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Kansas City University (KCU) has launched its Harry M. Cornell Center for Dental Education, a response to addressing a growing dentist shortage, particularly in southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, northwest Arkansas, and northeast Oklahoma.
"We know poor oral health leads to poor overall health," said KCU President Dr. Marc B. Hahn. "In fact, poor oral health has been found to promote a host of other illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even Alzheimer's. KCU is proud to lead an effort to erase disparities in oral health care and improve health outcomes for people in rural areas."
Missouri has an estimated shortage of more than 700 dentists, Oklahoma 166, and more than 100 each for both Arkansas and Kansas.
Instruction at the center – located on KCU’s McIntire-Farber Campus – will focus on integrating basic sciences with clinical knowledge so students are prepared sooner to care for patients.
Students will have access to technology such as simulated patients, virtual reality, 3-D printing, intra- oral camera, digital teeth-scanning, and an Oral Health Center for hands-on learning through giving dental services under faculty supervision.
"Students will be treating patients in their second year of study," said Dr. Linda Niessen, founding dean of the College of Dental Medicine. "Faculty members share a strong desire to serve our community right away and will soon see individuals who have had difficulty obtaining needed dental care through referrals with local nonprofit agencies."
The Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has concluded its investigation into a Montgomery College professor accused of sexually harassing multiple female students, Fox 5 reported.
"We appreciate the thorough investigation conducted by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in regards to this matter. The College fully supports the determinations and resolutions outlined in its final report, made public this week," a Montgomery spokesperson said.
The three-month investigation found that the community college professor created a hostile environment – at the school’s Takoma/Silver Spring campus – by asking at least 11 female students to remove their shirts down to their sports bras in some sort of class demonstration and commented on their breasts, "ostensibly to demonstrate a medical assessment despite the fact that the assessment did not require the clothing removal, or the bodily commentary."
The professor was later placed on administrative leave and never taught there again, according to college officials. The school also helped a student who failed the course allegedly due to harassment re-enroll for free; gave tuition reimbursement; or paid for some students to retake the course.
But it is unclear whether the issue was referred to police and why the professor and class remain unnamed.
"I wouldn’t expect anybody to release anyone’s name until there’s been an investigation,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “If it’s not a police matter, if it’s like discipline, a personnel matter, personnel things don’t get discussed."
Montgomery County councilmember Will Jawando, chair of the council’s Education Committee, said the professor should be named and will push for that.
Without much overstatement, one can describe the history of modern political philosophy as the search for a suitable replacement for Christianity. Progress replaces providence, humanitarianism replaces charity, and mind (or reason) replaces God himself. Into the void left behind by Christianity have rushed all sorts of ideologies—that is, comprehensive systems of belief that purport to explain the whole of human thought, action, and purpose.
Americans are well aware of this totalizing tendency among our least favorite ideologies, communism and fascism; however, democracy itself is likewise prone to become just such an ideology. Pepperdine University’s Emily Finley calls this the “ideology of democratism,” and her 2022 book by the same name aims to highlight some of the metaphysical and religious aspects of contemporary democracy. She contends that democracy, or democratism, has become “perhaps the dominant political belief system in modern Western society.” In other words, democracy has become more than a regime type; it has become a secular religion, complete with its own dogmas, practices, clerics, and eschatology.
Democracy has become more than a regime type; it has become a secular religion, complete with its own dogmas, practices, clerics, and eschatology.
Democracy vs. Democratism
The relationship between democracy and democratism can perhaps best be understood in parallel with the relationship between science and scientism—the former being a concrete and practical method whereas the latter is merely a comprehensive (and, one might add, dubious) belief system that goes well beyond the method. Similarly, whereas democracy is the political rule of the people, democratism is, as Finley puts it, “a hypothetical or ideal conception of democracy that is only tenuously connected to the actual, historical desires of real popular majorities.” According to Finley, the prominent characteristics of democratism are (1) the belief that true democracy lies above and beyond the actual wishes of actual people, (2) that an elite legislator or vanguard is necessary to call forth the idealized will of the people, (3) that coercion and propaganda are suitable means of instantiating the popular will, and (4) that all individuals, were they stripped of their historical and contingent particularities, would be little democrats. In short, whereas democracy is the process whereby one ascertains and implements the will of the majority, democratism is an abstract conception of what the people as a whole should ideally will for themselves.
Finley rightly identifies Rousseau as the original prophet of democratism. His notion of “the general will” is the necessary philosophical prerequisite for the present division between the actual wills of the people (plural) and an idealized will of the people (singular). Indeed, Rousseau develops something like a set of procedures for setting aside individual wills in order to comprehend the general will: for example, citizens should not communicate with one another to avoid bias, and they should be “sufficiently informed.” (The parallel between Rousseau’s procedures and John Rawls’s “veil of ignorance” is perhaps too obvious to mention.) If these procedures are followed, all laws will theoretically be simple, equal, generally applicable, and therefore just.
One need not be a skeptic to think this set of circumstances is unlikely to obtain under most conditions. Enter Rousseau’s deus ex machina—a quasi-divine legislator who can ensure the people choose rightly. Rousseau’s legislator will “persuade without convincing”—calling forth from the diverse interests of the people the true general will. Finley sees this divorce between actual and idealized wills as leading inevitably to a divorce between the people and their democratist leaders. Any version of this line of thinking, whether it be Rousseau’s or Rawls’s, will detach politics from individuals’ actual concerns and open space for powerful parties to cloak their own interests in the guise of something universal.
Whereas democracy is the process whereby one ascertains and implements the will of the majority, democratism is an abstract conception of what the people as a whole should ideally will for themselves.
Christian Origins
In one of the most interesting sections of the book, Finley shows how the notion of the “general will” was historically associated with Christian theology and still assumes some of that original framework: after all, discerning a singular, all-encompassing will requires a “God’s eye” view. Whether such an idea still makes sense in the absence of that original framework is an open question. Finley says, “For Rousseau, . . . the general will retains its original theological connotation of wholeness and perfection, but instead of being attributed to an infinite and omniscient God, it becomes a rational and ahistorical ideal. Rousseau and others substitute for the will of God an abstract will of humanity universally accessible through reason.”
In other words, the general will used to be situated in the mind of God, and fully accessible only to him; however, we hubristic moderns seem to think we too are omniscient (perhaps by virtue of our sheer number and our chronological superiority—call it “democratic omniscience”). Rousseau’s general will is certainly a major break from a Christian framework, but it is not nearly so profound as Rousseau’s total redefinition of human nature—a revolution at which Finley only hints. Rousseau plainly admits that his whole system of thought rests atop one fundamental doctrine: the natural goodness of man. If this is true, then perhaps it is Rousseau’s faith in our innate goodness that is the true foundation not only of the general will and democratism, but of political modernity itself. We have yet to fully understand how many social and political revolutions owe their existence to this fundamental shift in anthropology. Even Tocqueville points us in this direction when he notes that “the perfectibility of man” is the deepest dogma of democratic ages.
Nevertheless, there is great value in looking at democracy as an ideology. In fact, Finley helps us understand one curious fact about contemporary politics—namely, the incessant refrain of elites who blame “the people” for subverting, or perverting, true democracy. It is now commonplace to hear our moral and political elites utter—with no sense of irony—that our democracy is threatened by the will of the people (or at least the will of a certain class of people they find morally and politically repugnant). Indeed, between the election of Donald Trump and Brexit, one need not strain too hard to find examples of elites who were positively apoplectic over the result of free democratic choice. Even more recently, American progressives bemoaned the fact that abortion, as a matter of public policy, was returned to the state level (which is to say, would be resolved democratically rather than by judicial fiat).
Time and time again, we hear that democracy (the procedure) threatens to undermine democracy itself (ideological democracy), with the added irony that this typically comes from the mouths of Democrats. These mental contortions are possible because we have imported many other notions into democracy, and we are unable to disambiguate democracy as a procedure from democracy the ideology or belief system. Moreover, in one of the great virtues of the book, Finley helps us realize that we import into democracy a full-blown eschatology—the expectation of a “new age of peace and equality.” Few books have such keen vision of the religious aspects of modern democracy.
Time and time again, we hear that democracy (the procedure) threatens to undermine democracy itself (ideological democracy), with added irony that this typically comes from the mouths of Democrats.
Critiquing Democratists
The subsequent chapters of Finley’s book are a series of investigations into how democratism explains the actions and ideas of various influential thinkers, including Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Jacques Maritain, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, George W. Bush, and the neoconservatives in general. All of these people or groups believed, in some fashion or another, that true democracy was “just around the corner”—simply in need of a good shove. For all democratists, the success or failure of democracy rests on two factors—leadership and education—both of which should “refine” the will of the people and shape it into what it ought to be. Unlike the Founders, who contented themselves with the modest achievement of a system of compromises between interest groups, these various figures were bewitched by what Finley calls the “idyllic imagination”—a dream of a future utopia in which individual interest could be sublimated and transcended.
Some of the figures Finley critiques, such as Woodrow Wilson, won’t come as a surprise to most readers. In Finley’s poignant words, “Wilson believed that he was tasked with nothing less than completing Christ’s work on Calvary. If the world would but heed his counsel, he could help to bestow on humanity ‘the full right to live and realize the purposes that God had meant them to realize.’” While this sort of secularized theology, or civic religion, is not terribly surprising from Wilson, Finley sees the same sort of heresy on the part of Catholic political philosopher Jacques Maritain. Her chapter on Maritain makes it clear that democratism tempts individuals whether they happen to be secular or religious. Finley, who is herself a sincere Catholic, reserves some of her harshest criticisms for Maritain (as one is typically justified in criticizing most fervently those nearest to oneself).
According to Finley, Maritain’s “Christian” or “Personalist” democracy owes more to Rousseau than to the Apostle Paul, and his central social and political ideas—“the brotherhood of men,” “universal community,” “the whole human family,” etc.—emerge from a sentimental humanitarianism rather than genuine Christian charity. Harsh words, but probably justified. Moreover, while Maritain is remembered for his criticism of the atheistic and materialistic underpinnings of Marxism, Finley sees Maritain’s political philosophy as only superficially different from Marx. Here, Finley can speak for herself:
Maritain’s vision of earthly renewal founded in a new brotherhood of humanity resembles Marx’s broad outline of the same idea. Are the differences between the two visions of these major points substantive or merely rhetorical? Maritain articulates a vision of international brotherhood, freedom, and equality that is to be accomplished through major socioeconomic reorganization at the hands of a knowing vanguard, aided by what is nothing other than a secular political faith—the “democratic creed.” . . . Such a focus on the material and political . . . at times spiritualizes the political—a charge Maritain laid on Marxism. Under the auspices of Christian “democracy,” Maritain seems to be a major contributor to a new political ideology not so different from the one he repudiates.
These and similar denunciations can be found on nearly every page of Finley’s book, and they are in equal parts interesting and convincing. She reminds us that democracy, at least in its democratist form, shares many of the same assumptions as communism and fascism, lest we be too enamored of our own preferred political presuppositions. She is not the first to make these claims; they are a version of Eric Voegelin’s idea of political gnosticism. However, Finley’s contributions are still valuable: one cannot be told too often that even democracy is not immune to delusional utopianism.
On the topic of delusional utopianism, much more could be said about Finley’s other chapters on “deliberative democratism” (featuring Rawls and Habermas) and “war democratism” (featuring George W. Bush and neoconservatism), but some things are better left for the reader to explore themselves. Individuals of every political persuasion will be challenged by Finley’s account, and, best of all, one cannot level the charge of partisanship against Finley, for some of her harshest criticisms are reserved for Republicans, like President Bush, who took up the democratist mantle of Wilson. Democratism, whether right or left, represents a profound departure from the Founders.
If one is to criticize Finley’s book, one could begin by suggesting perhaps that it is not merely democracy, but progress, that is modernity’s reigning ideology. In truth, democracy worships at the altar of progress, which is why the democratists wait in expectation of a future blessed estate (rather than look backward to a rosy past). Perhaps not Rousseau, but Francis Bacon, is the principal founder of modernity. However, the truth is that modernity is probably a marriage of Bacon and Rousseau—a sentimental naturalism wedded to techno-utopianism. Maybe this nightmarish combination is what really constitutes Finley’s “democratism.”
Democracy is valuable to the extent that it is placed in its proper position and context—that it is bounded and balanced by other elements.
Democracy, like many good things, is destroyed if it is elevated above all else. Democracy is valuable to the extent that it is placed in its proper position and context—bounded and balanced by other elements. As Edmund Burke wisely noted, one does not obtain liberty, equality, and self-government by merely letting go of the reins; these things require a complex system of incentives, punishments, and checks and balances that parallel the complexities of human nature. Our Founders understood this far better than do the democratists.
Finley’s book ultimately demonstrates how we have been bewitched by a simplistic and false notion of human nature that is prone to delusional optimism, and she makes a compelling case for returning to the wise foundations of our country. Overall, Finley’s critique of democratism is a service to our understanding of modern politics and a cautionary tale against making democracy into a comprehensive worldview. I recommend to you The Ideology of Democratism, even if I maintain that the book should have been called The Religion of Democracy because that better encapsulates the sacred, if not sacrosanct, nature of democracy in contemporary society. In the final analysis, Finley shows us that democracy is ineradicably religious; the question that remains is whether religion can bolster democracy without being swallowed up by it.
The difficulty of making a successful transition from school to the workforce remains one of the most persistent problems in higher education. The outcome is bad for students and industries alike: a lack of social mobility and a lack of qualified workers. But California State University, Fullerton’s efforts to tackle this issue got a major boost recently with the announcement of $1.4 million in grants for projects to shape career pathways for students.
The funding comes as part of a California program to tackle issues of equity in higher ed and the workforce. The state awarded $18 million each to six regional collaboratives consisting of at least one K-12 school district, University of California campus, California State University campus, and community college district.
Cal State Fullerton’s share of the money will fund six projects designed to prepare students to work in in-demand areas. One such venture is Project Propel, which is seeking to increase the number of multilingual teachers in the region. A 1998 proposition eliminated most bilingual programs in California schools, and although it was reversed in 2016, there is still a shortage of teachers who speak multiple languages.
Dr. Fernando Rodriguez-Valls, an associate professor of secondary education at California State University, Fullerton
Rodriguez-Valls has high hopes.
“I’m optimistic that we can get growth past 25%” he said.
Other projects seek to expose students to career paths that they might not have considered. Pathways for Careers in Manufacturing and Engineering, a joint effort from Cal State Fullerton’s Extension and International Programs and the College of Engineering and Computer Science, has received $211,000 to spark community college students’, high schoolers’, and eventually, middle schoolers’ interest in the field of biomanufacturing. In biomanufacturing, biological materials and systems are used to make everything from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics and food. It’s a burgeoning industry, expected to grow 7% between 2020 and 2030. But it faces a shortage of workers with the necessary technical qualifications—in part because the field is so new and in part because it is highly interdisciplinary, combining biology, chemistry, engineering, and manufacturing. Educational programs haven’t caught up yet, and students may be unaware of the field or intimidated by it.
Pathways for Careers in Manufacturing and Engineering will offer free hands-on four-week training experiences in on-campus labs with a focus on under-represented populations, including women, racial minorities, and people from low-income backgrounds. According to Dr. Sagil James, associate professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of the project, it is likely the only biomanufacturing training program in America specifically targeted at those groups. Participants will work with cutting-edge lab equipment like 3D bio-printers and do projects in which they solve industry-relevant problems, like how to scale a tool from laboratory usage to one million people. The project aims to help 90-100 students yearly, but the total could be increased if there is strong interest. The grant money will fund the project for one year, but it will continue afterwards due to additional funding from industry partners, including the BioCom California Institute.
Other projects receiving grants include one to support students in becoming accountants, one to combat STEM attrition by better preparing high school students to take college computer science courses, and one to improve awareness of career pathways in healthcare.
Dr. Estela Zarate, vice provost at California State University, Fullerton
“It is unique in that it is bringing together K-12, community college, universities and the career centers all aligned under one goal,” she said. “There are some outreach programs between colleges, community colleges, and high school, but this time we’re aligning everything.”
Zarate believes that this will particularly benefit students who are the first in their families to attend college. Nearly one-third of Cal State Fullerton’s students are first-gen.
“Every step of transition, from high school to community college to a baccalaureate-granting institution to a career, require[s] certain types of supports for students whose parents may not have gone to college or who do not have a similar career pathway,” she said. “By building a partnership where students are handed off as a cohort at each transition, we diminish that burden.”
At the same time, the program will help employers build their workforces.
“There are certain industry sectors that are very much forecasting labor shortages,” said Zarate. “We have the human capital to prepare students [for] these roles.”
Ultimately, argued Zarate, if the program succeeds, everyone will benefit.
“It’s a win-win,” she said, “and a great investment for the state.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected]
Manhattan College has established a new School of Health Professions (SoHP), which will officially launch Jul. 1.
The school will offer in Fall 2023 pre-existing undergraduate programs in physical education, allied health, exercise science, nuclear medicine technology, radiation therapy technology, health care informatics, public health and graduate programs in marriage and family therapy, mental health counseling, and school counseling. Come Fall 2024, it intends to launch a nursing program.
On the postgraduate level, the SoHP will give access to opportunities in fields such as osteopathic medicine, physical therapy, physician assistant, occupational therapy, and pharmacology through agreements where Manhattan graduates get preferential admission at certain institutions.
SoHP plans to create additional programs in the future, such as in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy/audiology, surgical technology, pharmacology, and physician assistant.
“We are proud and excited to announce the establishment of the new School of Health Professions at Manhattan College,” said Brother Daniel Gardner, president of Manhattan College. “By training the next generation of nurses, physical therapists, surgical technicians and other highly specialized health professionals, SoHP will continue the College’s tradition of providing service for the greater good. It will offer our students the chance to pursue in-demand careers that are also highly compensated. It also allows the College new opportunities for successful enrollment and donor support.”
The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics (DLS) estimates a 52.2% increase in demand for nurse practitioners (NP) and a 21% increase in demand for physical therapists between 2020 and 2030, with similar expectations for physician assistants, speech language pathologists, athletic trainers, mental health counselors, and health service managers.
The Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) will be looking to sell three campus buildings to local buyers, WCAX reported.
The school recently agreed to sell the Crowley Center, the Gary Library, and the Martin House to a group of business owners named “150 Main Street.” The buyers aim to turn the buildings into a health and wellness center.
“We’re just excited that those buildings will be able to stay in some productive use for the community and not be idle and they will be active and there will be vibrancy in that neighborhood,” said Montpelier City Manager Bill Fraser
VCFA recently withdrew an application to change its zoning criteria. And in 2022, the low-residency college announced plans to move its summer residency program to Colorado College.
San Diego State University (SDSU) is planning to rename two of its buildings, the West Commons and East Commons buildings, after SDSU notable figures, veteran astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa and mathematician Dr. Charles B. Bell Jr.Dr. Charles B. Bell Jr. and Dr. Ellen Ochoa
Each building name is to stay for at least 15 years.
Ochoa will be honored via the renaming of the West Commons into Ellen Ochoa Pavilion. She is scheduled to attend the May 5 dedication ceremony.
In 1993, the optics researcher and NASA astronaut became the first Latina in space. She then went on to fly on four shuttle missions, have more than 978 hours in orbit, and be on the first shuttle flight to dock with the International Space Station. Ochoa was also the first Hispanic director and second female leader of the Johnson Space Center.
“As a Latina, a scientist and a leader, Ellen is a pioneer who has made incredible contributions to her field, our university, and young minds around the world,” saud SDSU President Dr. Adela de la Torre. “The Ellen Ochoa Pavilion will serve as a physical reminder for students of all backgrounds to break through barriers and ‘reach for the stars.’ SDSU is so proud to honor her as an alumna.”
Bell will be celebrated through the renaming of the East Commons into the Charles B. Bell Jr. Pavilion. Bell was the second Black faculty member of San Diego State College (SDSC) and the first Black faculty member to achieve tenure. He was also the first Black student University of Notre Dame to earn both master’s and doctoral degrees.
Previously a research engineer at the Douglas Aircraft Company, the mathematician then taught at schools including Xavier University, Stanford University, SDSC, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Michigan, Tulane University, and the University of Washington.
Outside of the U.S., he also visited the Mathematics Institute in Amsterdam, the University of Madrid, the University of Vienna, the Institute of Statistics at the University of Paris, the University of Erlangen in Germany, the Mathematics Conference in Moscow, the Indian Statistical Institute, and the University of Ife.
Bell died in 2010. His wife, Mary Bell, will attend the Apr. 3 dedication ceremony with three of their children and additional family.
“For hundreds of students in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Charles Bell was the first Black professor they ever saw,” said Dr. J. Luke Wood, SDSU vice president for student affairs and campus diversity. “His position in the front of the classroom sent a powerful statement to students of all races, and he served as a role model in his career as one of the preeminent Black mathematicians of his time.”
The University of Louisville (UofL) has launched a fundraising campaign to match a $10 million state investment, which will go towards adding endowed faculty positions and advancing university research.
This campaign with Bucks-for-Brains – a program that matches private donations going to Kentucky universities with state dollars, effectively doubling the support of private investment into research – will fund UofL’s efforts to hire faculty in fields such as inflammation and microbiome; bioinformatics; medical informatics; immunogenomics; pandemic preparedness; nutrition and health; improved health outcomes; cybersecurity; energy storage; and nano-enabled medicine and healthcare.
“Since its inception, the Bucks-for-Brains program has been invaluable in supporting the university’s efforts to recruit and retain exceptional talent and, in turn, accelerate economic development,” said UofL President Dr. Kim Schatzel. “With this new funding, combined with private donations, we hope to expand this effort, drawing even more world-class faculty to UofL and to Kentucky.”
In the 2021 fiscal year, UofL’s Bucks-for-Brains endowed researchers’ work created 946 jobs and contributed $169 million to the Kentucky economy.
“These researchers’ important work, supported by the Bucks for Brains program, improves our world in a very real way,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “Their work creates new products, companies, a trained workforce and jobs. Their work shows that the university, and its home state, take a leadership role in bringing those big ideas to life.”
The City University of New York (CUNY) colleges and the university’s central offices will see $750,000 distributed to support efforts seeking to address religious, racial, and ethnic bigotry at CUNY.Dr. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
“With our continued commitment to fight against bigotry, antisemitism, and hate of all kinds, our colleges are stepping up and have developed additional programming to address these incidents,” said Dr. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, CUNY chancellor. “These latest projects are yet another step in the continued actions we are undertaking to ensure our campuses remain a welcoming place for all.”
To receive the funds, colleges proposed concrete anti-hate actions – against antisemitism, anti-Asian hate, and other forms of bigotry – that the money would fund.
CUNY’s central offices will use $150,000 on professional development, faculty engagement, and monthly discussions on issues related to discrimination. And the CUNY School of Law will have an adviser for faculty and staff on fostering a common understanding of discrimination and how to confront it.
Meanwhile, Baruch College will organize focus groups, discussions, enhanced DEI training, and support for the school’s affinity groups. Queensborough Community College will host a Holocaust education program using its Kupferberg Holocaust Center. And Bronx Community College will put on workshops and readings, culminating in performances of “Dissonance,” a play on race, love, and friendship.
Brooklyn College will have a student retreat to confront religious and ethnic discrimination. And the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism will offer a workshop series on how media outlets in Jewish, Asian American, and Black communities are responding to the upward national trend in hate crimes.
Collaborations between Virginia Tech and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) have led to 15 research projects supported by grant funding.
This effort is one of several seed investment programs by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS).to bolster research on campus.
“Seed funding is one of the primary mechanisms we use to allow faculty to pursue new research directions that have incredible potential but might be prohibitively difficult to get off the ground otherwise,” said ICTAS Director Dr. Stefan Duma. “We know that more diverse research teams tend to generate more robust solutions, and our hope is that the collaborations formed through this program go on to yield joint proposals, publications, and other projects that far outlast the term of the original award.”
Each of the 15 projects is a partnership between a Virginia Tech faculty member and a HBCU or MSI colleague, funded by two-year Diversity and Inclusion Seed Investment grants of $10,000 a year to each team. The projects will launch this year.
And another award is being co-funded by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) on top of the seed investment – a total of $40,000 over two years.
“Expenses like travel and materials can be necessary to get a new partnership off the ground, but researchers’ existing federal grants don’t always cover them,” said Chris Tysor, ICTAS diversity and inclusion coordinator and program manager at the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership,. “This award can fill in the gaps.”
The research projects cover topics such as energy storage, nutrition, food insecurity, liquid fuels, education, artificial intelligence (AI), the humanities, robotics, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Since launching in 2016, the program has grown, with its list of partner schools expanding and new Virginia Tech departments taking part. This year is the first time for California State University Channel Islands, and Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture and Myers-Lawson School of Construction.
“It’s been rewarding to see the program attract faculty from a wider and wider range of disciplines and expand the network of partner universities,” Tysor said. “It tells us that there’s really an appetite for these types of partnerships, and we’re honored to be able to provide the resources that can help make them possible.”
Inflation and geopolitical disruptions caused endowment returns to fall by 8% in fiscal year 2022, according to an annual study released last week by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). The decline comes after a spectacular performance in fiscal year 2021, when endowment returns increased by 30.6% on average.
“The 2022 fiscal year was truly a tale of two markets, with positive economic tailwinds driving equities higher through December 2021, followed by a crushing combination of inflationary pressures and other factors that forced most major investment indices down sharply by the year’s close,” said Jill Popovich, senior managing director and regional general manager at TIAA.
The study is based on data from 678 institutions holding endowment assets with a market value of $807 billion. Although the data represents only about 20% of non-profit colleges and universities, those institutions own about 99% of the endowment wealth in higher education, according to calculations by Dr. Sarah M. Iler, assistant director of institutional research at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Dr. Bruce A. Kimball, professor emeritus of educational studies at the Ohio State University. The average size of the endowments in the survey was $1.2 billion and the median was approximately $203.4 million. Over half of the endowments were less than $250 million.
Although endowments of all size categories dropped, large endowments performed notably better than small ones. Endowments with over $1 billion in assets had an average return of -4.5%, while those with under $25 million lost 11.5%. NACUBO and TIAA attributed the disparity to differences in allocation strategies. Schools with smaller endowments are more likely to put money into public equities and public fixed income investments, which struggled in fiscal year 2022, whereas larger endowments were likelier to have been invested in private markets, which did better.
“The shift from public equities toward private equity and venture capital reflects the willingness and ability of larger institutions to reach for higher return targets,” said Popovich. “Smaller endowments may not be able to pursue such an approach due to greater fee sensitivity, lower risk tolerance, and different liquidity requirements, among other factors.”
The differing performances are consequential, according to Dr. Sondra Barringer, an assistant professor of education policy and leadership at the Simmons School of Education & Human Development at Southern Methodist University.
“I was struck by the starkness of the inequality in terms of the disproportionate hit that the smaller endowments took,” she said. “It’s harder for them to weather these declines because they have fewer assets to start with. I worry that this will increase their precarity.”
Dr. Bruce A. Kimball, professor emeritus of educational studies at the Ohio State University
“They essentially reinforce each other,” said Kimball.
One factor is that schools with large endowments are less likely to leave their students with high levels of debt.
“The wealthiest schools do not encumber their students with debt because of their large resources,” said Kimball. “But if you don’t go to a wealthy school and when you’re from the working or middle classes, then you begin to get saddled with more and more debt.”
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) had a difficult fiscal year 2022, posting an 8.74% decline in the market value of their endowments, slightly worse than the average of all schools, according to calculations by Iler. This was reflective of their medium and small-sized endowments, she said. However, Howard, the richest HBCU, bucked the trend and gained around 7% in market value, reflecting the advantages that wealthier schools possess.
Despite the losses, colleges and universities reported an increase in spending in fiscal year 2022, to $25.85 billion. The largest percentage, 46%, went to student financial aid, with academic programs and research following at 15.6%. However, annual effective spending rates were down by over half a percent, which NACUBO and TIAA attributed to spending policies based on moving averages of endowment value over multiple years that are designed to provide the stability.
Experts thought that it was doubtful that the increased outlay would quiet controversy over the idea that wealthy colleges should spend more to enroll more students.
“The conversation is unlikely to go away because large endowments do tend to perform better than the market,” said Barringer. “There will be increased calls to either increase spending or explain why they’re not. It will be interesting to see how universities respond.”
For many schools, an increase in gifts helped balance some of the losses due to the market. Gifting was up an average of 22% across all endowment sizes, which Popovich speculated could be due to the end-of-year gifting season occurring before the adverse market conditions began. Almost two-thirds of survey respondents said that some gifts were tied to DEI initiatives. 64% of these were institutions with endowments of $250 million or less. More than 86% of schools that responded to a question about their investment policies included a commitment to ESG principles, an increase from 80% in 2021.
Although the overall returns were surely disappointing for institutions, Kimball thought that the performance of the market so far in fiscal year 2023 was encouraging.
“It may not be a great year, it may not even be a good year, but it’s a much better year than the last fiscal year,” he said. “I suspect it’s going to be at least a positive number next year.”
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
The University of Michigan’s (UM) School of Education will be renamed the Marsal Family School of Education after a family’s $55 million in gift commitments, MLive reported.The Marsal Family
The family of Kathleen and Bryan Marsal and their children, Megan Kirsch Marsal and Michael Marsal, gifted UM $50 million for initiatives to support a diverse population of teachers, build partnerships, and conduct research in collaboration with education professionals.
“Education is the most important investment we can make, yet we see a disconnect between what our society expects from education and the respect afforded education professionals,” Kathleen Marsal said in a statement. “The survival of society relies on well-prepared educators. Building understanding across differences begins with educators. Providing a high-quality education for all children — which is crucial for achieving equity —begins with educators.”
The money will go towards efforts including a new four-year degree program focused on Learning, Equity and Problem-Solving for the Public Good; expanding work with the P-20 Partnership on the Marygrove Educational Campus in Detroit; and removing financial barriers to certification and providing support to future educators throughout their early professional years.
“We hope there won’t be a teacher shortage in 10 years because teachers will feel supported and valued, and teaching will be seen as a noble profession,” said Megan Kirsch Marsal. “We are excited about UM’s innovative approaches to teacher education, including The Michigan Education Teaching School in Detroit and extensive work with teacher educators outside of the university.”
Previous gifts from the Marsal family have established new career services for education graduates, provided scholarships for future teachers, and supported professional training of teachers, UM officials said.
Kathleen is a UM School of Education alumna and has served on the school’s Dean’s Advisory Council for over 10 years. Bryan is a member of the advisory board of UM’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Megan is also an UM School of Education alumna.
Pomona College will be preserving the archival collection of alumna and civil rights leader Myrlie Evers-Williams. The collection will be handled by The Claremont Colleges Library.Myrlie and Medgar Evers
“I don't want to get too emotional,” said Evers-Williams, who graduated with a sociology degree in 1968. “But it was Pomona College, it was the teachers here who helped me move ahead and come out of this feeling of drowning … And it was my being here at Pomona with the instructors here and the other people who did not smother me. They gave me space. But they surrounded me by love, understanding and saying, ‘Yes, you can.’”
After Evers-Williams’s husband, NAACP official Medgar Evers, was killed in Mississippi by a white supremacist in 1963, the widow moved to Claremont, California, and enrolled at Pomona. She went on to run for Congress; help launch the National Women’s Political Caucus; hold civic roles in Los Angeles; win the conviction of her husband’s killer; be elected chair of the NAACP in 1995; become the first woman and first layperson to give the invocation at a presidential inauguration in 2012.
Now to her alma mater, Evers-Williams – she is nearing age 90 – has donated her collection, which contains items that offer insight into the Civil Rights Era, such as photos with U.S. presidents, campaign materials, and congressional transcripts.
“Mrs. Evers-Williams has led in so many ways through her persistence, faith and unshakeable commitment to the cause,” said Pomona President Dr. G. Gabrielle Starr. “The College will tend to this collection to educate and encourage others to push forward on the path she did so much to create. We are honored to be entrusted with her extraordinary legacy of brilliance, strength and — yes — love.”
Pomona plans on eventually making the collection available for public access.
“I'm thankful for my life, including all of the hardships,” said Evers-Williams, who turns 90 in March. “I have learned so much. I have learned tolerance. I have learned love, genuine love of people. I have learned how to get knocked down and get back up without blaming anyone.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic dawned in Spring 2020, the federal government granted institutions of higher education a series of waivers and flexibilities that allowed them to continue functioning under radically different conditions. Schools were allowed to pay work-study wages for students whose employment was interrupted by COVID, for example, and didn’t have to count incomplete classes due to COVID in financial aid calculations. Domestic students were freed from financial aid verification requirements, and some international students were allowed to skip the visa interview process.
Now, with the Biden administration’s announcement that the national and public health emergencies declared in response to COVID will end May 11th, all of those accommodations are coming to an end, and institutions will have to make an adjustment.
Jill Desjean, senior policy analyst, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
This adjustment may be an administratively complex process.
“The end of the national emergency doesn’t result in any kind of sudden drop-off,” said Desjean. “It sort of starts a clock. It’s not just as simple as, ‘Hey, everybody, on May 11th, you can’t do any of these things.'"
Individual flexibilities and waivers have their own expiration times. Some accommodations may end at the closure of terms or semesters or payment periods. Others may continue for a full academic year after the emergencies end. And deadlines will vary from school to school because they are based on the academic calendars of individual institutions.
“I think the trickiest piece will be just keeping track of all those dates,” said Desjean.
However, Desjean believes that most schools will be able to handle the transition.
“I don’t think that a lot of these waivers expiring is going to be dramatic because schools have some lead time,” she said. “They may have a whole extra semester, even a whole extra year to be able to prepare for the expiration of these waivers.”
Sarah Spreitzer, assistant vice president and chief of staff of government relations at the American Council on Education
“I don’t think that any of this will come as a surprise or be difficult for institutions to comply with,” she said.
Part of this is because many of the flexibilities and waivers became less necessary as the pandemic’s impact lessened.
“I don’t know how common it is right now for a student to have their employment interrupted by a COVID-19 event,” said Desjean.
However, there is a chance that some pandemic changes might be made permanent.
“We’ll definitely be working with our institutions to understand if there were things that worked well under the flexibilities and if there are things that we are going to advocate for continuing with the administration and with Congress,” said Spreitzer.
One possibility might be the loosening of rules that allowed some international students who came from visa waiver countries to skip the interview process.
“I think that some of the flexibilities really helped the Department of State address the visa backlog,” said Spreitzer. “It would be great if they could somehow continue.”
Another prospect could be changes to rules that require double-checking some students’ FAFSA information, which can require significant time and effort by students.
“[The Department of Education] has been willing, over the past few years, to acknowledge what a burden it is for students to complete their verification process and what a barrier it can be for them,” said Desjean. “I could see the department looking at those flexibilities more carefully and possibly keeping those in the future.”
It is possible that the end of the pandemic emergencies will effect higher ed in ways beyond the end of the affordances granted by the Department of Education. Changes in who is responsible for paying for COVID tests and treatments could affect campuses, for example. According to Spreitzer, additional specifics should be available from the government soon.
“I think the administration will likely be putting together guidance or announcements of when things are ending as they get closer to May 11th,” she said.
Jon Edelman can be reached at [email protected].
The controversies of the day expose a problem with the right and it isn’t corruption. It isn’t “sleaze”. It is the impossibility of chasing money and fighting the culture wars. [Nadhim] Zahawi is one person, but stands for millions of a conservative temper in each generation. They are entitled to choose lucrative work over a life in the institutions that set the cultural weather. They are entitled to deplore the success of the left in bending those institutions to their dogma. What is neither honest nor becoming is to do both: to forfeit terrain and then seethe at its capture by hostile elements. […]
Some conservatives have rationalised this discrepancy between electoral triumph and cultural retreat as a kind of leftwing swindle. Or, worse, as proof of democracy’s futility. Their own complicity is lost on them. There are Republicans who can’t believe how leftwing universities are and also can’t believe that anyone would ever choose the unlucrative life of an academic. At some point, you’d hope, the irony will dawn on them.
(Via Andrew Wilson)
The College of Education and Human Development and the School of Medicine at the University of Louisville are launching an online Master of Science degree in Health Professions Education (MSHPE) to fulfill the needs of a growing health care industry.
"The goal of the MSHPE program is to magnify the impact of the health professions educator,” said Dr. Staci Saner, program director and assistant professor of medicine. “Not only do health professions educators improve the outcomes of their patients, but they significantly improve the educational outcomes of their practitioner learners and impact the patients that those learners ultimately care for in the future.”
The health care industry is expected to grow by 2.6 million jobs 2020-2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new degree program will focus on health care professionals who currently teach or plan to teach in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy or other health fields.
“Accreditation bodies increasingly require that residency leaders have the requisite specialty expertise and documented educational and administrative experience,” said Susan Hildebrand of the College of Education and Human Development’s department of organizational leadership and learning. “With this explicit requirement, and with the need to maintain an educational environment conducive to educating the residents in graduate health care education competencies, institutions recognize the value of employing leaders who possess advanced training in education to maintain and improve their residency programs.”
Indiana University Northwest’s administration disregarded standards of academic due process when it dismissed tenured professor Dr. Mark McPhail, according to a report from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
McPhail, a professor of communication and previously IU Northwest’s chief academic officer, was notified on September 2021 by campus police that he had been dismissed and banned from campus, allegedly for racially charged threats of physical violence, including “words to the effect that ‘the only way to end racism is to kill all the white people.’”
The AAUP concluded that the allegation of violent threats was implausible and that McPhail’s allegation that the administration’s actions were prompted by his criticism of the school’s handling of racial equity issues was “highly credible.” Conditions for academic governance at IU Northwest are unsound and its racial climate is unwelcoming to faculty of color, the report said.
Now, the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure will decide whether to recommend to the AAUP’s governing Council that it place the school on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations.
The University of Arkansas system is in talks with the University of Phoenix, one of the largest for-profit colleges in the U.S., about an acquisition, according to the Arkansas Times. The deal, which the Times estimated at $500 to $700 million dollars, would be the most recent example of a higher ed trend: unions between non-profit universities and for-profit, predominantly online schools.
For-profit education has had a difficult decade, due to increasing restrictions initiated by the Obama administration. 10 years ago, the University of Phoenix was burgeoning, with 470,000 students, mostly working learners, who took classes online or in-person at one of over 200 satellite campuses and learning centers. However, in 2019, the university agreed to a $191 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over accusations that the school had falsely advertised partnerships with large companies to students. Now, its enrollment is under 80,000, and it plans to shutter all of its outposts except one, in Phoenix, in 2025.
But for-profit schools have been getting snapped up by more traditional institutions looking to expand their online footprints. In 2017, Purdue University bought the for-profit Kaplan University, with its over 27,000 e-learners, to create Purdue University Global. In 2020, the University of Arizona bought Ashford University, a school with 35,000 online students. The University of Arkansas system had previously created an online school called eVerity, which it merged into a small for-profit, Grantham University, which it purchased in 2021.
However, some suggested that non-profit universities buying for-profits were risking reputational damage due to the aggressive marketing and low-value credentials sometimes associated with the sector. Other criticized the structures of the deals, which allowed the now-non-profit online schools to be managed, at least partially, by the for-profit companies that owned them. This, say critics, means that the for-profit companies are encouraged to increase enrollment through aggressive techniques that might mislead students. The Biden administration has suggested that the Department of Education is unlikely to permit similar arrangements.
The potential Arkansas-Phoenix deal would keep the university system insulated from any remaining profit motive. The purchase would be made not by the University of Arkansas itself but by an affiliated non-profit set up for that purpose. The University of Phoenix would lose its for-profit status.
“The UA system itself would not be acquiring the University of Phoenix, and no public or university funds would be involved in this potential transaction,” said Nate Hinkel, director of communications at the University of Arkansas system in a prepared statement. “The completed structure would also not include any remaining private ownership of the non-profit entity or the University of Phoenix.”
Although talks are ongoing, a deal is not yet imminent, Hinkel confirmed to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
"Since our founding, University of Phoenix has been focused on adult learners who are historically overlooked and underrepresented in higher ed. Delivering on that mission, we’ve experienced marked success over the last six years, both in how we serve our students, and their individual success, and we’d like to see that success continue," said Andrea Smiley, Vice President of Public Relations at University of Phoenix. "Entities are always evolving; they have to because the marketplace changes and the environment that you’re in changes. It’s not unexpected that we are exploring opportunities, and we are ready and eager for whatever our next phase will be.”
Stony Brook University will receive $12 million to increase research faculty to drive innovation and expand student opportunities.
The $12 million – announced by State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor Dr. John B. King, Jr. – is from the state’s $53 million annual investment.
The money will go towards hiring faculty that help expand research funding and productivity, increase faculty diversity, and address instructional needs. Areas of potential hiring include quantum information sciences, artificial intelligence, energy and climate science, and cancer studies.
“Stony Brook University is a leader in research that focuses on addressing big societal challenges, like clean energy production, making data centers more sustainable, and treating cancer and disease,” King said. “By attracting additional top-tier faculty members and retaining existing experts, the campus will be able to expand innovation and grow academic and research opportunities for more students. Our thanks to Governor Kathy Hochul and our state legislators for their staunch support in SUNY and higher education. The funding they have allocated for new faculty will have a significant impact on Stony Brook and other campuses as we work to cement SUNY’s role as a world-class higher education system.”
In time for Black History month, SUNY Cortland will be formally having its inaugural Abraham Lincoln DeMond 1889 Day, in honor of the school’s first African American alum – in 1889 – amid prejudicial policies and segregation.Abraham Lincoln DeMond
The annual event will begin at 6 p.m. on Feb. 1, in the Corey Union Function Room. Speakers will include Pittman; Ernest Logan, president emeritus of the American Federation of School Administrators; and Cortland President Dr. Erik J. Bitterbaum. Registration is optional but recommended.
DeMond, born in Seneca, N.Y., attended the Cortland Normal School, which later became SUNY Cortland. Then, as a politically active pastor, he delivered an address on African American rights at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, the same church from which Martin Luther King Jr. helped launch the civil rights movement.
“I wanted to remind everyone of the power this one Black man had and the influence it carried, and hopefully it will inspire more students of color or students in general,” said Tatum Pittman, a Cortland student who had created the idea of a special DeMond Day. She is director of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for the Student Government Association.
A glass case will display items such as a recent portrait of DeMond with his graduation year, a letter DeMond wrote that was published in the local Cortland Standard newspaper; a copy of the oration he gave at Dexter Baptist Church; some published works from Cortland’s Young Men’s Debate Club; and a proclamation from State Senator Lea Webb for the inaugural day.
“I hope Abraham Lincoln DeMond Day opens up a new door of recognition for the Black community on campus,” Pittman said. “I also hope it allows us to understand our history at SUNY Cortland and the importance of the fight for equality and how, like President Bitterbaum stated in his latest message to the campus, that fight must continue today in our own students.”
In the years to come, DeMond Day will be used to honor other African American alumni.
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