Relaunch!

I am relaunching my blog at www.higheredetc.com 

Please take a look over there in the next week or so, as I relaunch the blog!

My blog is up and running! Still under construction, but it’s up!

Taking A Break

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to take a break from the blog for the holidays. I am extending that break indefinitely. I have a lot going on right now and I just don’t have the enthusiasm that I have had for blogging in the past. Thanks to everyone who has read and commented. I may still post occasionally, but I don’t think I’ll be doing the once a week postings as I have been for the past year.

I’m still tweeting regularly so follow me @LindseyJKL

Higher Ed., etc. 2011 Review by WordPress

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,800 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Dr. Marietta Del Favero: Scholar, mentor, friend

It is with great sadness that I am writing today. Dr. Marietta Del Favero died suddenly yesterday. “Dr. D.” as she was affectionately known to her students, was more than just my professor. She cared deeply about her students and developing the future of the higher education scholarly community. She worked to make the University of New Orleans a better community of scholars, and perhaps most importantly she made me and countless other graduate students feel at home in New Orleans and in the world of academe.

It is not an overstatement to say that I loved Dr. D. I loved her courses, I loved spending time with her. She made me a better student. She made me a better thinker. I worked harder for her than any other faculty member, because she made me want to work hard for her.

I want to honor Dr. D.’s legacy by continuing on my own path to earning a doctorate, and also by encouraging others to pursue advanced degrees.  Although Dr. D has left a void, she would want us to continue. I am concerned that with this void, the momentum for our higher ed. programs will be lost.

The city of New Orleans needs graduate programs in higher education. And UNO, as the city’s only urban public research university, needs to be the institution to offer them.

 There are no other doctoral programs in higher education offered at any of the other colleges and universities in New Orleans. There is also no Ph.D. program in higher education within the University of Louisiana system. UL Lafayette offers an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, but this is not the same degree.

A doctoral program in higher education is essential in New Orleans. Many professionals currently working at UNO, Tulane, Xavier, Nunez, Delgado, North Shore, and other institutions rely on this program for professional development and career advancement. Without such a program at UNO, the city and the university will lose the ability to attract and retain talented young professionals and mid-career professionals.

Dr. Del Favero had also worked to bring back the Master’s in higher education program, which is supposed to start in Fall 2012. There is no such Master’s program at any institution in New Orleans.

I and many others plan to continue Dr. D’s legacy and become the scholars she wanted us to be; the scholars she pushed us to be.

“Because I knew you, I have been changed for good” – from the musical Wicked.

Good bye Dr. D., there are many of us who have been changed for good because you were in our lives. You will forever be dearly missed.

Contact me at lindsey dot jakiel at gmail dot com.

http://obits.nola.com/obituaries/nola/obituary.aspx?n=marietta-del-favero-smetherman&pid=155051879

Higher Education, Etc. 

I will be taking a break from the blog for at least the next week. I need some time, and I want to keep this message about Dr. D. at the top of the page for a while.

Fos is Chosen as UNO’s President

In case you haven’t heard, Peter J. Fos has been selected as the University of New Orleans’ next leader– the institution’s first president. Read more here: http://news.uno.edu/UNOintheNews/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/169/Fos-Selected-UNO-President

First president because previously under the LSU system, campus level leaders were Chancellors and the system level leader was the President. Now that UNO has officially been transferred to the University of Louisiana system, the campus level leader will be called a President. (This is what I was used to having come from the State University of New York previously).

I am a little surprised with the selection, after the on-campus interviews I had Fos and Wartell as the top two, but was banking on Wartell (as you can tell by this previous post). However, I think this new chapter in UNO’s life as an institution looks promising, so I will support the new campus leader as the institution moves forward.

Here’s hoping that Dr. Fos is up to the challenge.

UNO President Finalists

As an update from yesterday’s post: http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/12/finalists_picked_for_uno_presi.html

I was correct! Dr. Fos and Dr. Wartell are the two finalists and UNO should have a president by December 9th.

UNO Presidential Search (Again)

I saw three of the four semi-finalists for UNO’s president during their public interviews this week. Overall, they were good candidates. Tomorrow the search committee will choose 2 finalists to go forward. I think the two finalists are likely to be Dr. Fos and Dr. Wartell. Both candidates have their strong points, but I think Wartell has a bit of an edge given his past experience at the president/chancellor level.

Below is the text of my email letter that I sent to  unopresidentialsearch@uls.state.la.us

Anyone can submit comments to this email address. There is also a final public comment period tomorrow (Friday 12/02/11) at 10:00am in the Homer Hitt Alumni Center at UNO. I am unable to attend tomorrow, so I sent the following email:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing regarding the University of New Orleans’ (UNO) presidential search. Having attended 3 of the 4 public interviews held this week, I would like to communicate my thoughts about the process and candidates. I am unable to attend tomorrow’s meeting, but still wanted to provide written feedback. I am a doctoral student in higher education administration at UNO where I also work part-time in the Office of Institutional Research & Data Management.

I appreciate the transparency of the process and the opportunities for public comment and engagement throughout. As someone who studies the organizational behavior of college and universities, being able to witness aspects of the search and selection processes has been valuable to me.

I was not able to attend the public interview with Dr. Scanes. My comments will reflect impressions of the candidates I did see: Dr. Goodman, Dr. Fos, and Dr. Wartell. Although all three of these candidates would be qualified to become UNO’s president, I feel that Doctors Fos and Wartell are the best candidates. Both of these candidates have an adequate breadth of experiences in academic leadership in order to lead a complex and diversified university, like UNO.

From my review of their resumes/c.v.’s and my observations in the public interviews, I would rank Dr. Wartell as my top choice to become the next leader– the first president– of UNO. Dr. Wartell’s past experience as the Chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne is what ultimately made me rank him as my top candidate. Given the complexities of UNO as an institution and the currently state policy environment for postsecondary education in Louisiana, I believe that we need a leader who has significant leadership experience at top levels of higher education administration. We should not chose someone whose leadership is untested. Based on my evaluation, Dr. Wartell has the most high-level leadership experience of the 3 candidates whose interviews I attended.

 

I hope that my comments are helpful. Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

Best–
Lindsey B. Jakiel, Ed.M.
Doctoral Student, Higher Education Administration
University of New Orleans