Blogs

When the chemistry faculty of SUNY Potsdam aligned themselves with their library director, Jenica Rogers, to say “no” publicly to the American Chemical Society (ACS) - because the price of their journal package was too high for schools like theirs and would have consumed a disproportionate percentage of the library’s total budget - it was newsworthy. Why in an era when “no” is being said so often is this news?

Look, coffee is great and all, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to the variety and flexibility of tea. I am a dyed in the wool tea drinker, and I can't write a word without a cuppa. But tea can be tricky; just choosing the generic bagged tea off the shelf rarely results in a triumphant tea experience. Recently, we at GradHacker have posted guides for wine and coffee, and it is high time that delicious teas were given their due.

OK, I'm prejudiced. I don't much care for factory-raised meat (or produce, for that matter). That's one of the reasons why I have a big freezer in the garage. (Chest type. Energy efficient. In the unheated garage so that five months out of the year it uses almost no electricity at all.)

Graduate programs rarely prepare you for the myriad skills required for being a successful (let alone happy) professor. Most of...

A new forum for conversation about ethics and integrity in higher education.

I’m at the CASE conference in San Diego, seeing what “development” (that is, fundraising) officers at community colleges talk about when they gather. (CASE is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.) It’s a national organization of development officers from all sectors of nonprofit higher ed, but this is their first conference focused specifically on community colleges.

Several weeks ago we opened a survey to gather input from people that are new to higher education. The responses are quite interesting – varied and interesting.

Putting my money where my mouth is. Proverbial money. I'm contingent, after all.