Opinion

Robert J. Sternberg considers why many colleges are unable to carry out plans for meaningful improvements of their institutions.

Here we go again: another round of “Inside Blackboard,” another long (2800 word) blog. Last week’s announcements were big and bold. Let’s break it down into manageable parts.

The bizarrely ill-informed opinion piece by David Levy, “Do College Teachers Work Hard Enough?” in the Washington Post caused a lot of predictable outrage among college teachers. I was reminded of it when I read a new essay by Steve Coffman, "The Decline and Fall of the Library Empire."

In a fit of responsibility, our budget guy did some projections five years out. Simply put, the gap is growing quickly, and it’s not likely that the state will pony up anything close to enough to fill it..

How will edtech change the NCAA basketball tournament, March Madness, in 2013?

To be honest, I forgot about it. Forgot that Lee Bessette, Aeron Haynie, and others had reminded me that today was to be the #dayofhighered, the day we recorded our activities to counter the canards promulgated most recently by David C. Levy, but prevalent “out there in the world,” that professors work short hours for high wages.

Rather than talking about myself on this #dayofhighered, I bring you our second Adjunct Hero.

Years ago, I was talking to a man -- call him "Randy" -- who made his money selling mortgages. First, Randy's company originated them -- lent money to residential buyers so they could purchase their dream homes. Then he sold them to a consolidator who pooled many mortgages and used them as collateral for the issuance of securities. The difference between this man's behavior and the behaviors that led -- in large part -- to the crash of 2008 was that Randy took a moderately long view of his business.