Confessions of a Community College Dean

It’s time for another round of every administrator’s favorite game, “Spot the Contradiction.” See if you can isolate the double bind that drives good people around the freakin’ bend.

Is a free textbook a good deal?

I don’t think of myself as Scrooge, but this time of year the endless questions around “secret Santas” and informal gift exchange always crop up. Lesboprof’s take is particularly thoughtful.

It’s the end of the semester, which means it’s time for some students to figure out that they’ve taken the “wrong” courses for their programs.

I’ve never really come to terms with taking attendance in college classes. Maybe it’s me.

I love this question. A longtime reader writes: I was chatting with a colleague yesterday. As we talked, a common theme emerged: neither of us has found a way to do the following: 1) Easily and collaboratively share and revise documents or other materials on our college’s content management system 2) Easily and collaboratively share and revise documents or other materials on our college’s course management system (or on other open-source course management systems used on campus) e.g create a moodle course for a particular committee or task force and use this as a space to get some collaborative work done on a project.

Why hasn’t the Great Recession triggered a massive restructuring of American higher ed yet?

The Boy’s team competed in the local Lego league championships last weekend.