Dear Commons Community,

I am here in Orlando at the Online Consortium’s ACCELERATE Conference.  Met yesterday with several collegues including Frank Mayadas, Meg Benke, Jill Buban, Nori Barajas-Murphy, and Pam Mills.

I have a full agenda of meetings scheduled today with members of the OLC Board of Directors.  Later I will stop by to visit The Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) Master Class, a leadership development program sponsored by Penn State and the Online Learning Consortium. Now in its 8^th year, IELOL serves the development needs of emerging leaders and institutional teams responsible for a variety of online learning initiatives. Participants work with colleagues from around the world and join a growing network of leaders in higher education

The conference program looks interesting and  has a fine mix of presentations, all of which relate to online learning and instructional technology.  CUNY colleagues (George Otte, Antonia Levy, and Gladys Palma de Schrynemakers are on the program. 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I leave today for Orlando to attend the Annual Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan-C) Conference.  This is the premiere event for online learning. This year’s program will highlight initiatives that reflect and showcase communities of practice through presentations, panel discussions, express workshops, research highlights, discovery sessions, and pre-conference workshops. Program highlights will also include dynamic keynote presentations along with reflective commentary. All of the details about the program are available at the Conference website.

If you are attending, please feel free to say hello!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New School, one of New York’s great institutions of higher education, was the victim of hate vandalism this weekend when swastikas were drawn on several dormitory doors, some of which are occupied by Jewish women.  David Van Zandt, the school’s president, released a statement yesterday addressing the symbols, saying hate crimes were “unacceptable at the school.”

“Any form of expression that denigrates members of our community based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual or gender identity, or political beliefs is completely abhorrent and antithetical to our core values,”

There has been a spike in hate-related incidents targeting minorities across the country following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.

Trump ran a divisive campaign in which he called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals and promised to block Muslims from entering the United States. He also employed anti-Semitic imagery and earned the backing of white supremacists.

Mayor Bill de Blasio commented that “Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC. To the affected, we stand with you.”

It is especially hurtful in this incident given The New School’s history of being a haven for academics and intellectuals who fled Eastern Europe in the 1930s to escape Nazi and Fascist persecution.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

James Miliken, Chancellor of the City University of New York, issued the following statement on the presidential election.  I particularly like the lines:

“For nearly 170 years, CUNY has been committed to providing opportunity to immigrants and low income and underrepresented students.   This will not change…”

Yes!

Tony

—————————————————————————

Statement from Chancellor James B. Milliken on the Presidential Election!

November 10, 2016

Dear Members of the CUNY Community,

We have just experienced a long, contentious campaign and what was to many a surprising outcome.   I have spoken to many of our students about their reactions to the results, and many of those range from confusion to concern to a sense of vulnerability for themselves or their friends and classmates.

We cannot be certain about whether or how statements made in the midst of a hard-fought campaign will be translated into policies beginning in January.   What we can be certain about are our own values and the critical mission of The City University of New York.   CUNY’s mission is the same today as it was a week ago, and it will be the same next year.   For nearly 170 years, CUNY has been committed to providing opportunity to immigrants and low income and underrepresented students.   This will not change, and the city and the country will be much better for it.   Our students bring ambition, talent and dreams and they contribute immeasurably to making New York the world’s greatest city.   In fact, it’s obvious to anyone who has paid attention that New York is what it is today because of the very students CUNY has welcomed and educated for generations.

I know that all of my colleagues at CUNY join me in proudly embracing CUNY’s history and share my commitment to sustaining its vital mission in the years ahead.

Sincerely,

James B. Milliken
Chancellor

Dear Commons Community,

I have just finished reading The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab.  Schwab is the founder and executive director of the World Economic forum and brings a globalization perspective to the issue of technology-advancement.  He is convinced that the period of change (The Fourth Industrial Revolution) we are living through is more significant, and the ramifications of the latest technological revolution more profound than any prior period of human history. He examines the future and asks how we might take collective responsibility to ensure it is a positive one for all of us.  He concludes with an appendix of twenty-three technologies (see list below) that can have a major impact on how we live, work and function in society.  One reviewer commented:

“This is a first-rate and timely overview of the most extensive and profound transformation of the technological landscape in more than two centuries since the [first] Industrial Revolution. This transformation – the product of sustained research and development at an unprecedented scale over several decades, in congruent and conflating info-, bio-, nano-, neuro- and cogno-technologies, is already disrupting social structures, business models, the conduct of warfare, and the workings of both democratic and authoritarian polities around the world.”

Another reviewer cautions:

“There should be little doubt now that a revolution is already being detonated inside global labour and career markets. And Dr. Schwab’s emphasis on this very theme is absolutely correct. But the elimination of income-bearing professions – from Davos to Delhi to Denver – needs urgent analysis of a quality that can lead to practical advice for companies and governments. How actually to preserve lifelong income flows for consumer-citizens? How to adjust universities to cope in utterly radical ways with adults who will, across their lives, need three degrees in order to give themselves a fighting chance of sustainable revenue (as their old skills die faster than species)? How specifically should the language of recruitment now change so that employers and college-leavers alike can share a coherent understanding of how long job contracts (and the commitments they imply) can be expected to last? A negative kind of rapture is busy engulfing the entire culture of career as we have always known it in the West – and we need precision and purpose in the answers we offer.”

I don’t have the answers but Schwab raises the issue that we had better start taking all of this most seriously.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Carol Burris, the Executive Director of the Network for Public Education, sent a letter (see below) to its membership analyzing the election.  She mentions several bright spots regarding state referendums that benefit public education and quotes NPR President, Diane Ravitch:

“We will win some, we will lose some, but we won’t give up. We will do what is right for children.”

Tony

=================================

Dear Anthony,

We at the Network for Public Education share your worry and dismay over last night’s presidential and congressional elections. The new president and the Republican platform support privatization in the form of charters, both for-profit and not for-profit, as well as vouchers. The platform supports the misguided philosophy that the forces of the marketplace should govern education.   Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to public schools as “government schools.”

It will be up to us in the years ahead to stand strong in our support of public schools. We must ensure that they survive what surely will be challenging times. We must fight because our public schools are the pillar of our democracy, even when the democratic process results in a choice we do not like.

We will grow in strength, number and resolve.  We will protect our immigrant students, Islamic students and students of color from frightening rhetoric and  xenophobic policies.  

Last night there were some bright spots for public education, which we will report on in the coming days. Voters rejected “lifting the cap” on charters in Massachusetts. In Georgia, voters rejected Amendment 1, which sought to turn “failing schools” into charters controlled by the governor, not communities. And the Gates effort to tilt the Washington State Supreme Court towards charter schools was defeated.

We must now extend and build on that positive momentum across our 50 states in the face of what will be a concerted effort to privatize our schools, state by state.  

Reflecting on the post-election challenges ahead, NPE President Diane Ravitch wrote, “We will win some, we will lose some, but we won’t give up. We will do what is right for children. We will defend teachers and the teaching profession. We will defend democratically-controlled public education. We will protect the public good.”

We all must be ready to continue to resist efforts to decimate the inclusive system of public education that built our country, our economy and our civil society.

Commit today to stand with us. We will stand with all of you. 

Carol Burris

Executive Director of the Network for Public Education

Dear Commons Community,

Defying most everybody’s predictions, Donald Trump is now the president-elect of the United States.  Here are excerpts from his victory speech:

“While the campaign is over, our work on this movement is really just beginning,” he said to the cheering crowd of supporters.

Trump pledged to bring the country together following the historically contentious campaign. “I pledge to be a president for all Americans,” said Trump. “Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream.”

He also congratulated Hillary Clinton and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. 

“I mean, she fought very hard,” he said. “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Even though it has been a bitter election season, it is most important that we all vote today.   Tonight, it is just as important that we begin a healing process and it needs to start with our two candidates.  Here is an excerpt from an op-ed written by Frank Luntz, a CBS News and Fox News analyst, giving advice to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, 

“For decades, that healing has begun on election night with a concession speech. The vanquished candidate, usually surrounded by family and friends, accepts defeat with remarkable grace and dignity, and asks supporters to accept the will of the people: “We’ve been around for 240 years. We’ve had free and fair elections. We’ve accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them, and that is what must be expected of anyone.”

The concession speech is a trademark of our democracy, and we are stronger for it. Let us hope we don’t have to wait hours or days to hear it.

From the winner, what we need is less of a victory speech and more of a personal apology and a clarion call — for unity, empathy and understanding. If we are to address the rampant cynicism and heal the wounds I have witnessed day after day on the campaign trail, here are the words America desperately needs to hear:

“My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight, humbled. There is no greater honor than to serve as president of the United States — and no greater responsibility.

“For many, this is a night of celebration. But I recognize and respect the millions who preferred a different path. And so I ask one last sacrifice from my supporters who have worked so hard to make history happen. Instead of your cheers, I ask for your silence so that I might speak directly to my opponent and to the people who are discouraged and disheartened with tonight’s results.

“Our political system has too often drowned you out. Our economic system has too often left you behind. But no more. Tonight, I hear you. I feel your frustration. Your hopes and dreams are just as important as those of the people in this room. Your concerns are just as real. I get it, and I will act on it.

“Throughout this election, we’ve said things to each other that were harsh, negative and inappropriate. Our divisive words too often distract us from the challenges we need to solve. From failing schools to rapidly rising health care costs, from immigration to Social Security, the challenges we face as individuals, as communities and as a country are immense and demand the best minds and best ideas from across the political spectrum. In the months ahead, my administration will set the example. We are more than just Democrats. We are more than just Republicans. We are Americans.

 “And so I ask my supporters to have empathy and understanding for those who are commiserating across town and across the country tonight. And let us all tonight pledge allegiance to one nation, indivisible. I’ve always promised to fight for you, but that doesn’t mean we need to fight against them. Let’s mark tonight by finding our common ground and moving forward together.”

Let’s fix our country, not tear it apart.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Vincent G. Boudreau, the dean of the Colin L. Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College, was named as interim president of City College after Lisa S. Coico resigned as president last month.     As reported in the New York Times:

“Hoping to restore some stability to the City College of New York after the unexpected resignation of its president, the City University of New York announced on Wednesday that it had selected an interim leader…

The appointment of Vincent G. Boudreau comes after Lisa S. Coico stepped down as president amid a widening federal investigation into whether college funds had been used to improperly pay her personal expenses.

Ms. Coico insisted for months before resigning that she had done nothing wrong — a position she continues to maintain, according to her lawyers. Nonetheless, she relinquished her post without warning on Oct. 7, a day after The New York Times presented evidence to the college that a 2011 memo concerning reimbursements had been fabricated, possibly to mislead prosecutors. The Times also questioned whether Ms. Coico had repaid a $20,000 security deposit for a rental home, or had kept the money for herself.

Her departure stunned City College, which was once known as “the poor man’s Harvard.” And it came at an inauspicious time, as the college struggles to cope with deep budget cuts, and its engineering school works to ensure that the renewal of its accreditation is not undermined by what national experts said were “poor” and unsafe lab conditions.

Dr. Boudreau, a political scientist with a Ph.D. from Cornell whose research focuses on social movements, especially in Southeast Asia, will serve as interim president through the end of the current academic year, James B. Milliken, CUNY’s chancellor, told university trustees on Wednesday. Dr. Boudreau will name an interim dean of the Powell school to serve in his place during that time.

CUNY will soon embark on a search for a permanent president who it hopes will be in place by next fall, Mr. Milliken said. The search committee will be led by the board of trustees’ new vice chairman, Barry F. Schwartz, an executive vice chairman of MacAndrews & Forbes Inc., an investment firm.”

We wish CCNY well in its search for a new president!

Tony