Scene of where a six-year old shot a teacher!

Dear Commons Community,

There is so much violence in our country and we have seen over and over again manifestations of it in our schools.  On Friday, a Virginia teacher was critically injured when she was was shot by a 6-year-old student in Newport News.  Authorities are struggling to understand how a child so young could be involved in a school shooting, commented Mayor Phillip Jones.

Jones said the condition of the teacher, a woman in her 30s, is “trending in a positive direction” as she remains hospitalized. Police Chief Steve Drew met with the teacher and her family yesterday morning. “She has improved and is currently listed in stable condition,” police said in a news release.  As reported by the Associated Press and other media.

The boy shot and wounded the teacher with a handgun in a first-grade classroom on Friday at Richneck Elementary School, according to authorities. Drew said the shooting was not accidental and was part of an altercation. No students were injured.

Police yesterday declined to describe what led to the altercation or any other details about what happened in the classroom, citing the ongoing investigation.

Jones also declined to reveal details of the shooting, or say how the boy got access to the gun or who owns the weapon.

“This is a red flag for the country,” Jones said.

“I do think that after this event, there is going to be a nationwide discussion on how these sorts of things can be prevented.”

Virginia law does not allow 6-year-olds to be tried as adults. In addition, a 6-year-old is too young to be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty.

A juvenile judge would have authority, though, to revoke a parent’s custody and place a child under the purview of the Department of Social Services.

Jones would not say where the boy is being held.

“We are ensuring he has all the services that he currently needs right now,” Jones said.

Experts who study gun violence said the shooting represents an extremely rare occurrence of a young child bringing a gun into school and wounding a teacher.

“It’s very rare and it’s not something the legal system is really designed or positioned to deal with,” said researcher David Riedman, founder of a database that tracks U.S. school shootings dating back to 1970.

He said yesterday that he’s only aware of three other shootings caused by 6-year-old students in the time period he’s studied. Those include the fatal shooting of a fellow student in 2000 in Michigan and shootings that injured other students in 2011 in Texas and 2021 in Mississippi.

Riedman said he only knows of one other instance of a student younger than that causing gunfire at a school, in which a 5-year-old student brought a gun to a Tennessee school in 2013 and accidentally discharged it. No one was injured in that case.

Daniel W. Webster, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies gun violence, agreed that a 6-year-old shooting a teacher at school is extremely unusual. But he said his research shows that instances of young children accessing loaded guns and shooting themselves or others unintentionally in homes or other settings are rising.

“A 6 year old gaining access to a loaded gun and shooting him/herself or someone else, sadly, is not so rare,” he said in an email.

In the Newport News case, Drew said Friday that the shooting didn’t appear to be an accident and that it was isolated to the single victim. He said the student and teacher had known each other in a classroom setting.

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Drew told reporters.

Investigators were trying to figure out where the student obtained the handgun.

Parents and students were reunited at a gymnasium, Newport News Public Schools said via Facebook.

The police chief declined to discuss what contact investigators have had with the boy’s parents.

“We have been in contact with our commonwealth’s attorney (local prosecutor) and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” Drew said.

The Richneck Country School has about 550 students who are in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website. Jones said there will be no classes at the school Monday and Tuesday.

“Today our students got a lesson in gun violence,” said George Parker III, Newport News schools superintendent, “and what guns can do to disrupt, not only an educational environment, but also a family, a community.”

Gun control anyone or just let the insanity continue!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As a follow up to my posting yesterday entitled, ChatGPT and AI – The Future Is Here for Teaching, I tried ChatGBT using one of the assignments I normally give in a graduate class on school law and finance.  The  wording of the assignment is as follows:

“Assume you are the principal of a school and the district superintendent informs you that the NYC DOE is anticipating a potential 7% increase in the budget for next year. Review your budget and come up with recommendations and a plan for this increase.”

ChatGBT in several seconds responded with the following:

“As the principal of a school, it is important to carefully review the budget and consider a variety of factors when determining how to best utilize a potential increase in funding. Some considerations might include:

1. Staffing: Is the school understaffed in any particular areas? If so, the increase in funding could be used to hire additional staff, such as teachers, counselors, or instructional aides.
2. Programs: Are there any programs or initiatives that the school has been unable to fund in the past due to budget constraints? An increase in funding could allow for the implementation or expansion of these programs.
3. Maintenance and improvements: Is the school in need of any repairs or renovations? Additional funding could be used to address any necessary maintenance or make improvements to the school’s facilities.
4. Professional development: Professional development is an important aspect of supporting and retaining high-quality staff. The increase in funding could be used to provide professional development opportunities for teachers and other school staff.”

ChatGBT response would not be acceptable for the paper because of its brevity but it does provide an excellent outline for the assignment.

I then submitted the same assignment with a seven-page requirement as follows:

“Assume you are the principal and the district superintendent informs you that the NYC DOE is anticipating a potential 7% increase in the budget for next year. Review your budget and come up with recommendations and a plan for this increase. Please be sure to justify your recommendations.  Please write a seven-page paper for the above”

ChatGBT responded as follows within 45 seconds:

“As the principal of a school, it is important to carefully review the budget and consider a variety of factors when determining how to best utilize a potential increase in funding. In this paper, we will review the current budget of our school and make recommendations for how to utilize a potential 7% increase in funding.

Rep. Mike Rogers had to be physically restrained by another lawmaker from getting to Rep. Matt Gaetz

Dear Commons Community,

It took 14 failed votes, lots of concessions and days of being publicly humiliated by his colleagues, but early this morning, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) finally got what he wanted: He was elected House Speaker.

McCarthy eked out a win on the 15th vote after agreeing to several demands by a small block of right-wing Republicans who had been opposing him. The most notable concession he made was to change the GOP’s House rules package ― the framework that lays out all the rules for running the House for the next two years ― to allow a single member to offer a motion to unseat him.

The final tally was 216 votes for McCarthy, 212 votes for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and six voting present.

For the first time in 15 rounds of votes, McCarthy didn’t draw any GOP opposition. The six who voted present were some of his strongest critics: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.) and Matt Rosendale (Mont.).

McCarthy’s victory came as a dramatic reversal after it looked like he had lost his bid and would have to regroup over the weekend. Gaetz, one of McCarthy’s main antagonists over the weeklong voting marathon, voted “present” on the 14th round, denying McCarthy by one vote.

McCarthy and his supporters immediately descended on Gaetz as the outcome became clear and pleaded with him to change his vote. It got so tense that one McCarthy supporter, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), had to be physically restrained by another lawmaker from getting to Gaetz. (see video)

After McCarthy’s failed vote, his allies immediately moved to adjourn until Monday. But as the vote to adjourn was underway, Gaetz reportedly took a call from former President Donald Trump urging him to clear the path for McCarthy. Trump also reportedly called Biggs and urged him to do the same.

Trump’s calls appeared to do the trick. McCarthy’s allies got wind that his opponents were now prepared to vote “present” instead of “no,” and quickly began switching their votes to keep the House in session. They moved on to the 15th vote to install McCarthy as speaker and succeeded.

McCarthy had already won over most of his detractors earlier Friday by giving them a package of parliamentary and preferential committee seating changes that led many to vote for him for the first time. Some of these changes would give lawmakers more time to review legislation and make it easier to offer amendments.

The California Republican’s rocky path to the speakership was largely due to House Republicans underperforming in November’s midterm elections. His party recaptured the House, which was expected, but didn’t get nearly as many seats as anticipated. McCarthy only had four votes to spare in his leadership bid, which empowered the right-wing flank of his party to press for their demands in exchange for their support.

McCarthy’s victory on the 15th ballot gives him the distinction of needing the most speaker election tallies since before the Civil War, when New Jersey’s William Pennington required 44 votes to take the gavel in 1860.

If this is any indication of how the House is going to function, McCarthy may wish he was never elected!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Bill Bramhall’s cartoon in the New York Daily News says it all on the anniversary of the  January 6th insurrection on our Capitol.  Although watching the election of a speaker in the House of Representatives during the past week makes one wonder if a coup attempt is not in the making.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Beth McMurtrie, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, has an article this morning asking “Will ChatGPT Change the Way You Teach?”  It is a provocative piece that reviews the latest version of ChatGPT that is attracting a lot of attention for its ability to generate essays based on user parameters.  Here is the entire text of her article.

“Chances are you’ve heard about ChatGPT by now. It’s a chatbot released in November that, having been fed a steady diet of digital text from the internet, can turn out decent copy. Enter a prompt and it spits out a few paragraphs in response. The more detailed your prompt, the more specific the writing.

You can see where this is headed. A writing assignment asks students to compare and contrast feminist themes in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Yup, it can do that. A political science exam requires short-essay responses to questions around the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. Check.

Is the writing captivating? No. Is it coherent? Mostly. So what does this all mean for teaching? That’s one question I set out to explore when I wrote about ChatGPT last month. I’d like to dig in here to some of the ideas that I heard from digital-literacy experts, writing instructors, and teaching and learning specialists.

First, if you want to make your assignments AI-proof, that’s likely impossible. These tools can be used in large and small ways. Maybe you won’t receive a paper written by a bot, but a bot-written essay may inform your students’ writing. Yes, you can shift all writing to in-class assignments, or you can have students write by hand. But as Anna Mills, an English instructor at College of Marin pointed out to me, these strategies introduce new problems. For example, you may have students with learning disabilities who struggle under such conditions.

Second, you may want to shift to different types of assignments and assessments. Maybe you allow students to produce a podcast instead of writing a paper. Or you create fewer writing assignments, but build in more feedback and revision to the ones you keep. Or you try prompts whose answers are less likely to be found on the internet. Of course, there is always another option, which is to invest in detection software. Already several tools on the market promise to do that. But many digital-learning experts say that’s a losing game — tech will keep advancing, and students will find ways around detection tools. Nor do most instructors want to become writing police.

The approach that most intrigued me is one that has to do with engaging students in a conversation about why and how they write, sometimes using these AI tools.

John Warner, a writing expert and author, notes that writing is a form of thinking. Writing requires you to process and synthesize a range of facts and ideas, and to come up with a coherent and hopefully insightful take on what you have learned. Students, though, may have been trained in high school to see writing as a form of regurgitation based on a set of formulas (compare and contrast!).

If you can explain to students the value of writing, and convince them that you are genuinely interested in their ideas, they are less likely to reach for the workaround, Warner told me.

There are also a host of people excited about using this technology in their classroom. Why? Well, for one, it’s not going away. Ignoring the fact that students will use it is seen by some instructors as an abdication of professional responsibility. These are powerful tools and it’s better to help students learn how to use them judiciously, and to understand their limitations and benefits. The other reason to use them is that they can help spark the creative process, professors say, and enhance learning.

Marc Watkins, an instructor at the University of Mississippi, wrote a thoughtful essay about this recently. He and his colleagues in the department of writing and rhetoric started a working group last summer to figure out how to incorporate AI research, writing, and brainstorming tools into their classes. They used a counterargument generator to encourage students to explore different perspectives on a topic, and a research tool to help them brainstorm.

“What message would we send our students,” Watkins writes, “by using AI-powered detectors to curb their suspected use of an AI writing assistant, when future employers will likely want them to have a range of AI-related skills and competencies?

“What we should instead focus on is teaching our students data literacy so that they can use this technology to engage human creativity and thought.”

The significance of that argument was brought home to me by Mills and others, when they compared these writing tools to calculators. There was also plenty of hand-wringing when hand-held calculators appeared, but now they’re integral to teaching math and other STEM disciplines. Mills says she can even envision a day when ChatGPT is embedded in programs like Word and Google Docs.

Of course, all AI tools are not the same. Those that complete your sentences in an email are at one end of the spectrum, and large language models, like ChatGPT, are on the other. As Watkins and others point out, the most sophisticated tools are also potentially dangerous. Some have been shut down after turning out biased or nonsensical research papers that could still confuse a layperson. All the more reason, they say, to engage your students in a discussion of what they are, how they work, and how they can be used as an aide in learning.

These teaching experiments are coming fast and furious, but here is one that caught my eye. In this paper, Paul Fyfe, an associate professor of English at N.C. State University, described an experiment in which he asked students to “cheat” on a final essay using GPT-2, an earlier version of the AI that underlies ChatGPT, and then discuss how the AI influenced them, as well as its potential uses and abuses.”

I have been sharing emails about ChatGPT with my colleague, Chuck Dziuban, professor emeritus at the University of Central Florida.  We have coauthored a number of books and articles on instructional technology and online learning.  In November we gave a paper at the Online Learning Consortium’s ACCELERATE Conference that included a discussion of the future of the academy.  We have now both concluded that the future is here!

Tony

Maura Healey

Dear Commons Community,

Maura Healey, the first woman and first open member of the LGBTQ community to be elected governor of Massachusetts, was sworn into office at the Statehouse yesterday, pledging to lead “with empathy and with equity.”

Healey’s elevation to governor signals a political shift in the state’s top elected office from GOP to Democratic hands. Healey, 51, replaces former Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, 66, who opted not to seek reelection after two terms.

The ceremony also marks the first time that an all-women ticket will occupy the office. Kim Driscoll, who served as mayor of Salem, was elected lieutenant governor with Healey and was also sworn in on Thursday.

Healey outlined some of her goals in her 35-minute inaugural address.

She acknowledged the soaring cost of housing in Massachusetts and vowed in her first 100 days to create a new secretary of housing. She said she’ll also work to convert state-owned property into homes or rental properties and reduce costs for renters by expanding tax breaks.  As reported by the Associated Press.

“The cost of housing is out of control because we simply don’t have enough of it,” she said. “If we want Massachusetts to be a home for all, we need to build more places to live.”

Healey said she’ll work on changes to the tax code including pushing for a child tax credit for every child while also working to expand access to childcare.

In her first budget Healey said she will propose offering free community college to students over 25 who don’t have a college degree. She said she’ll also press for increased funding to the state university system to make it easier for everyone to afford a higher degree.

One of the biggest challenges facing Healey is the state’s beleaguered public transit system.

She said in the next 60 days, she’ll appoint a safety chief to inspect the Metropolitan Bay Transportation Authority, which oversees the Boston-area public transportation system, and will include funding in her first budget proposal to hire 1,000 new workers to get the system running at full capacity.

“We know the MBTA is woefully understaffed — and we know that lack of staffing has had grave consequences,” she said.

Healey, who served eight years as Massachusetts attorney general, ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic primary last year and easily defeated Republican candidate Geoff Diehl in the general election. She’s only the second Democrat in the past three decades to be elected governor in Massachusetts.

The new governor is also part of a record number of women occupying top state elected offices in Massachusetts. Of the six statewide offices, not counting U.S. Senate seats, women will now hold all but one.

During her speech, Healey also said she’s committed to removing barriers people of color, people with disabilities, women and LGBT residents have faced for generations.

She said she will begin by directing each agency in her administration to conduct an equity audit.

“Our greatest strength is our people, but we can not reach our potential as a state when so many are held back from reaching their own,” she said.

Healey said she’ll also push ahead with the state’s efforts to transition to a renewable energy future.

She pledged to double the state’s offshore wind and solar targets, quadruple its energy storage and put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

Those promises dovetail with the state’s larger efforts to combat climate change. Healey said she’ll create the country’s first cabinet-level climate chief to work across government and with cities and towns to meet the state’s climate goals.

Much like former Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick invested state funds to help make Massachusetts a center for biotech, Healey said she wants to make the state a center of renewable energy technology.

A former Harvard basketball player, Healey said she has relied on teamwork as attorney general and will bring that same sense of a shared mission into the governor’s office.

Healey is hoping to work closely with the Democrat-controlled Massachusetts House and Senate. Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka delivered the oaths of office to Healey and Driscoll.

“No matter what challenges we face, no matter what lies ahead, we will stay true to the best of ourselves,” Healey said. “We will act with empathy and with equity. We will work together.”

Healey sounds like she will make a great governor.  Best of luck to her!

Tony

Al Schmidt

Dear Commons Community,

Pennsylvania’s incoming Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, announced yesterday that he is appointing Al Schmidt,  a Republican who stood up to Donald Trump after the 2020 election, to be the state’s top elections official.

As the vice chair of Philadelphia’s Board of Elections, Schmidt was at the center of defending the 2020 vote in Pennsylvania, a key presidential battleground that narrowly went to President Joe Biden. Trump prematurely declared victory in the state and tried to stop Philadelphia officials from counting all the ballots there. When Schmidt refused to comply, he became a target of Trump supporters’ fury.

Schmidt is Shapiro’s first Cabinet pick, after a campaign against Trump-backed state Sen. Doug Mastriano in which election administration took center stage.

In Pennsylvania, the top elections official, the secretary of the commonwealth, is nominated by the governor rather than elected.  As reported by NBC News.

“Al Schmidt has a proven track record of defending our democracy, protecting voting rights, and standing up to extremism — even in the face of grave threats — and I am proud to nominate him to be Pennsylvania’s next Secretary of the Commonwealth,” Shapiro said in a statement.

Schmidt, who will receive a Presidential Citizens Medal from Biden today, said he is “honored to have the chance to continue working to protect the integrity of our elections and strengthen our democracy.”

“Our elections are the foundation of our democracy, and I look forward to working with anyone — regardless of party — to ensure they remain free and fair here in Pennsylvania, and that we do more to ensure every eligible voter can make their voice heard,” he added.

Schmidt, who resigned from his post in late 2021 to lead the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan, pro-democracy Philadelphia-based nonprofit group, testified last year before the House Jan. 6 committee about the threats he and his family faced amid his efforts to uphold the 2020 vote. Schmidt tied the threats directly to Trump’s November 2020 tweet that said he “refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty” in Philadelphia’s election.

“After the president tweeted at me by name — calling me out the way that he did — the threats became much more specific, much more graphic, and included not just me by name, but included members of my family, by name, their ages, our address, pictures of our home, just every bit of detail that you can imagine,” Schmidt testified.

Shapiro made his ability to pick the state’s top elections official central to his pitch to voters. Trump also appeared to care deeply about the role, telling Pennsylvania Republicans in a video last January: “Sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate.”

Congratulations to Shapiro and Schmidt for putting country ahead of party!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

President Joe Biden celebrated new infrastructure funding at an event yesterday with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in a rare display of bipartisanship that stood in stark contrast to the fiasco that has dominated recent headlines in the selection of a speaker in the US Congress.  The president heaped praise on the Kentucky GOP senator for helping make a historic infrastructure overhaul a reality.  As reported by The Huffington Post.

That McConnell decided to ride along with Biden to the event in Covington, Kentucky, in the presidential limo, put a punctuation mark on the message of normalcy the two leaders were hoping to send as House Republicans struggled to elect a speaker. The chaos has derailed the ambitions of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the formation of the 118th Congress.

The conservative revolt against McCarthy, who has been the GOP House leader, is historic: The lower chamber hasn’t needed more than one ballot to elect a speaker since December 1923. Though, in 1855, the process took 133 ballots and two months to sort out.

Prior to leaving for Kentucky on Wednesday, Biden weighed in by calling the GOP’s predicament “a little embarrassing.”

“How do you think this looks to the rest of the world?” the president asked as he left the White House.

In Kentucky, Biden touted new federal funding that includes an overhaul and expansion of the Brent Spence Bridge, a major freight bottleneck that connects Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. The $1.6 billion in funding was made available through the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the trillion-dollar law that wouldn’t be possible without McConnell and other Senate Republicans who supported it.

“It wouldn’t have happened without your hand. It just wouldn’t have gotten done and I have to thank you for that,” Biden said to McConnell.

“We don’t agree on everything. In fact, we disagree on a lot of things, but here’s what matters: He’s a man of his word,” he added of the senator. “He’s willing to find common ground to get things done for the country.”

McConnell wasn’t the only Republican in attendance on Wednesday. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and recently retired Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who voted for the infrastructure law, were also present.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) also praised Biden for helping make the funding a reality.

“Multiple presidents have promised a companion bridge [to the Brent Spence], and this president delivered,” Beshear said of efforts to expand the bridge.

Wednesday’s ride with McConnell is a bit of vindication for Biden, who predicted as a presidential candidate that congressional Republicans would have an “epiphany” and work with Democrats once Donald Trump was no longer president. In addition to the infrastructure law, Congress approved several bipartisan measures in the past two years, including a gun safety overhaul, domestic semiconductor investments, and new health care for veterans.

Biden and McConnell share a long history in the Senate and as negotiators during President Barack Obama’s presidency. As vice president, Biden regularly cut deals with McConnell ― to the annoyance of some Democrats ― under a divided government similar to what the country is facing today.

Biden used the Brent Spence Bridge and the infrastructure victory as an example of what can be accomplished when lawmakers work together.

“After years of politics being so divisive, there are bright spots across the country. The Brent Spence Bridge is one of them,” Biden said Wednesday. “A bridge to the vision of America I know we all believe in, where we can work together to get things done.”

Amen!  The American people yearn for what Biden and McConnell represented yesterday!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education had an article high-lighting the plight of college and university professional staff.  It referred to an essay, by Kevin R. McClure who described how many college workers are trapped in jobs that provide no opportunities for advancement. Those affected have limited options: They can simmer in silence, pursue more credentials, or leave.

“It’s hard to conclude anything other than that higher education has done a spectacularly bad job of managing talent,” wrote McClure, an associate professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

The Chronicle wanted to know what readers made of McClure’s diagnosis, so we posted some open-ended questions. A large number — more than 150 — of you responded, describing frustration at the lack of clear career ladders, bitterness at being passed over for jobs, and bewilderment at seeing those on the outside, often with less education, finding more financial success. Below is a sample of the replies.

In my fifty-plus year career as both faculty and administrator, I understand the plight of the career staff member.  I have given a lot of advice to people who have worked with me and doctoral students interested in pursuing a professional career.  My basic advice has been not to limit oneself to one institution but to move on to other colleges and universities for advancement.  In my career, I worked at six different colleges with each move advancing what I wanted to do

Tony

PS:  The Chronicle has a report available (see graphic above) that reviews the issue of staffing.  A bit pricey at $179.00 but it might of interest to readers.

———————————————————–

“I’ve been stunned at how little focus there is on career advancement. I’ve had six different supervisors over five years, and only one ever seriously talked to me about how I hoped to grow within my position or within the university. Across the board, managers here are solely focused on their advancement or keeping their jobs. It is not surprising to me that dozens of my colleagues have left the institution, and sometimes higher ed altogether, in the short time I’ve been here.”

“I’ve given up trying to pursue higher education as a career after 10 years of trying to get a full-time position. I’ve interviewed once for a spot during that time. Getting closer to this industry means seeing the ugly truth and hopelessness that pervades our administrations and systems.”

“While for the most part I love my work, I am increasingly exploring options for leaving the profession. My boyfriend is eight years younger than me and has only a B.A. but is earning almost twice in the private sector what I make.”

“At my institution there have been long-timers in leadership positions who have no intention of retiring anytime soon, which means there is no way for any midcareer professionals to move up. It gets worse when we staff up: We are bringing even more people into the organization without giving them anywhere to go. It’s like we are all the marching band in “Animal House” when they turn down the alley and march into the wall.”

“I am still passionate for my students, but it hurts that I am equipping them to make more money than I will ever see. I have no opportunities for a raise unless I change titles or leave. I don’t want to leave my students, and I love my job, but I’m stuck with no opportunities for growth unless I leave, which would severely uproot my family.”

“I’ve been in a position with no upward mobility for the last seven years. I’ve lost my faith in higher-education administrators and feel defeated when I see the progression of friends’ paths in non-higher-ed organizations.”

“I have been working only 18 months at higher ed in research administration, and I can already see the writing on the wall for a future filled with no career growth. I love the mission and work that I do, but there is a reason my university is understaffed. I can see LinkedIn inquiries becoming more tempting.”

“We’ve had so many staff members quit that it’s miserable for the rest of us who have stayed behind. I can’t get travel reimbursements processed. I can’t get the website updated. I can’t even spend the money my office was allocated (because I’m a temporary administrator). It’s a Dumpster fire. And there’s no evidence the administration is going to do anything to fix it.”

“Higher ed is a scam of a career, making us get master’s degrees for a career of low-paying jobs unless we are willing to get doctorates or hop across the country every few years.”

“None of the colleges I have worked for have a formalized path for career progression, which would have gone a long way toward keeping me employed there. It is difficult to sit in a job for many years without knowing if it will ever go anywhere, especially as you see your colleagues jumping ship for better opportunities.”

“Training and investment in me as a new employee. I basically had to teach myself the job from a disorganized Dropbox folder of documents and a few colleagues in other departments taking pity on me.”

“For people who are holding on to their leadership role for a long time (20 years) or are close to retirement age, there ought to be a point where their boss reassigns them to some kind of “special adviser/special assistant” role where they can keep doing some of the things they are really good at but clear the field for new blood to take over departments or programs.”

“Institutions should consider valuing administrative talent as they do academic talent. Academic department heads and deans are often identified through national searches, while administrative deans/directors and department heads are often pursued with a “who can we get for the least money that will do the most work” mind-set. We are well past the age when “anyone” can be a higher-ed administrator (including faculty members who choose to dip their toes into these waters). For those that move into administration from other roles, a formal professional-development plan relevant to their new role is needed. My Ph.D. program prepared me to be an administrator, not a faculty member. We should recognize the reverse is also true.”

Dear Commons Community,

A charity fundraiser for children created by NFL player Damar Hamlin has been receiving millions of dollars in donations since the Buffalo Bills safety experienced a cardiac arrest on the field Monday night.

Just days before his collapse, Hamlin posted on Instagram about his charity foundation — The Chasing M’s Foundation — holding its third annual toy drive for children in need. After about two years, the drive finally met its goal of $2,500, according to Hamlin’s GoFundMe page for the event. 

But the fundraiser was suddenly inundated with nearly $6 million contributed by 200,000 individual donors after Hamlin’s collapse during the “Monday Night Football” game. The 24-year-old player needed his heart restarted on the Paycor Stadium field in Ohio after a tackle during the Bills’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The fund is continuing to skyrocket.  As reported by various media.

During the first quarter of the game, Hamlin tackled Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, resulting in a heavy hit to what appeared to be the Bills player’s chest and shoulder area. Hamlin got to his feet before collapsing, shocking his teammates and fans during the nationally televised game.

The Bills released a statement later saying Hamlin experienced cardiac arrest. Medical personnel restored his heartbeat on the field before an ambulance took him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Hamlin was sedated and in critical condition early Tuesday, according to the team. Some Bills players decided to stay in Cincinnati to remain close to their teammate.

Hamlin started a GoFundMe page for his toy drive in December 2020, when he was just finishing his college career and preparing for the NFL draft process. He wanted to create a toy drive at Kelly and Nina’s Daycare Center in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.

“As I embark on my journey to the NFL, I will never forget where I come from and I am committed to using my platform to positively impact the community that raised me,” he wrote when he created the GoFundMe page. “I created The Chasing M’s Foundation as a vehicle that will allow me to deliver that impact, and the first program is the 2020 Community Toy Drive.”

Hamlin said he hopes that the drive positively impacts children “who have been hardest hit by the pandemic.” Every dollar raised would go directly toward purchasing toys for children in need, he said.

“Thank you so much for supporting me on and off the field,” Hamlin wrote on the page. “I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with you to help make the holiday season a little brighter for the kids in our community.”

On Dec. 25, Hamlin posted a video on Instagram showing the 2022 toy drive’s success. The player is seen giving toys to children, posing for pictures and playing with them, and signing jerseys and footballs.

The donations to the GoFundMe range from $5 to $5,500. The comments are now filled with prayers for a swift recovery and words of encouragement, including from fans of other NFL teams.

Hamlin’s loved ones updated the GoFundMe page on Tuesday after it became flooded with donations, thanking the community and confirming that the page is the only fund being used by his family.

“This fundraiser was initially established to support a toy drive for Damar’s community, sponsored by the Chasing M’s Foundation. However, it has received renewed support in light of Damar’s current battle and we can’t thank all of you enough,” the family wrote. “Your generosity and compassion mean the world to us.”

We pray he fully recovers!

Tony