:D

Quote:Climate McCarthyism claims yet another victim



by James Delingpole 13 Jun 2014

Climate McCarthyism has claimed another victim. Dr Caleb Rossiter - an adjunct professor at [regionally accredited] American University, Washington DC - has been fired by a progressive think tank after publicly expressing doubt about man-made global warming.

Rossiter, a former Democratic congressional candidate, has impeccably liberal credentials. As the founder of Demilitarization for Democracy he has campaigned against US backed wars in Central America and Southern Africa, against US military support for dictators and against anti-personnel landmines. But none of this was enough to spare him the wrath of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) when he wrote an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal describing man-made global warming as an "unproved science."

Two days later, he was sacked by email. The IPS said: "We would like to inform you that we are terminating your position as an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies...Unfortunately, we now feel that your views on key issues, including climate science, climate justice, and many aspects of US policy to Africa, diverge so significantly from ours."

In the WSJ OpEd entitled Sacrificing Africa for Climate Change, Rossiter argued that Africans should benefit from the same mixed energy policy as Americans rather than being denied access to fossil fuels on spurious environmental grounds by green activists. He wrote: "The left wants to stop industrialization - even if the hypothesis of catastrophic, man-made global warming is false."

But the Institute for Policy Studies ("Ideas into Action for Peace, Justice, and the Environment") is ideologically committed to ensuring that Africans only enjoy the benefits of expensive, intermittent, inefficient renewable energy such as wind and solar.

Rossiter told Climate Depot:

"If people ever say that fears of censorship for 'climate change' views are overblown, have them take a look at this: Just two days after I published a piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for Africa to be allowed the 'all of the above' energy strategy we have in the U.S., the Institute for Policy Studies terminated my 23-year relationship with them…because my analysis and theirs 'diverge.'"

His sacking follows the persecution last month of Lennart Bengtsson, a Swedish meteorologist and climatologist who decided to resign his position at the Global Warming Policy Foundation after being harassed by climate alarmists for his "incorrect" views on man-made climate change.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/06/09/3...-repayment

This could be interesting.

One thing it fails to do is attack the root cause of educational debt, which is to say the outrageous cost of higher education.

Still this is a step in the right direction.

They doesn't know it sposta be "This Be Are Story."

Quote:Chicago Public Schools prom slogan: ‘This Is Are Story’
June 10, 2014



It’s hard to deny just how poorly Chicago’s public schools are performing when it hits you in the face. Such is the case with Paul Robeson High School’s 2014 prom theme: “This is Are Story.”

That image came from veteran investigative reporter Chuck Goudie, who posted this image on his Facebook page.

Some people might enjoy mocking the irony of the gross misuse of vocabulary.

But unless the organizers of the prom festivities planned the wording this way as a joke, there’s nothing funny about the situation.

Paul Robeson High School is located in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. The high school also is part of the failing Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, system.

Four out of 10 CPS freshmen do not graduate.

If they do graduate, 91 percent have to take remediation courses in college because they do not know how to do basic math and school work. Just 26 percent of CPS high school students are college-ready, according to the ACT subject matter tests.

Students in these schools whose families can’t afford an alternative are trapped in classrooms that, for the most part, aren’t equipping them to succeed in the future.

But while CPS students get left behind, their teachers receive generous compensation.

The average CPS teacher salary is $76,000. The last contract negotiations in 2012 gave CPS teachers 17 percent raises over three years.

The median household income in Chicago is just $47,408. The disparity is worse in Englewood, a neighborhood where 23.6 percent of residents are unemployed and the average per capita income is $12,255.

Something’s not adding up.

Students can’t spell. They can’t do math. They aren’t graduating. And they’re not being set up to succeed in the real world.

So why should CPS teachers be rewarded with raises?

The Paul Robeson prom theme is a glaring example of just how bad things have gotten in Chicago Public Schools. The tragic irony is that Paul Robeson students picked a theme that evokes hope for the future; something every child deserves.

But until CPS changes its ways, the system will continue failing students at schools like Paul Robeson.

It’s time all Chicago students have a reason to believe in a brighter tomorrow.

Nice deal for Renu and Hamid, maybe not so good for you and your kids.

Quote:9 public college presidents' pay tops $1 million
Associated Press
3 hours ago

BALTIMORE (AP) — The number of public college presidents earning over $1 million more than doubled in the 2012-2013 fiscal year from the year before, according to a new survey.

The Chronicle of Higher Education study found that nine college presidents earned more than $1 million in total compensation in 2013, compared to just four in 2012.

Public college presidents first exceeded the $1 million total compensation mark in 2006-2007, according to the survey.

Gordon Gee topped the list, earning $6.1 million as the head of Ohio State University. Gee resigned that post last year after making comments about Roman Catholics, the University of Notre Dame and Southeastern Conference schools. He is now president of West Virginia University.

The study took into account base salary, bonuses, retirement, severance and deferred pay — an incentive offered to presidents who stay in their positions for an agreed-upon period of time.

Four of the college presidents on the top 10 list have retired. Two others have accepted positions at other universities.

The top 10 earners in the fiscal year 2012-2013 were:

— Gordon Gee, president of the West Virginia University

Gee's compensation total is based on payments he received at the Ohio State University, from which he resigned in June of 2013 after six years as president. Gee earned $6.1 million in 2013, which includes $3.3 million in deferred pay and $1.55 in retirement and severance pay.

— Bowen Loftin, president of Texas A&M University at College Station

Loftin earned $1.6 million, and resigned from his position in January after three years. He now serves as chancellor of the University of Missouri. Loftin's $425,000 base salary did not change from 2012 to 2013, however in 2013 Loftin was paid $950,000 in severance and retirement pay.

— Hamid Shirvani, president of North Dakota University system

Shirvani earned roughly $1.3 million in 2013. He retired in June 2013, after less than a year in his position overseeing the 11-campus system. He was paid $962,095 in severance and retirement pay — more than double his $349,000 base salary.

— Renu Khator, University of Houston main campus

Khator earned roughly $1.26 million in 2013. She has served in the position since 2008. Nearly 45 percent of Khator's total compensation comes from bonus pay and deferred pay on top of her $700,000 base salary.

— Sally Mason, University of Iowa

Mason earned roughly $1.14 million in 2013, and has served in her position since 2007. More than half of her total compensation is made up of deferred pay on top of her $493,272 base salary.

— Michael McRobbie, Indiana University at Bloomington

McRobbie earned approximately $1.1 million in 2013, and has served as the university's president since 2007. McRobbie earned $567,076 in deferred pay, bonuses and other benefits, and $544,848 in base pay.

— Michael Adams, University of Georgia

Adams earned about $1.1 million in 2013, and retired from his position in July. His base pay for the year was $258,760; the vast majority of his total compensation is made up of deferred pay.

— Gordon Moulton, University of South Alabama

Moulton earned about $1.1 million in 2013. Moulton retired in January 2013, and died in September. Moulton earned $666,046 in severance and retirement pay, on top of his $406,075 base salary.

— Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Coleman earned about $1 million in 2013 and has served as president since 2002. On top of her $603,357, Coleman earned $200,000 in bonus pay and $234,000 in deferred pay and retirement pay.

— Mark Yudof, University of California system

Mark Yudof, the only top-earning president whose compensation is shy of $1 million, served as president from 2008 until September of 2013, when he retired. Yudof's total compensation accounts for Yudof's base pay of $591,084 and $266,000 in retirement pay.

Online courses, among other things, would make college what it should be, says Anya Kamenetz in a report for Third Way.

Quote:Making College Affordable
The current system is uneconomic, unjust, and unsustainable.
Mona Charen — May 16, 2014

There’s a debate among economists about why a college degree is worth so much. That the credential is valuable is not in doubt. According to the Pew Research Center, college graduates earn about $17,500 more annually than high school grads. Why?

The “human capital” school believes that students learn valuable skills in college that employers are willing to pay for. The “signaling” school doubts that the content of a college education is really that marketable. They argue that employers are interested in the traits — diligence, intelligence, self-control — that a degree reflects.

For decades, politicians have bought votes with promises to make college “more affordable.” They passed legislation with names like the “College Cost Reduction and Access Act” and the “Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act.” There are Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, and much more besides.

Shockingly, colleges and universities have increased their prices more than any other sector of the economy except health care, which is also — surprise! — highly subsidized. As Anya Kamenetz writes in “$1 Trillion and Rising,” a report for Third Way: “Since 1978, the cost of college tuition has increased faster than the consumer price index in every single year. That’s not true for any other item in the basket of consumer goods.”

Student loan debt now exceeds all other consumer debt except mortgages. Default rates have reached a 20-year high, with as many as one in six borrowers failing to repay his or her loans. Taxpayers pick up the tab. Just since 2007, the average debt has increased by 43 percent to $26,000. The overhang of student debt is slowing the economy, some argue, as debtors put off purchases of cars, homes, and other goods in order to service student loans. For the 30 percent of debtors who don’t graduate, the added debt carries no offsetting reward in higher wages.

What have colleges been spending all of that extra money on? Between 2001 and 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal, the number of college and university administrators grew 50 percent faster than the number of instructors. Presidents of public research universities earned a median income of $441,392 in 2012.

Facilities at many colleges have become country-club lavish, with hot tubs, climbing walls, lazy rivers, movie theaters, sushi bars, and single rooms with attached bathrooms. Universities across the country have been on a building spree. Dubbed the “edifice complex” by Richard K. Vedder, who studies college spending, much of it has been financed by debt.

Though both Republicans and Democrats have participated in the political pandering that created the higher-education bubble, Democrats have less room to maneuver in seeking reform. As with K-12 education, the universities that profit from current arrangements are the Democratic Party’s constituents. President Barack Obama’s approach has been to forgive outright the debt of students who work for the government, thereby increasing the burden on taxpayers (most of whom did not attend college).

The sky-high cost of college is a worry for many middle-class families. (Have you seen the financial advisers’ ads targeting parents of newborns?) Republicans are likely to have the reform field to themselves for a while.

Mitch Daniels, who taught the Republican Party valuable lessons in management as a successful and highly popular two-term governor of Indiana, is now doing the same for academia as president of Purdue University.

For the third year in a row, Purdue has frozen tuition rates. President Daniels (I know, it has a nice ring to it, but let that go) explained how he did it. As USA Today explained, “There was no secret sauce, just a little sensible pruning that would be ordinary in the business world but seems alien in much of academia, where a steady flow of federal aid guarantees a steady flow of students at seemingly any price.” Purdue consolidated some of its administrative positions. It chose a higher-deductible health care plan. It cut food service costs by switching providers and hiring part-time students to do work formerly performed by full-time employees. It short, it acted as if cared about consumer (i.e., student) satisfaction.

Republican governors of Texas, Wisconsin, and Florida have called for $10,000 degrees at their public universities. Not $10,000 per year, but $10,000 total, which would return college, inflation-adjusted, to what it cost in the 1970s.

Kamenetz urges that a combination of online courses, fewer nonacademic perks, cutting administrative bloat, and focusing on graduation–not just enrollment rates–would make college what it should be — a boon for the poor and middle class. The current system, which burdens taxpayers, graduates and — most painfully — dropouts, with massive debt, is uneconomic, unjust, and unsustainable.

No, not that Ravi Shankar. This is the drunk driving, credit card fraud scheming, probation violating Ravi Shankar.

Oh look, he's a poet. Must be one of those POETS people talk about on Friday. Piss On Everything, Tomorrow's Saturday.

And Kozlowski says that "at least as far as I know" his academic record is good too. Who could ask for a more ringing endorsement than that? Alexander Pope had a poem for that: "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer..."

Quote:Regents To Reconsider Promotion Of Jailed Professor

By KATHLEEN MEGAN, kmegan@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
7:24 p.m. EDT, May 15, 2014

HARTFORD — The state Board of Regents for Higher Education plans to reconsider the decision it made Tuesday to promote a [regionally accredited] Central Connecticut State University professor after learning later this week that he is in jail.

Ravi Shankar, 39, a poet who was promoted from tenured associate professor to full professor on Tuesday, currently is serving a two-week segment of a 90-day "pre-trial confinement," period at the Hartford Correctional Center, his lawyer Jake Donovan said Thursday.

The regents have asked CCSU officials for "an immediate and full investigation" of the process that resulted in CCSU officials recommending Shankar for promotion, board spokesman Michael Kozlowski said Thursday.

The board is "deeply dismayed at the recent turn of events. … We believe that faculty and staff must be held to the highest standards inside as well as outside the classroom," Kozlowski said.

The regents plan to meet next week to decide whether to take any initial action, such as putting Shankar's promotion on hold, and will make a final decision once CCSU completes its investigation, Kozlowski said. The board has the authority to accept or reject a recommended promotion at the state's four regional universities.

Shankar's salary is $75,480; Kozlowski said it's uncertain how much his salary would increase with the promotion.

Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, said in a statement, "This is a very complex situation, but the simple answer is, it was my responsibility to inform the Board of Regents and I did not."

Miller said that at the time of the board vote, he wasn't aware that Shankar had been incarcerated. "I have asked my staff to conduct a full investigation of all the legal actions, when we knew of them, and the various processes involved."

Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, said in a statement that "the Board of Regents should be embarrassed. They should be doing background checks when considering a major promotion."

Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, said he was "shocked and appalled" to learn of Shankar's promotion while in prison and called on Regents President Gregory Gray to "immediately reverse" that decision. Gray wasn't available for comment Thursday, and several board members did not return phone calls.

Donovan said Shankar is in prison because he plea-bargained an agreement that will enable him to get a suspended sentence for violating probation related to two previous cases.

In the first case, Shankar was convicted for giving police a false statement in a credit card fraud scheme in 2011, involving the purchase of $22,000 worth of tickets to an international soccer game in New Jersey, and was sentenced to two years' probation. In the second case, Shankar pleaded no contest to charges of drunk-driving later that year. He was sentenced to six months in jail, which was suspended, and 18 months of probation.

Shankar was charged with violating probation in those cases in 2012, after his arrest for driving with a suspended license, failure to drive in the proper lane and criminal impersonation.

Donovan said Shankar has been serving the 90-day term in increments when he is able to do so during the past year. He's scheduled to be released from jail on Thursday, May 22, and then will have only six days left to serve.

Donovan, who is a former prosecutor, said this kind of a "pre-trial confinement" served in segments is not that unusual.

"It did allow him to structure the disposition" so that he could keep teaching, Donovan said. "It's a very fair disposition. He was not accorded any special treatment."

Had Shankar pleaded guilty and admitted to probation violations, Donovan said, he probably would have been sentenced to 90 days and served half of that.

"I need to stress that his legal situation is separate and distinct from his performance as a teacher," Donovan said. "By all accounts — and I've had quite a bit of contact with his colleagues, who hold him in great esteem — he's apparently very popular with students. He discharges his academic responsibilities quite admirably."

Donovan added: "This guy is no danger to anyone. These aren't crimes of violence. These aren't crimes of a sexual nature. There's nothing going on here. ..Some of our greatest poets, our greatest artists have had problems in life and they've overcome them. Hopefully, they'll see it that way."

Donovan said he doesn't know what university officials knew about Shankar's situation, "but there was no attempt to hide this at all."

Kozlowski said he has heard that Shankar "has tremendous student ratings, they like him very much, and that his academic record, at least as far as I know, is quite good."

Shankar, who has been at CCSU since 2003, is a professor and poet-in-residence at Central and co-directs the school's minor in creative writing.

In 2004 and in 2006, CCSU nominated him for the institution's excellence in teaching award. Shankar is also executive director of "Drunken Boat," an online outlet for international poetry reviews, and chairman of the Connecticut Young Writers Trust, a nonprofit foundation.

Andy Thibault, chairman emeritus of the foundation, said Shankar "is paying his dues, and he's committed to long-term community service on his own by keeping the Young Writers foundation going."

A statement from the foundation said it "firmly stands" by Shankar "as he pays his debt to society for personal mistakes wholly unrelated to his educational mission."

State-approved? Doesn't that automatically make it a diploma mill and substandard and, like, highly suspect or something? Why aren't the stalkers and Klempner Klones demanding that it be shut down? Or is this just another case of the political objective nullifying all the contrived shortcomings? Like when Gollin endorses the woman with the totally fake Falsingham degree because she's a communist too. The space is exploding, man.

Quote:Some Students Wonder About Marijuana-Themed University On Auraria Campus
May 13, 2014 6:07 PM

DENVER (CBS4) – Cannabis in the classroom — a new marijuana-themed university is hosting classes on the Auraria Campus in Denver, and not everyone is happy about it.

Students might not find “Marijuana 101″ on the catalogs of the three universities that occupy Auraria Campus, but CBS4′s Rick Sallinger found it’s certainly being taught there.

There are three flags over the Auraria Campus for the [regionally accredited] University of Colorado Denver, [regionally accredited] Metro State University and the [regionally accredited] Community College of Denver. But there’s another institution there as well called Clover Leaf University. It’s curriculum is marijuana.

“As long as they’re conducting lawful activities we don’t have any desire to ban them from the campus, because that’s part of our content neutrality approach,” Blaine Nickeson with the Auraria Higher Education Center said.

Clover Leaf University offers courses in cannabis cultivation, infusion and marijuana business. It rents space in the King Center on campus, but that doesn’t sit well with Metro State student Lawrence Valdez.

“It doesn’t seem to be the way that a university really operates,” Valdez said.

He says he does not have a problem with the subject of marijuana being taught on the campus, but it’s the status of Clover Leaf.

“If they are as legitimate of a university as Metro, CCD and the University Of Colorado at Denver, then we should fly the Clover Leaf University flag just as proudly as we fly the other three,” Valdez said.

Sallinger found it has courses accredited by the Colorado Supreme Court Board for Continuing Legal Education. Its website also states it’s approved, licensed and regulated by the state.

“They are approved by the Division of Private Occupational Schools, so yes, they are approved to operate in the state of Colorado as a school,” Lorna Candler with the Colorado Department of Higher Education said.

Three years ago another marijuana education facility called Greenway University was shut down by the state when the owner failed to mention he had a prior felony conviction. Unlike Clover Leaf, it was not located on a college campus.

Statement On behalf Of Clover Leaf University

We of Colorado are very fortunate to have state legislatures with the vision and strength to embrace cannabis. The passing of laws spring boarded a variety of medical and business opportunities. The space is exploding and has paved the way for me to find a wonderful platform to build a learning community — one that will provoke thought and innovation, social responsibility, job creation, and increment benefits for the state.

Clover Leaf University is an early stage specialized education enterprise focusing on raising awareness, research and development, best practices, regulatory compliance, and product and consumer safety.

I want to thank our state policy makers, The Department of Higher Education’s Private Occupational School Board, Auraria Campus, and our wonderful community for supporting the cannabis industry and the opportunity they have afforded CLU and me.

Chloe Villano Founder and President
Clover Leaf University

Or as The Clash put it, you have the right to free speech--as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it. Know your rights. These are your rights.

Quote:Five Ways Universities Quash Free Speech
by Ben Shapiro 12 May 2014

On Monday, the Alliance Defending Freedom sued the University of Georgia for placing limits on free speech by restricting demonstrations and speeches to designated “Free Expression Areas” between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays. All gatherings must be previously approved by the administration of the school. Just weeks ago, UGA told Young Americans for Liberty that they could not put up the debt clock for the country outside the Free Expression Areas.

Welcome to America’s universities, the bastions of diversity of thought.

America’s liberal arts universities have long been safe zones for leftist thinking, protected ivory towers for the pseudo-elite who earn their livings writing papers nobody reads about gender roles in the poetry of Maya Angelou. Those who aren’t studying the hard sciences – north campus majors, as we used to call them at UCLA – are, in many cases, being propagandized in the classroom and getting negligible job skills back in return.

But, we are told, universities are places to learn about different perspectives, hear different viewpoints, and shape our own sensitivities and worldviews.

Here are five ways universities prevent just that:

Free Speech Zones. Free speech zones have repeatedly been struck down at the public university level. Nonetheless, the Foundation for Individual Rights states that approximately sixty percent of colleges across the country have restrictions on speech on campus, and one in six have “free speech zones.”

Speech Codes. Most campuses have policies about the kinds of speech they prefer on campus. Over time, prohibitions have moved away from basic sexual harassment and bullying and toward any language that might make people on campus feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. Such restrictions would be struck down in the public sphere under the First Amendment. Unfortunately, they’re extremely common across the country, and serve to intimidate students who wish to express unpopular viewpoints – which used to be the supposed purpose of all that “diversity” campaigning. As the ACLU states: “Many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate, have adopted codes or policies prohibiting speech that offends any group based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. That's the wrong response, well-meaning or not.”

Commencement Censorship. In the last few weeks, Rutgers University faculty and students forced the withdrawal of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from speaking at commencement. The basis for their complaint: Condoleezza Rice served in the Bush Administration and was therefore responsible for war crimes. The week before, Brandeis University uninvited human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali thanks to her gall in suggesting that Islam is not a religion of peace – that suggestion coming on the heels of her genital mutilation and forced child marriage at the hands of Muslims. Even International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde is too right-wing for this crowd – Smith College students and faculty forced her withdrawal thanks to her association with the IMF, which they said contributed to violence against women and based on race.

The PhD System. There is no greater way to ensure that universities remain a hotbed of leftist thought than to guarantee that professors knight their own successors. But that’s basically how the Ph.D. system works, with sitting professors approving the work of would-be professors. With studies showing that virtually all Ivy League professors swing left, that’s a great way to keep the professoriate biased against conservatism.

Tenure. By giving professors jobs for life, universities create a feeling of unanswerable power among too many. Tenured professors who are uninterested in serving the student body are less likely to respond favorably to criticism, and are more likely to feel the freedom to intimidate or harass those with opposing viewpoints. Historically, professors have defended tenure as a way to protect their individualistic thought. But tenure can also be used as a club to wield against the powerless.

America’s universities have become increasingly shuttered in their worldviews. The impact of political correctness grows each and every day thanks to entrenched interests seeking to further entrench their views of politics and values.