For master's programs, concerns remain
(11/25/13 10:30am)
At last Thursday’s Academic Council meeting, several faculty expressed concerns about the expansion of master’s degree program offerings.
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At last Thursday’s Academic Council meeting, several faculty expressed concerns about the expansion of master’s degree program offerings.
We would first like to acknowledge the reason for participation grades. The growing emphasis on online education has put pressure on supporters of the brick-and-mortar model of collegiate learning, forcing them into a corner. When defending the old classroom format against an online replacement, professors and students alike often cite the value of classroom discussion as the reason why in-class learning is an irreplaceable part of college education. They argue, as we have, that discussion is paramount in a liberal arts environment and that in-depth conversation is something online courses cannot reproduce. Participation grades reflect the importance of in-class discussion and work to preserve what has become the greatest defense of traditional models of education. But there is still much to be desired when it comes to participation grades.
In Wednesday’s editorial, we explored the value of athletic scholarships and their importance for recruiting exceptional athletes. Today, we consider merit scholarships and how they impact Duke’s academic and social culture.
In order to field a competitive squad, Duke Football uses all 85 scholarships allotted to it as a way to attract promising players to Duke. The results of this recruitment effort—which Duke has coupled with other investments in the football program—are beginning to show, and we laud the team for its recent successes.
After this weekend's win against Miami, Duke football was ranked No. 25 in the country in the AP Poll and No. 24 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Saturday’s win against Miami does more than just make us relevant in the football world. Our winning streak may mean Duke football is becoming a thing.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming off a major win against Miami, Duke’s football program secured a place in the rankings this weekend for the first time since 1994. At a school where basketball has always been king, Duke football’s success and popularity bring with them new advantages and risks.
Our mastery of the perfunctory once-over reading style is consistent with larger trends. We increasingly read shorter, image-heavy texts. More and more of this writing is online. And with the ubiquity of wifi-enabled devices, we are constantly flooded with information. But does our consumption of ever-growing amounts of information come at the expense of gaining knowledge? How do we take raw information and gain true insight and understanding from it?
Earlier this week, we discussed the search for a new provost. As we noted, one of Provost Peter Lange’s lasting legacies will be faculty composition at Duke: he is responsible for hiring nearly two thirds of the current faculty.
Duke’s faculty and employee health plan will soon cover gender reassignment surgery. In making this change, Duke joins the ranks of a small number of American colleges and universities, among them Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. This policy shift follows the administration’s change to the student health plan in April, which now includes similar coverage. At that time, we came out in support of the change. We do so again, offering our support for the expansion of employee health coverage to include gender reassignment surgery, and we commend the University on its decision.
By next Spring, the Provost Search Committee hopes to have selected three finalists for the provost position. When the President chooses one of these finalists to succeed Provost Peter Lange, his decision will inevitably send a signal about the direction the University will take in the following years. The precise influence that the new provost will have over Duke’s future is yet to be seen. There are, however, several areas of the University that the new provost should come in well-equipped to address.
This June, Peter Lange, Duke’s tenth and longest-serving provost, will step down from his position. It is difficult to overstate Lange’s impact on the University. Current seniors can attest to considerable changes over the last four years: curricular initiatives like Duke Immerse and Bass Connections, the launch of Duke Forward and the marked acceleration of Duke Kunshan University and online education. Longtime faculty can testify even more powerfully. Lange has helped transform Duke over the past 15 years, helping establish interdisciplinary institutes, such as the Duke Global Health Institute; launch DukeEngage; build campus infrastructure and bolster financial aid. Perhaps most importantly, nearly two-thirds of current faculty and all deans were appointed under Lange. Lange has made a mark on the University where it matters most: its people.
The interdisciplinary nature of this program synthesizes different pillars of the humanities, all of which are imperative for gaining a robust understanding of the discipline. This allows humanities students to develop a common base with which they can later approach more narrowly focused electives. By reading Plato, Cicero, Machiavelli, Locke, Nietzsche and other integral thinkers, students not only are immersed in the full breadth and depth of human thought throughout the ages, but also acquire a shared experience with other humanities students. It is precisely that shared experience that we hope will generate camaraderie among humanities students, creating a unique community of humanist scholars akin to the bond public policy students form with one another through their major program.
A new service-learning promotional advertisement suggests that, if you wish to engage in service-learning, you must be “tired of the traditional classroom model.” The ad further challenges the idea that one could “ignite a passion” in a normal classroom.
In American society, however, we cling to the idea of desert. Equality of opportunity is of the greatest importance, and success is only admired if society imagines that it was genuinely earned and not inherited from a fortunate set of life circumstances. In order to maintain this sense of equality, we have a compulsion to tie important opportunities, like attending a prestigious college, to work previously done and, further, to conclude from this connection that those opportunities are deserved. We argue that such a perspective is fundamentally wrong.
The University unveiled redesigned plans for the West Union this week, the latest in a series of administrative responses seeking to correct the miscues that have plagued the project from the start. The Board of Trustees rejected the original plans for the West Union remodel in May due to financial aspects of the plan and features of the renovations.
In addition to persistently low wages, the crisis in post-graduate education is marked by a surplus of Ph.D.'s in the job market, a trend fueled by universities producing more Ph.D.'s than there are positions available for them. According to an op-ed penned earlier this year by Michael Berube, former President of the Modern Language Association, doctoral programs have been consistently overproducing Ph.D.s since the 1970s, stranding highly educated people in a job market less hospitable than the arena from “The Hunger Games,” where years of intensive training at least win contestants some hope of success. The resulting glut of qualified candidates, which is worse for graduates in the humanities, results in widespread underemployment for Ph.D.s. For those who find jobs in academe, many have little choice but to seize on adjunct (non-tenure track) positions.
During the twenty-five minutes between classes, Duke students spend their time running between campuses, reviewing readings and stressing about squeezing into those last few spots on the East-West Express. If you have found yourself in a similar predicament this week, chances are you have also found some resonant relief in the pleasant pacification of a piano. Chances are you were also surprised to discover that this sweet symphony came from the subterranean musical talents of a fellow Dukie.
Summers offer students the opportunity to apply to exciting internships across the country. Internships provide valuable networking opportunities and allow students to explore different fields of interest. But recent media coverage on unpaid internships raises important questions about the equity and ethics of uncompensated work.
Despite all the talk about financial aid for underrepresented socioeconomic groups in higher education, it seems the problem of socioeconomic diversity starts well before students even hit “submit” on their college applications. Too often, low-income high school students do not apply to highly selective colleges like Duke, even if they have a high chance of being admitted. A recent study by the College Board found that only 42 percent of lower-income high school graduates apply to selective colleges, even if they are likely to be admitted. Lackluster application rates highlight a weakness in recruitment efforts, but also provide an opportunity for Duke to reaffirm its commitment to attracting talent from a diverse range of socioeconomic groups.
Charles Murray’s visit to campus was not going to be a dull one. Known for his controversial research on race, class and intelligence, his visits stir up controversy on college campuses nationwide. Duke is no different. Students for a Democratic Society and allies staged a silent walkout at the start of his talk.