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What is this day even for and how we can use it to create real change.

I am fortunate to have found a group of other women faculty members who like to gather on a regular basis. As I join them for lunch weekly, I am reminded of the concept from Algebra of a “group”, in which members individually and collectively share certain properties.

Last week I was so inspired by John Duffy’s essay, “Virtuous Arguments,” that I sent it to the director of our first term seminar program, thinking it would be worth discussion among the faculty who teach this course. I try not to do this too often; the poor man is busy, and I could easily fill his inbox regularly with advice he doesn’t need. But I was particularly taken with Duffy’s notion that what we really are teaching when we teach first semester writers is how to make an ethical argument. This idea resonated with me because I think the most important thing students can learn by using a library is how to go about making up their minds - or changing the minds of other people - in an ethical manner. And yet, I’m not sure how well we actually convey that when we help students learn research skills.

A few days ago I mentioned that the credit hour must die, and several readers asked for clarification. (In a Leslie Neilsen voice: “Death is the end of life. But that’s not important right now.”)

It's March. Conference season is in full swing. Events have been taking place since the beginning of the month. Recently, I was chatting with a friend and told him that I "had made a mistake." He asked what I had done. My response: "I went to some sessions." Oh snap!

Pop quiz. In what year did newspaper revenues peak? Way back before the Internet? Wrong. The answer is in the year 2000. The fall of newspaper revenue, driven by the steep decline in advertising dollars, has been as dramatic as it was unexpected. The newspaper business (as measured in everything from newsroom staff to profitability to newspapers ceasing publication) is not in good shape - or at least is a pale shadow to what it once was.

I planned to respond to David Levy’s egregious attack on higher ed but Kaustuv Basu and Dean Dad have already penned very smart, satisfying responses. I particularly like Jill Kronstadt’s offer to Levy that he shadow her on a typical day teaching at Montgomery community college. And I urge everyone to follow Lee Bessette’s suggestion to make Monday, April 2 a “Day of Higher Ed” by recording your day’s work in detail.

A new correspondent writes: "Is there any hope for getting my university to expand its commitment to my admittedly esoteric discipline? My classes are popular and pique students' curiosity, but they have to go to another institution to study it more. Is there an appropriate way to bring that popularity to the administration's attention?"