Well... it depends. If you're at a research university, your tuition dollars may not pay very much of your professor's salary by the time you add in any government funding and other outside grants, as well as endowment funds. The work they do preparing for class we can argue about, but their research output was very likely paid for with a non-tuition source. And how do we define work done for teaching? Should each student have access to lecture notes? Old quizzes? Final exams? (Professors really hate the last two because then they can't reuse things without rampant cheating, and after a few years in some subjects it gets hard to write truly new questions.) What about e-mails to another student refining an explanation that was given in class? Recordings of discussions in office hours? These are work products from the class you are taking. Careful, you'll have to edit out any portions that have FERPA data...
I can tell you I've watched more than one professor freak out when I explain to them how much access the university has to their work products, electronic or old-school. They don't like it at all. It doesn't make them right or wrong, but this is far from settled to both sides' satisfaction.
Just be aware that when you do drop them, they will call you incessantly for a month. We used to have subscriptions for two cars, then the driving habits changed and we dropped one car. They called for two months quite frequently at all hours asking me to resubscribe. Dropped the other car out of pure spite for such harassment. The fun part is, the driving habits changed because we moved east through a couple time zones but I kept the cell phone number with the CA area code. They called at 11PM several times. The first few I ignored because I was already trying to sleep. Then I got fed up, confirmed with them that they had my current address correct, and asked why they were calling me at 11PM. Threats of legal action seemed to do some good.:)
It's deeply troubling that the response to "tuitions are too high" is "not everyone needs to go to college" these days. Education is not a luxury that we can afford to go without, it is civilization itself.
I think you are assuming this means that not everyone *has the opportunity to go to college relatively easily*. I think that college should be relatively easy to go to for someone who wants to go and is willing to put in a small amount of effort to make it happen. It will always be easier for some people than for others. But not everyone needs to go to college, because not everyone wants to go to college. Some people HATE the traditional classroom experience, and much has been made of other respectable, relatively well paid jobs like plumbing, welding, etc. that are a bit more hands on. Forcing me to extend high school an extra four years with people who don't want to be there helps none of the students. I would argue that until just about all physical labor has been mechanized to a large degree there really isn't a reason for EVERYONE to go to college. (By that point, AI may also have advanced to the point that a lot of desk jobs are no longer needed too, which will force some societal choices.)
To me, one of the biggest problems in higher education is the idea that everyone should go to college. People sometimes just aren't cut out for it at all, and some people would benefit greatly from the "gap year" common in many other western countries where you live life for a while instead of going straight from high school to a university. It helps you focus on what is important. Students can and do burn out too after 12+ years of the exact same thing. The problem is that administrators have a panic attack because OMG ONLY 40% OF OUR STUDENTS GRADUATE ON TIME without considering that perhaps only 40% deserved to graduate. Then comes the administrative bs programs to keep butts in seats rather than actually helping students figure out how to succeed in life. There is no "succeeds in life after college" measure that universities can use to reliably judge how well they are doing, but "90% graduate within 4 years" sounds like a close approximation regardless of relevance. If I spend 4 years slacking off and getting Cs and learning nothing of use, but graduate on time, that is just fine and dandy with the administration because it keeps their numbers pretty.
Please, kids, if you have no desire to go to college other than mommy and daddy said I will be a miserable failure if I don't, DO NOT GO. Full stop. Find a different, creative way to get money and support yourself. If after a while you decide college is a good idea, you can always go back. It might be harder, but it can be done. And just maybe you'll never miss it.
Accessibility. Completely mandatory for government agencies of any kind. Is Google Sites + Drive compliant for people who need to use various pieces of adaptive software (screen readers and such)? Can you guarantee that it will remain so for the expected useful life of the project? I'm betting it would require an SLA, which requires $$$. With something set up in house that you can control, this compatibility can remain at the forefront instead of whatever objective Google has this week that requires breaking stuff but looks shiny.
Not to mention that they usually wouldn't want to make it better anyway. One way publishers make money is putting out new editions of old books. One of my family members is a professor, and he is constantly pushed to put out a new edition every 2 years or so even though not much changes in the history of the world's religions in that time. They're not going to start updating the content for free, unless it makes them look *really* bad. People who actually still read books in this day and age are more likely to get upset about censoring and redacting down the line. I am a bit puzzled as to why they should change things in the first place - do editors really want to go back and find every last typo, or would they rather move on to a new project? Personally I have never declined to buy a book because of a few editorial mistakes, so I can't see when people would want to do this other than to edit out something unpopular.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-f g-gazeta21may21,1,1616926,full.story?coll=la-headl ines-world&ctrack=3&cset=true/
For those who don't RTFA, this basically says there is one independent newspaper which publishes 3 times a week, is funded mostly by Gorbachev and another prominent politician, incurs huge losses, and has had mysterious accidents including death happen to several reporters. Any political scientist can tell you that this is not a sign of a healthy free press, and without a healthy free press democracy suffers due to lack of good information. Basically, the West has been worried about Putin and his backsliding into authoritarianism for quite some time but hasn't had the balls to do much about it. Yes, there is the internet, but you assume that a) everyone in Russia who wants to can get their news from the net, which is not true for many poor elderly folks, and b) those who might be politically savvy are tech savvy enough to find the independent sources on the net. If you lived through Soviet times, you'd be skittish about seeking out politically sensitive info if you had any sense.
In other words, this is a big deal.
I work at the Disneyland Resort (not the crappy IT department, thank god) and they have a really good incentives program called commuter assistance. They will subsidize pretty much any method of public transporation (I ride the bus for free), give you preferred parking for carpooling (nice in a lot that size), and have an entire department set up to coordinate carpools/vanpools/walking partners. They offer an emergency ride service for when your clean air commuting method fails (biking in a hailstorm, carpool partner leaves to pick up a sick kid with the car, etc.) It's available to everyone from the lowly ride operators and hot dog stand vendors to resort executives.
The best part - if you use an approved method of clean air commuting - bus, train, carpool, walking/biking/etc., or even a 4/10 or 9/80 workweek - they will give you $1 for each day you use it. This can be added straight to your paycheck once you accumulate $10, or you can get gift cards to various places. They often have special contests as well.
I believe this or a similar program is available to most Disney employees in the US (about 120,000 people last I heard). I don't know how many people take advantage of it, but it has to be one of the better corporate programs out there.
Because my friend knew a guy who works for Fox, I got to see this movie last Thursday. It was excellent - fans of the show will not be disappointed. There is a heck of a lot more to the movie than what they show in the trailer, and lots of suprises. It was so suspenseful that I left the theater feeling physically and emotionally drained, which doesn't happen all that often. There is also enough humor that it doesn't get on your nerves. A few parts are slightly predictable, but they throw in some small twists to keep it interesting.
That said, people who haven't watched the show will likely be lost for the first half.
I only had two complaints, and one's a bit of a spoiler, but the other was that the theme song wasn't anywhere in the movie... hopefully they'll add it in later! The credits weren't done, so perhaps it'll go in there.
First of all, RTFA. The group is Russian, but this guy was Czech. If you look at a map and the politics of the two countries, there's quite a large difference. Secondly, consider the history of Eastern Europe - dissidents who fought the communist system are still celebrated today. If you cast yourself as a dissident with a distinct, non-harmful goal, people like that.
The problem is that people don't understand that, or don't care. People tune in to hear what they want to hear, someone screaming to defend their point of view. People realize that Jon Stewart's show is on Comedy Central, but he's still THE biggest source of "news" for people in the 18-30 range. It is very true that college kids keep up on current events by watching his show - several of my friends do. The point is that neither show is an acceptable substitute for balanced news coverage, but people don't watch the news. They watch crap like both those shows instead because it's easier to digest than the crap the networks claim is news. I read BBC World news and generally one other non-US paper online daily. I get a lot more out of it than the Times or the Washington Post and I don't feel dirty afterwards.
Slashdot Mirror
Well... it depends. If you're at a research university, your tuition dollars may not pay very much of your professor's salary by the time you add in any government funding and other outside grants, as well as endowment funds. The work they do preparing for class we can argue about, but their research output was very likely paid for with a non-tuition source. And how do we define work done for teaching? Should each student have access to lecture notes? Old quizzes? Final exams? (Professors really hate the last two because then they can't reuse things without rampant cheating, and after a few years in some subjects it gets hard to write truly new questions.) What about e-mails to another student refining an explanation that was given in class? Recordings of discussions in office hours? These are work products from the class you are taking. Careful, you'll have to edit out any portions that have FERPA data...
I can tell you I've watched more than one professor freak out when I explain to them how much access the university has to their work products, electronic or old-school. They don't like it at all. It doesn't make them right or wrong, but this is far from settled to both sides' satisfaction.
Just be aware that when you do drop them, they will call you incessantly for a month. We used to have subscriptions for two cars, then the driving habits changed and we dropped one car. They called for two months quite frequently at all hours asking me to resubscribe. Dropped the other car out of pure spite for such harassment. The fun part is, the driving habits changed because we moved east through a couple time zones but I kept the cell phone number with the CA area code. They called at 11PM several times. The first few I ignored because I was already trying to sleep. Then I got fed up, confirmed with them that they had my current address correct, and asked why they were calling me at 11PM. Threats of legal action seemed to do some good. :)
It's deeply troubling that the response to "tuitions are too high" is "not everyone needs to go to college" these days. Education is not a luxury that we can afford to go without, it is civilization itself.
I think you are assuming this means that not everyone *has the opportunity to go to college relatively easily*. I think that college should be relatively easy to go to for someone who wants to go and is willing to put in a small amount of effort to make it happen. It will always be easier for some people than for others. But not everyone needs to go to college, because not everyone wants to go to college. Some people HATE the traditional classroom experience, and much has been made of other respectable, relatively well paid jobs like plumbing, welding, etc. that are a bit more hands on. Forcing me to extend high school an extra four years with people who don't want to be there helps none of the students. I would argue that until just about all physical labor has been mechanized to a large degree there really isn't a reason for EVERYONE to go to college. (By that point, AI may also have advanced to the point that a lot of desk jobs are no longer needed too, which will force some societal choices.)
To me, one of the biggest problems in higher education is the idea that everyone should go to college. People sometimes just aren't cut out for it at all, and some people would benefit greatly from the "gap year" common in many other western countries where you live life for a while instead of going straight from high school to a university. It helps you focus on what is important. Students can and do burn out too after 12+ years of the exact same thing. The problem is that administrators have a panic attack because OMG ONLY 40% OF OUR STUDENTS GRADUATE ON TIME without considering that perhaps only 40% deserved to graduate. Then comes the administrative bs programs to keep butts in seats rather than actually helping students figure out how to succeed in life. There is no "succeeds in life after college" measure that universities can use to reliably judge how well they are doing, but "90% graduate within 4 years" sounds like a close approximation regardless of relevance. If I spend 4 years slacking off and getting Cs and learning nothing of use, but graduate on time, that is just fine and dandy with the administration because it keeps their numbers pretty.
Please, kids, if you have no desire to go to college other than mommy and daddy said I will be a miserable failure if I don't, DO NOT GO. Full stop. Find a different, creative way to get money and support yourself. If after a while you decide college is a good idea, you can always go back. It might be harder, but it can be done. And just maybe you'll never miss it.
Accessibility. Completely mandatory for government agencies of any kind. Is Google Sites + Drive compliant for people who need to use various pieces of adaptive software (screen readers and such)? Can you guarantee that it will remain so for the expected useful life of the project? I'm betting it would require an SLA, which requires $$$. With something set up in house that you can control, this compatibility can remain at the forefront instead of whatever objective Google has this week that requires breaking stuff but looks shiny.
Not to mention that they usually wouldn't want to make it better anyway. One way publishers make money is putting out new editions of old books. One of my family members is a professor, and he is constantly pushed to put out a new edition every 2 years or so even though not much changes in the history of the world's religions in that time. They're not going to start updating the content for free, unless it makes them look *really* bad. People who actually still read books in this day and age are more likely to get upset about censoring and redacting down the line. I am a bit puzzled as to why they should change things in the first place - do editors really want to go back and find every last typo, or would they rather move on to a new project? Personally I have never declined to buy a book because of a few editorial mistakes, so I can't see when people would want to do this other than to edit out something unpopular.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-f g-gazeta21may21,1,1616926,full.story?coll=la-headl ines-world&ctrack=3&cset=true/
For those who don't RTFA, this basically says there is one independent newspaper which publishes 3 times a week, is funded mostly by Gorbachev and another prominent politician, incurs huge losses, and has had mysterious accidents including death happen to several reporters. Any political scientist can tell you that this is not a sign of a healthy free press, and without a healthy free press democracy suffers due to lack of good information. Basically, the West has been worried about Putin and his backsliding into authoritarianism for quite some time but hasn't had the balls to do much about it. Yes, there is the internet, but you assume that a) everyone in Russia who wants to can get their news from the net, which is not true for many poor elderly folks, and b) those who might be politically savvy are tech savvy enough to find the independent sources on the net. If you lived through Soviet times, you'd be skittish about seeking out politically sensitive info if you had any sense.
In other words, this is a big deal.
I work at the Disneyland Resort (not the crappy IT department, thank god) and they have a really good incentives program called commuter assistance. They will subsidize pretty much any method of public transporation (I ride the bus for free), give you preferred parking for carpooling (nice in a lot that size), and have an entire department set up to coordinate carpools/vanpools/walking partners. They offer an emergency ride service for when your clean air commuting method fails (biking in a hailstorm, carpool partner leaves to pick up a sick kid with the car, etc.) It's available to everyone from the lowly ride operators and hot dog stand vendors to resort executives. The best part - if you use an approved method of clean air commuting - bus, train, carpool, walking/biking/etc., or even a 4/10 or 9/80 workweek - they will give you $1 for each day you use it. This can be added straight to your paycheck once you accumulate $10, or you can get gift cards to various places. They often have special contests as well. I believe this or a similar program is available to most Disney employees in the US (about 120,000 people last I heard). I don't know how many people take advantage of it, but it has to be one of the better corporate programs out there.
Because my friend knew a guy who works for Fox, I got to see this movie last Thursday. It was excellent - fans of the show will not be disappointed. There is a heck of a lot more to the movie than what they show in the trailer, and lots of suprises. It was so suspenseful that I left the theater feeling physically and emotionally drained, which doesn't happen all that often. There is also enough humor that it doesn't get on your nerves. A few parts are slightly predictable, but they throw in some small twists to keep it interesting. That said, people who haven't watched the show will likely be lost for the first half. I only had two complaints, and one's a bit of a spoiler, but the other was that the theme song wasn't anywhere in the movie... hopefully they'll add it in later! The credits weren't done, so perhaps it'll go in there.
First of all, RTFA. The group is Russian, but this guy was Czech. If you look at a map and the politics of the two countries, there's quite a large difference. Secondly, consider the history of Eastern Europe - dissidents who fought the communist system are still celebrated today. If you cast yourself as a dissident with a distinct, non-harmful goal, people like that.
The problem is that people don't understand that, or don't care. People tune in to hear what they want to hear, someone screaming to defend their point of view. People realize that Jon Stewart's show is on Comedy Central, but he's still THE biggest source of "news" for people in the 18-30 range. It is very true that college kids keep up on current events by watching his show - several of my friends do. The point is that neither show is an acceptable substitute for balanced news coverage, but people don't watch the news. They watch crap like both those shows instead because it's easier to digest than the crap the networks claim is news. I read BBC World news and generally one other non-US paper online daily. I get a lot more out of it than the Times or the Washington Post and I don't feel dirty afterwards.