Higher Education, etc.

Relaunch!

LindseyJKL — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:01:55 +0000

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

LindseyJKL — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:18:54 +0000

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

LindseyJKL — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:11:08 +0000

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

LindseyJKL — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:38:25 +0000

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

LindseyJKL — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:48:43 +0000

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

LindseyJKL — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:07:13 +0000

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)

LindseyJKL — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:07:08 +0000

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

What Do You Get a Doctoral Student for Christmas?

LindseyJKL — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:59:47 +0000

I will be updating my blog with details from the UNO presidential search later tonight. However, in the meantime, here’s a Christmas post.

I assume that, like me, most doctoral students keep a wish list of books. Well, here’s mine. If only all academic books were available for Kindle…

Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx by Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala

Rethinking admissions for a new millennium: moving past the SAT for social diversity and academic excellence (2011– Forthcoming). Soares, J.A.

Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality by John Marsh

Changing Inequality by Rebecca M. Blank

Police in the Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High School by Kathleen Nolan

House Signs and Collegiate Fun: Sex, Race, and Faith in a College Town by Chaise LaDousa

White Middle-Class Identities and Urban Schooling by Diane Reay, Gill Crozier, and David James

American Plastic: Boob Jobs, Credit Cards, and Our Quest for Perfection by Laurie Essig

Gender and the Construction of Dominant, Hegemonic, and Oppositional Femininities by Justin Charlebois

The Plantation by Edgar Tristram Thompson, edited by Sidney Mintz and George Baca

Democracy and the Intersection of Religion: The Reading of John Dewey’s Understanding of Democracy and Education by Rosa Bruno-Jofre

Education as Dialogue: Its Prerequisites and Its Enemies by Tasos Kazepides

Cultural Studies in the Future Tense by Lawrence Grossberg

First Nations Education Policy in Canada: Progress or Gridlock? by Jerry Paquette

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

The Demographics of Empire: The Colonial Order and the Creation of Knowledge edited by Karl Ittmann, Dennis D. Cordell, and Gregory H. Maddox

Thatcher and After: Margaret Thatcher and Her Afterlife inContemporary Culture edited by Louisa Hadley and Elizabeth Ho

Sustainable Diplomacies edited by Costas M. Constantinou and James Der Derian

Nine Choices: Johnny Cash and American Culture by Jonathan Silverman

Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady by Maurine H. Beasley

Public Engagement for Public Education: Joining Forces to Revitalize Democracy and Equalize Schools edited by Marion Orr and John Rogers

Gender, Politics, and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Interpretation edited by Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay

Old Assumptions, New Realities: Ensuring Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century edited by Robert D. Plotnick

The Still Divided Academy: How Competing Visions of Power, Politics, and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education, with co-authors Stanley Rothman and Matthew Woessner

Everyone’s a Winner: Life in Our Congratulatory Culture by Joel Best

The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millennium by Michele Elam

The Impact of the Postcolonial Theories of Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha on Western Thought: The Third-World Intellectual in the First-World Academy by Sumit Chakrabarti

Taxing the Poor: Doing Damage to the Truly Disadvantaged by Katherine S. Newman and Rourke L. O’Brien

Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory by Clare Hemmings

More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Imani Perry

Neighborhood and Life Chances: How Place Matters in Modern America edited by Harriet B. Newburger, Eugenie L. Birch, and Susan M. Wachter

The Three Stigmata of Friedrich Nietzsche: Political Physiology in the Age of Nihilism by Nandita Biswas Mellamphy

Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton

From Bourgeois to Boojie: Black Middle Class Performances edited by Vershawn Ashanti Young and Bridget Harris Tsemo

School Choice and School Improvement edited by Mark Berends, Marisa Cannata, and Ellen B. Goldring

Education Reform in New York City: Ambitious Change in the Nation’s Most Complex School System edited by Jennifer A. O’Day, Catherine S. Bitter, and Louis M. Gomez

Collaborative Governance: Private Roles for Public Goals in Turbulent Times by John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser

Restoring Democracy to America: How to Free Markets and Politics From the Corporate Culture of Business and Government by John F.M. McDermott

Kids Don’t Want to Fail: Oppositional Culture and the Black-White Achievement Gap by Angel L. Harris

The Legacy of Pierre Bourdieu: Critical Essays edited by Simon Susen and Bryan S. Turner

Feminism: Transmissions and Retransmissions by Marta Lamas, translated by John Pluecker

The Fabric of Subcultures: Networks, Ethnic Force Fields, and Peoples Without Power by Mustapha Marrouchi

A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food by Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt

UNO Presidential Candidates: Public Interviews Next Week

LindseyJKL — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:32:23 +0000

Below is the schedule of public interviews for the candidates for the University of New Orleans’ President. Candidate resumes/c.v.’s can also be viewed online at: http://www.ulsystem.edu//index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&pid=285

The following information is from UNO’s website.

###

The public interviews will take place in the Homer Hitt Alumni and Visitor Center Ballroom on UNO’s campus. They are scheduled as follows:

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

• 2:30 p.m. – COLIN G. SCANES (D.Sc. – Hull University; Ph.D. – University of Wales), Professor of Biological Science and former Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

• 1:30 p.m. – STEVEN R. GOODMAN (Ph.D. – Saint Louis University Medical School), Vice President for Research and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Professor of Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at State University of New York Upstate Medical University

Thursday, December 1, 2011

• 10:15 a.m. – PETER J. FOS (Ph.D. – Tulane University; D.D.S. – Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center), Professor and Program Director of Health Policy and Systems Management at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, and former Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Tyler

• 1:30 p.m. – MICHAEL A. WARTELL (Ph.D. – Yale University), Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Ed Policy Wonkette Post: Why the Nation Should Watch Louisiana

LindseyJKL — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:44:16 +0000

Governor Jindal has said that education policy and reform will be the center piece of his administration this term. BESE (Board of Elementary & Secondary Education) run-offs concluded yesterday, and Jindal will have enough allies on the BESE board to carry the reform agenda and advance it throughout the state. One of the highest profile BESE races concluded yesterday with Kira Orange Jones unseating incumbent Louella Givens. See the Times-Picayune’s coverage here.

So what does this mean for Louisiana? Well, 8 votes on BESE is the “super majority” needed for the governor to push his agenda through, and it looks like he will easily have that. Here’s what is likely to happen:

John White, current superintendent of the RSD, will become the State superintendent
Charter schools will likely expand to more parishes outside of Orleans
Teacher accountability will be front and center; rewarding performance and being able to remove substandard performers

Now, some of the above is speculative, but I think it is important to pay attention to what will be happening here in Louisiana. A few months ago, I made this post about the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count data. Louisiana is ranked 49th of 50 states on most indicators related to child well-being, including educational measures. Significant changes need to be made in Louisiana, and it looks like one set of solutions related to education is about to be advanced.

However, in order for the reforms to be successful, context needs to be considered. I don’t think we can simply scale-up the New Orleans reforms state-wide. While there are high need populations throughout this state, context matters. Rural schools and districts will have to be considered as state education policy evolves. School choice as a prevailing policy may work in urban areas, but it would be much harder to have school choice in rural districts where there is only one school serving the area.

All of this is to say that I think it is an exciting time to be living in Louisiana as a student of education. A lot will be happening in education once the new BESE members take their seats in January. It’s exciting to me that Louisiana may be a leader in educational reform.

Governor Jindal has a lot riding on this too. I still believe that he has ambitions greater than just Louisiana, and if I am right about that and if the educational policies of the Jindal administration are seen as successful, we (educators and educationists) may need to have a serious conversation about what scaling these reforms up even more might look like.

If you are interested in education, you need to watch Louisiana.