Blogs

The best performing community colleges aren’t necessarily those with the highest graduation or transfer rates; they’re those that consistently punch above their weight.

This post is aimed at university chief investment officers. Please don't put endowment resources into the planned 2012 Facebook IPO. If Russian oligarchs or Wall Street fund managers want to place a Facebook bet, by all means go for it.

Late this week, I received a letter from our longest serving faculty member. This person has served for over 50 years as a full-time faculty member and continues to be an excellent teacher, an outstanding colleague and a respected scholar.

During the first winter break of my graduate school career, I left campus for more than a month. When I returned, I discovered that all of my mail had been removed from my mailbox and had been returned to the senders courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. Easy rookie mistake. As you wrap up the semester, start preparing for your departure from campus (if that's in the cards for you). "Winterize" your life. Even if you're leaving campus for a short period, planning ahead is important, and you should consider the needs of your academic, professional, and personal selves. Written by Amy Rubens, Indiana University PhD candidate in English, @ambulantscholar

In grad school the focus is primarily on coursework, research and funding. While the advice we receive on these topics from advisors and talks is necessary, it doesn’t help with the other side of grad school: the emotional and social. We are more than just students, and sometimes we can get caught up in the pressure and stress of getting our degree. Some of the most common problems suffered by grads are not getting research topics or forming their committees, but rather the day to day stresses and personal issues.

My first peer-driven learning classes are over. It was, by and large, a success.

My condolences, once again, to everyone at Virginia Tech.

I often begin classes in Economics with a discussion of how values of things are determined. I point out that the price of some things may or may not accurately reflect their importance in our lives. For example, water and air are vitally important in our lives, but often very inexpensive. Alternatively, diamonds are very expensive, but do little to sustain or improve our lives. The reason for this apparent paradox is found in the fact that prices are determined by the interaction of both supply and demand, allowing rare things that are not vital to our lives to become expensive, and important things that are readily available to become relatively inexpensive. I thought of this lately as I looked around at the current bustle and remembered a sign I saw in a store many years ago. Trying to encourage seasonal buying, it said "We make Christmas Cheaper."