Opinion

The campus conversation about data must attend to both numbers and nuance.

A new correspondent writes: Six months ago, I accepted an assistant deanship at an institution that requires a long daily commute. I've since come to regret my decision, finding that the 60+ hours away from home is damaging my family life, which, in turn, makes me ineffective in both work and family roles.

We are crazy busy. We get to work early. We eat lunch at our desks. If we manage to get home at a reasonable hour then the laptop comes open after dinner. E-mails to read and send. Documents to edit and compose. Presentations to prepare. Spreadsheets to crunch.

Beginning on March 1st, Google will eliminate more than 60 separate privacy policies and replace them with a single privacy policy for all of their services. A shiver ran across my back when I watched Google's Privacy Policy Update video and read their rationale for the policy change.

"Greenwashing", of course, is the practice of ascribing supposed sustainable qualities to a product or service for purposes of boosting market share. It's increasingly prevalent, and I generally just ignore it. But today, two examples totally gob-smacked me.

Most people in higher education love to hate the rankings. Not me – I find them highly imperfect but fascinating.

Sybil L. Holloway considers the roles of planning, preparation and setting reasonable expectations.