Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that Purdue University won Indiana state approval for its deal to take over Kaplan University. But as the transaction now moves to the U.S. Department of Education for review of a “change of control” request, Robert M. Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and critic of the deal, is urging the department to reject it because, he argues, control isn’t really changing.  As per The Chronicle:

“He also argues that by approving Kaplan’s application, the department would be agreeing with Purdue’s implicit request to treat the new venture as if it were a public university, even though Purdue actually plans to create a private entity to run it and proposes other actions that raise questions as to how public it really will be.

Under the terms of the deal, the yet-to-be-renamed, 29,000-student Kaplan University would rely on Kaplan Inc. for services such student recruiting, marketing, and technology, similar to how many colleges now contract with outside companies, known as “online program managers,” to run their online education programs. (When the deal was announced, in April, Kaplan’s reported enrollment was 32,000, both online and at 15 campuses and learning centers; the university’s parent company, Graham Holdings, disclosed the latest enrollment figures, along with declines in revenue from the venture, this month.)

“This is Kaplan reaching an agreement to put Purdue’s name on Kaplan’s institutions, while Kaplan maintains an enormous role in controlling the future of those institutions” because of rights it retains under the contract, said Robert M. Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, in an interview on Thursday. “It’s more like a ‘super-OPM,’ rather than an actual sale.”

Mr. Shireman laid out his concerns this week in a two-page letter to A. Wayne Johnson, the Education Department official who runs the federal student-aid programs. Mr. Johnson’s division oversees conditions under which colleges can receive federal student aid.

The contract between Purdue and Kaplan “does not actually constitute a change of ownership,” Mr. Shireman asserts in the letter. Instead, he says, the contract lays out a long-term operating agreement “with provisions that could someday result in Purdue owning the schools based on an as-yet-undetermined price.” And, the letter continues, “Purdue has not agreed to pay that price nor demonstrated that it could or would pay the price.”

The Purdue/Kaplan venture represents a very different organizational structure and will continue to be watched most carefully in higher education circles.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Experiencing enrollment and financial problems like other liberal-arts colleges across the country, Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, announced on Wednesday that it would close all of its undergraduate programs, the Detroit Free Press reports.

“Vigorous marketing and recruitment efforts have failed to provide sufficient revenue from our undergraduate programs to continue operations as usual,” the Michigan college’s president, Elizabeth A. Burns, said in a news release. To keep the institution viable, Marygrove’s Board of Trustees decided that the college would focus on maintaining its graduate programs, according to the release.

Enrollment at Marygrove, which stood at 1,850 graduate and undergraduate students in 2013, fell to 966 by the fall of 2016.

Marygrove said it had notified new and returning students of the plan, and would work with undergraduates registered for the fall to transfer to other colleges.

Margrove grew out of a postgraduate studies program offered to one young woman graduate of St. Mary’s Academy in Monroe, Michigan, in 1899. By 1905 it had grown to a two-year college for women, and in 1910 it was a four-year college for women chartered to grant degrees.   It was then known as St. Mary’s College. The College moved to its current location in Detroit in 1927, and at that time became known as Marygrove College. When it moved to Detroit its president was George Hermann Derry, who was the first lay person to serve as a president of a Catholic women’s college in the United States.

In the decades after World War I, Marygrove College was an important local center of Catholic social action. Faculty members were chosen for their education, character, and faith, and President Derry encouraged each student to look beyond the prospect of eventual marriage and to become capable of “doing her part in the world’s work in whatever sphere of life she may be placed”.  By 1936, the college catalog spoke in far more emphatic terms of female independence.  It became co-educational in 1970 during the presidency of Arthur Brown.

As have a number of other liberal-arts colleges, Marygrove has struggled in recent years so this move is not a surprise.  Similar institutions have had to make drastic changes to avoid complete closure.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

President Donald Trump drew attention from around the world on Tuesday with his statement that “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

But it turns out that Trump’s “fire and fury” line was actually completely improvised, as reported by the New York Times:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attempted to quell concerns of any retaliation from Pyongyang after Trump’s remarks by saying, “I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.”

The quick improvisation has also kept up tensions in the White House and the debate between General H.R. McMaster and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon about how to deal with North Korea.

So while we debate on the best course of action to take with North Korea, there is no debate that Trump’s “fire and fury” line was planned… because apparently it wasn’t.

It’s also been pointed out that the line is eerily similar to the statement former President Harry Truman delivered to the country and the world that the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan in August 1945.

“If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth,” said Truman.”

This is the second day in a row that my postings concluded with a quote from Harry S. Truman.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The major news yesterday was President Donald Trump issuing a stark warning to North Korea promising to unleash “fire, fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before” if the country continues to escalate its threats against the U.S.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump said in a short statement to reporters before a meeting on the national opioid crisis.

Trump’s remarks add tension to an already dangerous standoff with North Korea. Over the years, the U.S. has attempted to prevent the growth of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and development of missile technology at various times using sanctions, diplomacy and the threat of military action. But nothing has fully obstructed the nation’s advancements.  Trump’s statements were met with serious concerns. As reported in The Huffington Post:

“That is about the stupidest and most dangerous statement I have ever heard an American president make,” John Mecklin, editor-in-chief of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said to HuffPost. The Bulletin created the “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic representation of humanity’s proximity to apocalyptic destruction.

Trump’s remarks closely followed fierce rhetoric from Pyongyang in response to new international sanctions against the isolated communist nation. “Should the U.S. pounce upon the DPRK with military force at last, the DPRK is ready to teach the U.S. a severe lesson with its strategic nuclear force,” Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said in a statement, using the acronym for the official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

While North Korea’s strong language came as no surprise ― Kim has put out countless declarations of war against the U.S. throughout the years ― Mecklin argues that Trump’s response of heightened rhetoric is “exactly backwards.”

“It’s exactly wrong. It increases the likelihood of nuclear war. And those kind of threats are just not something an American president should make,” Mecklin said.

The author, Sarah Vowell, in an op-ed piece for the New York Times, suggested that President Trump, read some history books especially those related to Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy both of whom faced the question of using nuclear weapons during their presidencies.  She referred to Truman as a “sober steward of these destroyers of worlds.” He insisted on keeping the decision to use nuclear arms in the hands of the president and proclaimed in his farewell address:

“ …let me remind you of this: We are living in the 8th year of the atomic age. We are not the only nation that is learning to unleash the power of the atom. A third world war might dig the grave not only of our Communist opponents but also of our own society, our world as well as theirs.  Starting an atomic war is totally unthinkable for rational men.”

Happy Wednesday!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Government scientists agree that, contrary to President Donald Trump and his team’s repeated claims, climate change is already having a dramatic effect in the U.S., according to a new report. An unreleased draft by scientists from 13 federal agencies concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. It directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain, and that the ability to predict the effects is limited.

“Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” the draft states.  As per the New York Times.  

“The 543-page report was written by scientists from 13 federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It concludes that temperatures in the U.S. have risen sharply, by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit, over the last 150 years and that it is “extremely likely that most of the global mean temperature increase since 1951 was caused by human influence on climate.”

“Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” the report states. “Thousands of studies conducted by tens of thousands of scientists around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; disappearing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea level; and an increase in atmospheric water vapor. Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse (heat-trapping) gases, are primarily responsible for recent observed climate changes.”

The report, completed this year and part of the National Climate Assessment, has already been approved by the National Academy of Sciences, according to the Times. Its release hinges on the Trump administration’s approval, and one scientist who worked on the report told the Times that he and others feared the president would withhold it.” 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Maureen Dowd had a column yesterday commenting on Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump and possible Russian collusion in last’s year election.  She provides a provocative twist by referring to Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.  Here is a sample:

“As we contemplate crime and punishment in the Trump circle, it should be noted that our Russia-besotted president does share some traits with Dostoyevsky’s spiraling protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov.

Both men are naifs who arrive and think they have the right to transgress. Both are endlessly fascinating psychological studies: self-regarding, with Napoleon-style grandiosity, and self-incriminating. Both are consumed with chaotic, feverish thoughts as they are pursued by a relentless, suspicious lawman.

But it is highly doubtful that Melania will persuade Donald to confess all to special counsel Robert Mueller III and slink off to Siberia.

We are in for an epic clash between two septuagenarians who both came from wealthy New York families and attended Ivy League schools but couldn’t be more different — the flamboyant flimflam man and the buttoned-down, buttoned-up boy scout. (And we know the president has no idea how to talk to scouts appropriately.)

One has been called America’s straightest arrow. One disdains self-promotion and avoids the press. One married his sweetheart from school days. One was a decorated Marine in Vietnam. One counts patience, humility and honesty as the virtues he lives by and likes to say “You’re only as good as your word.”

And one’s president.

Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio says the president has been lying reflexively since he was a kid bragging about home runs he didn’t hit. He gets warped satisfaction from making up stuff, like those calls from the head of the Boy Scouts and the president of Mexico that the White House just admitted never happened.

Back when he was a Page Six playboy, Trump even invented two P.R. guys to play on the phone with reporters, so he could boast about himself three times as much, including fictitious claims of dating Carla Bruni and being hit on by Madonna.

He is never deterred by the fact that he can be easily caught. But considering he survived the “Access Hollywood” video, it’s no wonder he has a distorted sense of what is an existential threat.

Going hammer and tong after hammer and sickle, Mueller has crossed Trump’s Red Line, using multiple grand juries and issuing subpoenas in a comprehensive inquiry covering not only possible campaign collusion but also business dealings by Trump and his associates with Russia. The Times reported Friday that Mueller’s investigators had asked the White House for documents related to Michael Flynn.

A White House adviser told me recently about how scary Mueller’s dream team is, and how Jared Kushner should be nervous. Every time Mueller adds a legal celebrity to his crew, the music gets cued for an “Ocean’s Eleven” or “Dirty Dozen” array of talent. One lawyer helped destroy the New York City mafia; another helped bring down Nixon; another tackled Enron; others are experts on foreign bribery and witness-flipping. As GQ’s Jay Willis wrote, “If these people were coming for you over a parking ticket, you’d be thinking about liquidating your life savings.”

Even before his panting, bodice-ripper of a report came out, Ken Starr was getting dismissed as a partisan Javert. He’s still risible, warning Mueller on CNN Friday that “we do not want investigators and prosecutors out on a fishing expedition.” You know you’re in trouble when Mr. Rod & Reel warns you about going fishing.

Mueller is taken seriously as Mr. Clean Marine, a Republican willing to stand on principle even against other Republicans, as when he and James Comey resisted W. on warrantless wiretapping. Mueller is seen as incorruptible, so his conclusions will most likely be seen as unimpeachable.

Trump does not yet seem to fathom that Mueller is empowered in a way no one else is to look at all sorts of things. This isn’t some tiff over a casino, where Trump can publicly berate opposing counsel and draw him into a public spat. Mueller won’t take the bait.”

 “Ouch” or should we say “ой”!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Last Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the suggestion in a press conference that the Department of Justice would subpoena journalists in an attempt to prosecute leakers.  House Speaker Paul Ryan criticized Sessions’ and took issue with Sessions’ characterization of journalists’ roles in reporting stories that include leaked information. While speaking at an event in Wisconsin, Ryan said it is “the problem of the leaker, not the journalist.”

“Leaks are concerning because leaks can often compromise national security, but that’s the problem of the leaker not the journalist,” Ryan said.

Sessions had said earlier on Friday “We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity. We must balance their role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in our intelligence community, the armed forces, and all law-abiding Americans.”

A number of press-advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), criticized Sessions’ remarks. The ACLU’s privacy, and technology director, Ben Wizner, said: “Americans should be concerned about the Trump administration’s threat to step up its efforts against whistleblowers and journalists.”

Ryan, the ACLU, and others are absolutely right to question Sessions insinuations about the press.   A a reminder, the First Amendment to our Constitution states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Earlier this week, it was reported by the New York Times  that the Justice Department was redirecting resources in its civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants.  The reporting was based on an internal document that sought current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”

In response, a Justice Department spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, said on Wednesday that news media reports about the investigation were “inaccurate.” The department is seeking volunteers “to investigate one admissions complaint” filed on behalf of Asian-Americans who alleged racial discrimination in “a university’s admission policy and practices.”

She said the department had not received or issued any “directive, memorandum, initiative or policy related to university admissions in general.” The Times report did not say that the department had, but noted that it was preparing to redirect agency resources toward scrutinizing university affirmative-action practices. The announcement, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, said division lawyers interested in working on the topic are to submit résumés by Aug. 9.

Several current and former Civil Rights Division employees greeted the department’s statement on Wednesday with skepticism. The personnel announcement said it was seeking multiple lawyers to work on “investigations,” plural. It also indicated that the project will be run the division’s front office, where Trump administration political appointees work, rather than by the division’s Educational Opportunities Section, where career civil-service lawyers normally handle university-related complaints.

 “I am skeptical of the explanation that this detail announcement would be for the investigation of one single complaint,” said Justin M. Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the division in the Obama administration. “To have that structure to investigate a single complaint, outside the normal chain of command for career attorneys who investigate these sorts of complaints all the time, that’s quite weird.”

Ms. Flores’s statement described the investigation as an administrative referral about a complaint filed by 64 Asian-American coalitions in May 2015 and that “alleges racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in a university’s admission policy and practices.” That description dovetails with a dispute at Harvard University that led to a still-pending lawsuit filed on behalf of such students. The Justice Department, to date, has not intervened in that litigation or filed a friend-of-the-court brief.

If what Ms. Flores says is true then the Asian-American discrimination case will have significant ramifications and will likely end up at the US Supreme Court.   The subject of the Havard lawsuit alleges discriminating against Asian-Americans in admissions by giving preferences to other racial minorities.

The case puts Asian-Americans front and center in the latest stage of the affirmative action debate. The issue is whether there has been discrimination against Asian-Americans in the name of creating a diverse student body. The Justice Department may well focus on Harvard.

The Harvard case asserts that the university’s admissions process amounts to an illegal quota system, in which roughly the same percentage of African-Americans, Hispanics, whites and Asian-Americans have been admitted year after year, despite fluctuations in application rates and qualifications.

“It falls afoul of our most basic civil rights principles, and those principles are that your race and your ethnicity should not be something to be used to harm you in life nor help you in life,” said Edward Blum, the president of Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that is suing Harvard.

This case will be followed very carefully over the next several years as it works its way through the federal judicial system.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Robert S. Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s attempts to disrupt last year’s presidential election, has started issuing subpoenas from a Washington-based grand jury.  As reported by the New York Times:

“…some of the subpoenas were for documents related to the business dealings of Michael T. Flynn, the retired general who briefly served as President Trump’s national security adviser. Mr. Flynn is under investigation for foreign lobbying work, as well as for conversations he had during the transition with Sergey I. Kislyak, who was Russia’s ambassador to the United States.”

Ty Cobb, special counsel to the president, said that he was not aware that Mr. Mueller had started using a new grand jury. “Grand jury matters are typically secret,” Mr. Cobb said. “The White House favors anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly.”

He added, “The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mr. Mueller.”

The impaneling of a grand jury is viewed as the next step in the special counsel’s investigation.  It also adds credence that there is something worthy of investigation that will require further testimony before a grand jury under oath.  

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday the Online Learning Consortium (formerly the Alfred P. Sloan Consortium) posted the full program for its 2017 ACCELERATE Conference to be held November 15-17 in Orlando, Florida.  This conference is the premier online learning event of the year sponsored by the top organization for all things in online education.  Here is a blurb from its website:

“In 2017, you won’t be able to have a dialogue about higher education without discussing, in part, online learning. It’s one of the fastest growing sectors in education today, and as the pace of growth accelerates, we’d like to invite you to OLC Accelerate, the premier global gathering covering this field.

We chose the name OLC Accelerate because this conference is devoted to driving quality online learning, advancing best practice guidance and accelerating innovation in learning for academic leaders, educators, administrators, online learning professionals and organizations around the world.

Following the success of 2016’s OLC Accelerate , the 2017 conference will be the ultimate event to network with—and learn from—thousands of your eLearning peers.

As always, this international conference promises outstanding keynote speakers, expanded programs, and engaging workshops. Our ever popular Technology Test Kitchen and Discovery sessions will once again deliver the opportunity to interact with experts in new and emerging eLearning technologies and topics, reinforcing why online educators worldwide affirm that OLC Accelerate is the premiere conference for online learning professionals.

Our curation of conference tracks and exhibits promises a cross section of timely eLearning topics, offering something for everyone involved in providing the highest quality educational experiences in 2017.”

Don’t miss it if you are at all interested in the pedagogy and practice of online education.

Tony