-six percent said the United States has no responsibility to protect Ukraine in the case of a Russian invasion, while only 18 percent said it does. Thirty-six percent said they weren’t sure. Pluralities of Democrats, Republicans and independents agreed that the U.S. does not have a responsibility to protect Ukraine.

This is not surprising given the fiascoes dating back to Vietnam and continuing to the present-day in Afghanistan.  Americans have come to realize that our country is not equipped to support complex entanglements in foreign countries.  In a word, we are not as good at building up other nations as some of the war-hawks in Washington and in the media think we are.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a featured report this morning commenting on the dire state of American public higher education,  a regular topic  on this blog. The title says it all:  An Era of Neglect: How public colleges were crowded out, beaten up, and failed to fight back!  It traces how state politics have rendered a system that was seen as a public good to one that is seen as personal benefit that should be funded by students and their families.  Here is a brief excerpt from one of the articles:

“The story of public higher education’s transition from a key national priority to an increasingly neglected special interest is untidy. It cannot be traced to any single moment in time. It cannot be laid at the feet of any one individual or ideology. Rather, it is the story of dozens and dozens of consequential moves made by individual actors across the country. They are lobbyists and activists, antitax conservatives and big-government liberals, conflicted idealists and self-preservationists. Even college leaders themselves.  They are the American public.”

The article is well worth a read and summarizes interviews with several players in this transition.  One question I would ask:   where was the US Department of Education during all of this?  The answer:  Absolutely nowhere and where it continues to be.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

In a recently published study Defining promise: optional standardized testing policies in American college and university admissions, Bill Hiss and Valerie Franks conclude that there are few significant differences in either average GPA or graduation rate that correlate with submission or non-submission of standardized test scores (STS) during the admissions process.

Comparisons of aggregate numbers for students from 33 public and private colleges and universities followed over 8 cohort years showed the cumulative GPA for STS submitters versus non submitters differed by 0.05 (2.83 vs. 2.88, respectively).  Graduation rates for submitters were only 0.6% higher than those of non-submitters.

Hiss and Franks, former Dean and Assistant Dean of Admissions at Bates College, respectively, determined that college success appears to correlate more strongly with high school GPA than with standardized test scores.

We can speculate as to why these tests are really are not good predictors.  The tests do not measure intangible qualities such as persistence, creativity, and organization skills.  They also are timed tests which have little meaning except to measure an applicant’s test-taking speed.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

New York Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, takes aim at the Clintons and the Bushes and the “death grip these two families have on the American electoral system”.  In her sardonic style, Dowd comments:  

“…OY. By the time the Bushes and Clintons are finished, they are going to make the Tudors and the Plantagenets look like pikers.

Before these two families release their death grip on the American electoral system, we’re going to have to watch Chelsea’s granddaughter try to knock off George P.’s grandson, Prescott Walker Bush II. Barack Obama, who once dreamed of being a transformational president, will turn out to be a mere hiccup in history, the interim guy who provided a tepid respite while Hillary and Jeb geared up to go at it.

Elections for president are supposed to make us feel young and excited, as if we’re getting a fresh start. That’s the way it was with J.F.K. and Obama and, even though he was turning 70 when he got inaugurated, Ronald Reagan.

But, as the Clinton library tardily disgorged 3,546 pages of official papers Friday — dredging up memories of a presidency that was eight years of turbulence held steady by a roaring economy and an incompetent opposition, a reign roiled by Hillarycare, Vince Foster, Whitewater, Webb Hubbell, Travelgate, Monica, impeachment, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Marc Rich — the looming prospect of another Clinton-Bush race makes us feel fatigued.

Our meritocratic society seems increasingly nepotistic and dynastic. There was a Bush or a Clinton in the White House and cabinet for 32 years straight…As Time’s Michael Crowley tweeted on Friday, “Who else is looking forward to potentially TEN more years of obsessing about Hillary Clinton’s past, present and future?”

The Clintons don’t get defeated. They get postponed.”

Ms. Dowd is onto something here.  Let’s hope it is another Clinton and not another Bush in 2016.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The news media are reporting that Russian military troops have landed in the Crimea in the Ukraine and have literally taken over the area which is the southern part of the country.  In a news conference yesterday, President Obama said that “there will be costs” for this action.   According to the Associated Press:

“KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked parliament for permission to use the country’s military in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Putin said the move is needed to protect ethnic Russians and the personnel of a Russian military base in Ukraine’s strategic region of Crimea.

“I’m submitting a request for using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

He sent the request to the Russian legislature’s upper house, which has to approve the motion, according to the constitution.

In Crimea, the pro-Russian regional prime minister had earlier claimed control of the military and police there and asked Putin for help in keeping peace, sharpening the discord between the two Slavic neighbor countries.

It was the latest escalation following the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president last week by a protest movement aimed at turning Ukraine toward the European Union and away from Russia.

Armed men described as Russian troops took control of key airports and a communications center in Crimea on Friday. Ukraine has accused Russia of a “military invasion and occupation” – a claim that brought an alarming new dimension to the crisis, and raised fears that Moscow is moving to intervene on the strategic peninsula where Russia’s Black Sea fleet is based.

Ukraine’s population is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea is mainly Russian-speaking.

Crimean’s prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, declared that the armed forces, the police, the national security service and border guards in the region will answer only to his orders.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk opened a Cabinet meeting in the capital, Kiev, by calling on Russia not to provoke discord in Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea.

“We call on the government and authorities of Russia to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations,” Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine.”

This is all very sad and a horrific follow-up to the Olympic Games in Sochi.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman,  announced in a blog post yesterday that he’s retiring from Princeton in June 2015 and will join the faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York the following August. He’ll still write his column for the New York Times.

Krugman’s worked at Princeton as a professor of economics and international affairs since 2000 and was quick to note that his decision is not meant as a criticism of the “superb” school.

Krugman at age 61 is just more interested in the lifestyle that New York City can offer.

“In terms of geography, the answer seemed:  New York is the best place to pursue my current interests,” he wrote.

He’s also keen to study income inequality which is a CUNY focus. Krugman will be a distinguished professor at the Graduate Center’s Luxembourg Income Study Center, which conducts research and collects data on income, wealth, employment and other topics from around the world.

“As a public intellectual and one of the most influential economists today, Paul Krugman brings to the Graduate Center a broad perspective that fits perfectly with the LIS Center’s focus on interdisciplinary inquiry,” LIS director Janet Gornick said in a press release announcing Krugman’s appointment. “I am thrilled that he is coming to join our team.”

Welcome Professor Krugman to the Graduate Center!

Tony