Author: Professor David Simpson

Ten Resources for Putting Into Context My Academic Institution's Well Being

I am sitting in front of my Mac in the office listening to the hammering of destruction construction outside while I do the homework to ask intelligent, informed questions of President Hastad and our invited speaker. I am delighted to have just received a “check-in” from my research assistant Tia. Right now preparation for playing soccer (and staying healthy) should be her priority.

Just quickly reviewed this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education with particular focus on articles dealing with “discount rates” and enrollment trends. Usually the updated figures occur around October 1. Here are resources I draw upon to give me a context for trends in higher education. Several of them allow me to create my own comparison group data bases (e.g. for salaries and endowments).
Ten Resources for Putting Into Context My Academic Institution’s Well Being

  1. Oberlin Strategic Plan Reading List: Source: Web Page shared by David Simpson’s alma mater Oberlin College
  2. College and University Endowments: Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  3. Tuition and Fees: Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4. AAUP Salary Data: Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5. Money Raised by Colleges, 2014 Fiscal Year: Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  6. Almanac of Higher Education:  Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  7. Student Data: Enrollment Trends: Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  8. Executive Compensation at Private Colleges: Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
  9. IPEDS (individual institutions and comparisons)
  10. CUPA Surveys

Carroll Moments…

Tonight I’ll finish reading Meg Wolitzer’s novel The Interestings. I teased my student assistants recently that I’d love to follow the trajectory of their lives over the next thirty years as Meg Wolitzer does her characters.In some ways I have been able to do that for past students, by comparing where they are now (as conveyed to me by Facebook, Linkedin, and campus visits) with the information I have kept in their advising folders—photos, letters, occasionally even a paper they wrote. Recently I was reunited with a former student (selfie available upon request) whose daughter might well be enrolling this year and might even be assigned to work with me. So many memories triggered by the Carroll chimes, familiar places, and familiar faces. Do feel free to share your Carroll Moments with me…
Below are some photos from a number of years ago. Precious Carroll moments which evoke a number of stories about you!
 
Alumni1 Alumni2 Alumni3 Alumni4
 

Too Many Terrific Tempting Apps


The transition to OS-X Yosemite seems to have resulted in minimum messups. A few incompatibility issues but none that warranted my reverting back to an earlier version. I really would do myself a service by committing to one browser (I favor Chrome) and a manageable number of regularly used browser extensions (say, 7 to 9 so that I would remember what they do!). In addition, I need to resist adding applications just because they are free and neat. Alternatively, since I seem to collect laptops and tablets, perhaps I should devote each to a different browser and sets of applications and extensions. Perhaps in the summer—though summer is a time to be outside.

I’m going through my applications that begin with “T” as a sip a cup of tea. I just rediscovered “Tapedeck” which I had forgotten about until recently the creators contacted me with news that they were thinking of revising it.

Decluttering Revisited


I seem to return to certain topics—like reducing virtual desk top clutter. I am once again in the process of reviewing “applications”—I’ve installed (first on my Mac, then on my Ipads, then on my PC’s).I read a thoughtful piece in the New York Times this morning suggesting that the urge to declutter or the perceptions of succeeding in the task may be misguided.And I just ordered a copy of a revised Stephen Covey book to assist in my reordering my priorities.
I have a goal of reducing the 37-years of accumulated office clutter by pulling together all the institutional research have done the past 37 years (thank you former research assistants) and combining it with present data collection processes. however, I am amused and annoyed to discover how technology sometimes makes data acquisition more difficult.
Right now two of my student research assistants are helping me pull together a blog piece dedicated to the Carroll alumni I have known as students across the past 37 years. Take a peak at a work in progress.

Let me know if you’d like a picture of you from year’s gone by. I’ll trade you for one of me OR of you today.

 

Nifty Shades of Buzz-Transparently Attempting to Engage the Reader as I Move Forward with Rebranding:)

Branding Love
Three books that I have reread the past few years are George Orwell (Eric Blair)’s 1984 and Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

George Orwell fascinates me on a number of accounts—his mastery of language, his prescience, and his outlook about politics. While I was faculty president, I gave copies of his book to people as a reminder of the chilling threats and effects of totalitarianism and the dangers of doublespeak. Lewis Carroll, though more playful, also is masterful with language and with alerting us to the the dangers of when illogic becomes the norm and when language is misused and abused. I find my institution’s decisions a few year’s ago to redefine the word “department” in our Carroll argot and the changing of our name from “college” to “university” Humpty-Dumpty-like. And the “buzzwords”  and evolving (sometime assaulting) lexicons creeping into our everyday discourse are painfully annoying, hinder communication and add many shades of gray to my beard. I am abuzz with buzzwords
Buzz:

  1. hum
  2. murmur
  3. high
  4. bombination
  5. drone
  6. purr
  7. whirring
  8. sibilation
  9. hiss
  10. whiz
  11. sigh
  12. rustle
  13. sough
  14. rumor
  15. report
  16. gossip
  17. heresay
  18. scuttlebut
  19. scandal
  20. small talk
  21. chitchat
  22. fizzle
  23. sizzle
  24. Look here for more here: 

It is interesting how the “buzzwords” (e.g. transparency, branding, moving forward, engagement, buzz) have positive connotations for some professionals and create a need create a need for a swear jar or playing buzz word bingo for others.
Gotta buzz the dog outside before buzzing a friend to see if he wants to play buzzword bingo tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll buzz over to Melibee to read some of their wonderful posts about global issues and making the world a better place.