Blogs

Last month I made the last payment on my daughter’s college tuition. She’ll graduate, debt-free, in two months (knock wood). And last week, to make me feel even older, my son got his learner’s permit. When his sister got hers, he was still in elementary school and I had a lot less grey in my hair. (Not that I’m making any claims about cause and effect — she’s a terrific driver.)

Bill Gates laid out his ideas to help solve current issues in higher education at the recent SXSW conference.

Greetings from Dallas, where the theme of the first day of the League for Innovation conference seemed to be “how to deal with actual human behavior.”

Over the past few weeks, I have learned some bittersweet lessons about work relationships inside the academic community that my erstwhile, busy, juggling between administrator-teacher-researcher roles precluded me from seeing. The episodes have left me emotionally drained and tired but I would like to think, a better Chair than I was previously.

You've selected an interesting conference in your field. Your abstract, and then your paper have been accepted. You have prepared your presentation, and you're ready to go.

This past week I had the opportunity to spend some quality time at the hospital. My younger daughter (8th grade) had her appendix out. Her loss of an appendix was my gain for thinking about some of things that higher ed can learn from hospitals.

Entrepreneurial ideas related to education have flourished of late, and business plan competitions can surface some of these initial ideas. Here are eight education-related start-up ideas appearing on several lists of finalists.

A couple of days ago, New York Times Columnist Charles Blow wrote of how big debt is the "dangerous new normal" for young graduates.