Articles of interest about higher ed - Dec 18

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***THE VIRUS  

There are almost no preexisting conditions for COVID-19 that matter remotely as much as age

Debunked COVID-19 myths survive online, despite facts

***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS 

4 questions for colleges now that the US has a coronavirus vaccine

University of Kentucky study says a 7-day COVID quarantine may be enough for students

Alabama State using drones to sanitize stadium against COVID-19

American campuses have tallied nearly 400,000 cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic

Campuses Say Their Fall Semesters Were Safe. One Student Felt Anything But.

***SPRING SEMESTER  

Arizona State University cancels spring break in effort to slow spread of COVID-19

Worried About College Plans for Spring ($)

***INCOMING STUDENTS

'Losing A Generation': Fall College Enrollment Plummets For First-Year Students

The number of high school graduates who enrolled in college this fall fell by more than 21 percent

***LAYOFFS & FURLOUGHS 

University of Evansville admin proposes cutting quarter of the faculty, nixing 17 majors

Univ of Saint Rose to drop 25 academic programs to survive financial stress

Duquesne University proposes full-time faculty cuts amid pandemic, financial uncertainty

***COLLEGES & POLITICS 

Education Secretary DeVos Heads For The Exits, Leaving A Legacy Of Turmoil

Northwestern distances itself from former lecturer after controversial op-ed urging Jill Biden to drop 'Dr.' title

***HIGHER ED

Big Gifts to Small Colleges From an Unexpected Source ($)

Colleges still have millions to fire football coaches despite claiming financial trouble from coronavirus

Why Higher Education Is a Prime Target for Cybercriminals

 ***HIGHER ED IN COURT

Athletes at Black Colleges Sue Over NCAA Rules

***HUMANITIES 

Case Western Reserve University receives $2,028,000 grant to promote diversity in academic leadership, focusing on arts and humanities

The Deeper Dig: What humanities cuts could mean for UVM 

***TEACHING

It’s not production quality that counts in educational videos – here's what students value most

114 studies on flipped classrooms show small payoff for big effort

Why You Should Teach Like a Poet ($)

Student Evaluations of Teaching are Not Valid (opinion)

Are MOOCs getting a second wind as colleges look online for gen ed classes?

***ONLINE CHEATING

Use of surveillance software to crack down on exam cheating has unintended consequences

Remote test-taking software is an inaccurate, privacy-invading mess (opinion)

Texas A&M investigating "large scale" cheating case as universities see more academic misconduct in era of online classes

Academic integrity at Zoom University: Stricter measures are not the answer

***ACADEMIC LIFE  

Strategies to Avoid Professor Burn Out

UM Fires History Professor Who Criticizes ‘Powerful, Racist Donors’ and ‘Carceral State’

Scholars pledge not to speak at Ole Miss until it reinstates a colleague

When My College Attacked Me, Professional Insurance Saved My Bacon

***ADMINISTRATORS

Chapman University President Daniele Struppa tests positive for COVID-19

New Mexico State University chancellor named to Biden-Harris transition team

McDaniel College taps current provost as its next president

Southwestern College selects alumnus Mark Sanchez as next president

University of North Carolina at Wilmington faculty censure chancellor

Utah State Investigating comments made by president  

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Guilford College hits pause on sweeping proposed campus changes

Judson College needs $500K in donations by Dec. 31 to stay open

How Trump Made a Tiny Christian College the Nation’s Biggest Prison Educator

Azusa Pacific drops football

Five years later, Larycia Hawkins’ canceling foreshadowed evangelicals under Trump (opinion)

Northwest Nazarene University students complete fall semester in person

Humanities take a hit at three religious colleges

In final years at Liberty, Falwell spent millions on pro-Trump causes

***RESEARCH 

Elsevier looking into “very serious concerns” after student calls out journal for fleet of Star Trek articles, other issues

The grad student who found a fatal error that may affect lots of papers

The shoddy statistical analysis in the Texas lawsuit which sought to overturn the 2020 election

Measuring Correlation-to-Causation Exaggeration in Press Releases

Psychology’s replication crisis inspires ecologists to push for more reliable research

South African incentive programme has attracted criticism for encouraging unethical behaviour.

Report: Majority Of Psychological Experiments Conducted In 1970s Just Crimes (satire)

***RETRACTIONS

Patterns of retractions from 1981-2020 : Does a fraud lead to another fraud?

The limits of transparency in dealing with scientific misconduct

***STUDENT MEDIA 

The work student journalists are proudest of this year

A student re-attached a fallen note of support to a staff member’s door. Then her university investigated her for harassment.

A contentious local election revealed an information gap. High school reporters stepped up to fill it.

***STUDENTS IN LEGAL TROUBLE

Federal charges filed against 21 people in 'large-scale' drug ring involving UNC fraternities

US college student jailed for breaking quarantine in Cayman Islands

***STUDENT LIFE 

Congressional proposal would overhaul college sports, require revenue sharing, cover athletes' medical costs

COVID-19 cuts into college students' drinking

Blows to the head of a college volleyball star changed her life

What It's Like To Apply To College In The Pandemic

Students organize protests over Cal State Long Beach's grading system

Utah State Players Opt out of Final Game over President's Comments on Head Coach

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

LSU has long known of the problem and it took no action when athletic department officials violated Title IX policies in the past

Baylor facing charges related to lack of institutional control over sports program In sexual assault scandal 

***COLLEGES & RACIAL ISSUES

Trustees vote to drop 'Dixie' from Dixie State University name

A Black Professor’s Colleague Called the Cops on Him. What the School Did Next Made It Much Worse.

UCLA Study Suggests Millennials Show Racial Bias While Looking For Roommates

 

Seeing Potential

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A New York businessman dropped a dollar into the cup of a man selling pencils and hurriedly stepped aboard the subway train. On second thought, he stepped back off the train, walked over the beggar and took several pencils from the cup. Apologetically, he explained that in his haste he had neglected to pick up his pencils and hoped the man wouldn’t be upset with him. “After all,” he said, “you are a businessman just like myself. You have merchandise to sell and it’s fairly priced.” Then he caught the next train.

At a social function a few months later, a neatly-dressed salesman stepped up to the businessman and introduced himself. “You probably don’t remember me and I don’t know your name, but I will never forget you. You are the man who game me back my self-respect. I was a “beggar” selling pencils until you came along and told me I was a businessman.”

The greatest good we can do for anyone is not to share our wealth with them, but rather to reveal their own wealth to them.

Zig Ziglar, See You at the Top

Articles of interest about the virus, media, fakes, & more - Dec 17

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 ***THE VIRUS

Oxygen-Detecting Devices Give Misleading Readings In People With Dark Skin

Christmas during a Pandemic: The United States in December 1918

 ICU Workers Are Quitting Due To Crushing Stress From COVID-19 Surge

***THE VACCINES  

What Dippin' Dots can teach us about vaccine logistics

I'm In a High-Risk Group for COVID-19. How Do I Get Vaccinated Early?

First came news of a vaccine—now come the scams

The ingredients in Pfizer’s vaccine 

Should Companies Require Employees to Take the Vaccine? ($)

Why Paying People to Be Vaccinated Could Backfire ($)

What Scientists Think Of Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine

***MEDIA

Facebook Is Developing A Tool To Summarize Articles

Spotify Inks Deal to Stream NPR Podcasts Worldwide

Why news publishers are eagerly bundling their subscriptions with brands 

Scoop: Rolling Stone, Billboard and Vibe merge business sides amid DOJ probe

***WRITING & READING

Books Are Really Easy to Wrap ($)

Gmail gets a huge upgrade for editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint attachments

***FAKES & FRAUDS

The evangelical-Catholic alliance becomes a conspiracy theory carnival 

From Voter Fraud to Vaccine Lies: Misinformation Peddlers Shift Gears

Latest Deepfake Controversy Raises Legal And Ethical Questions In Music Industry

Behind the scenes with PolitiFact and its choice for ‘Lie of the Year’

How Disinformation Spreads, And Why It's So Hard To Combat

***VACCINE DISINFORMATION 

The ‘Terrorgram’ Plot by Neo-Nazis to Seduce Anti-Vaxxers

No, coronavirus vaccines aren’t made from aborted fetuses or created to control the population — and more lessons about fake news ($) 

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

FTC orders social media to provide info on how they collect and use personal data

Twitter is shutting down Periscope in 2021 because it costs too much to run

Why can’t the social networks stop fake accounts? ($) 

Social media served as an important outlet for Black Americans in 2020

Twitter wants to get into your Snapchat and Instagram stories

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

SolarWinds hackers have a clever way to bypass multi factor authentication

Amazon’s new health band is the most invasive tech we’ve ever tested  

***LITERATURE

A video game based on Orwell's Animal Farm  

How Should Racial Slurs in Literature Be Handled in the Classroom?

Varieties of Bitterness

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Why do we accept bitter feelings? Why do we nourish acidic emotions and slowly allow them to eat away our attitudes, motives, and even our spirits? The bitters come in so many varieties.

There’s the I’ve-been-used-and-abused brand of bitterness that lets us stew in our own anger juices. It grows when we have no opportunity to vent these hostilities against the person who has hurt us. As a substitute, we take it out on ourselves.

There’s the everyone’s-against-me-nobody-cares kind of bitterness that grow into a full-blown martyr complex. Complete with self-pity and all the extras.

Bitterness can form from a sense of I’ve-been-neglected-forgotten-and-overlooked-a routine especially real when someone feels trapped in the house all day long with whining toddlers, endless chores, and a spouse who is out all day what appears to be an endless fascinating world.

Or it may be the blind, curse-it-all-I’d-rather-be-dead bitterness that follows tragedy, grief, or failure. We withdraw into ourselves in despair.

Our world is infested these bitters and unless we build a support system externally and internally we may find them all too often corrupting our palates so the whole of life tastes bitter. 

Based on a passage from Gene Van Note’s Building Self-Esteem

Articles of interest about religion - Dec 15

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***THE VIRUS 

A variety of eye issues can sometimes indicate an early coronavirus infection

FireEye confirms SolarWinds supply chain attack

The coronavirus vaccine rollout will be messy. People will have to deal with that.

Infected after 5 minutes, from 20 feet away: South Korea study shows COVID-19's spread indoors

COVID-19 Vaccine's Side Effects Could Complicate Efforts To Vaccinate Health Workers

Overloaded Hospitals Ask COVID-19 Patients With Milder Symptoms To Get Home Treatment

Covid is having a devastating impact on children — and the vaccine won't fix everything

***RELIGION & THE VIRUS

Some workers say religious beliefs bar them from getting vaccinated

What NIH chief Francis Collins wants religious leaders to know about the coronavirus vaccines

Dave Ramsey, Christian personal finance guru, defies COVID-19 to keep staff at desks

Caterers at Dave Ramsey's holiday party told not to wear masks, complaint says

Recent Supreme Court Rulings Encourage Some To Continue In-Person Worshiping

Televangelist Pat Robertson Says God Will Intervene in Overturning Election Results

***RELIGION  

What is an "Evangelical?" (video) (opinion)  

Christianity Today’s 2021 Book Awards

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Church vandalism exposes divisions over faith and politics

Pro-Trump Protesters Burn BLM Banners Outside Four Historic DC Churches

Evangelical leader Beth Moore trends on Twitter after calling Trumpism ‘seductive and dangerous’

Biden's Catholic faith will be on full display as the first churchgoing president in decades 

In the Attacks on Raphael Warnock’s Preaching, One Old American Tradition Meets Another

Religious right eyes Biden warily after Trump’s good favor

***RELIGION & THE LAW 

The Supreme Court Rejects Opportunity to Roll Back Marriage Equality

Critics Say New Trump Rule Gives Contractors More Freedom On Religious Discrimination

Trump eases rules for religious social service providers

The Supreme Court Is Colliding With a Less-Religious America

Megachurch leader raped girl more than 4 decades ago, lawsuit alleges

***RELIGION & RACIAL ISSUES

All six Southern Baptist seminary presidents have released a joint statement declaring that Critical Race Theory is incompatible" with the denomination's statement of faith 

Chicago Church Leads The Way As It Grapples With Race

More US churches commit to racism-linked reparations

***METHODISTS 

Progressive group launches new Methodist denomination

‘Black Lives Matter’ nativity scene draws attention at Claremont Unified Methodist Church

***SOUTHERN BAPTISTS  

Black Southern Baptists weigh in on critical race theory critique by officials

Texas church leaves SBC amid scrutiny of pastor's 'outrageous' prior conduct

***CATHOLIC 

DOJ probe of Catholic church abuse goes quiet 2 years late

Catholic parishioners gave more money to churches that went online during quarantine than to those that did not ($)

Federal Executions Pit The Trump Administration Against The Catholic Church

***GREEK ORTHODOX

Greek Orthodox Church rules yoga is 'incompatible' with Christianity

***MEGACHURCHES 

Megachurch promises to change after Missouri official slams ‘irresponsible’ services

Selena Gomez reportedly quits Hillsong following pastor Carl Lentz's affair

Houston Chronicle Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church got $4.4 million in federal PPP loans

California megachurch says it has a 'biblical mandate' to meet after Supreme Court decision

Hillsong founder responds to megachurch homophobia claims

***MUSLIMS

California has appointed its first ever Muslim chaplain to the state legislature 

Justices rule Muslim men can sue FBI agents over no-fly list

Bangladesh Begins Moving Displaced Rohingya Muslims To Remote Island

***RELIGION IN CHINA

Uighurs forced to eat pork as China expands Xinjiang pig farms

China’s Greatest Evangelist Was Expelled from a Liberal Seminary in America

***SEXUAL ISSUES   

Scientific journal purges conversion therapy paper published in 1951 

As an Intersex Child, I Was Told I Didn’t Exist 

Articles of interest about higher ed - Dec 11

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***THE VIRUS   

Tracking how the coronavirus is impacting colleges

Kids catch and spread coronavirus half as much as adults, Iceland study confirms

***CUTS AT COLLEGES  

University of Evansville admin proposes cutting quarter of the faculty, nixing 17 majors

Marquette University To Cut 225 Faculty And Staff Positions

UC Berkeley announces sweeping pay cuts 

Hit by Covid-19, Colleges Do the Unthinkable and Cut Tenure ($)

Western Oregon University plans to eliminate several majors and programs

University of Vermont provost stands by the administration’s plan to cut 23 humanities programs 

UMass, workers square off over furloughs as universities face massive budget gap

***COLLEGE FINANCES 

Moody's Sees Negative Outlook for Community Colleges

Cord-cutting and unbundling caused a massive shakeup in the TV industry—the same type of change is coming to colleges

***THE SPRING SEMESTER

Faculty members revolt over Univ of North Carolina plans to triple number of students living on campus next semester

Some colleges that played this semester safe are planning to expand in-person options for students in the spring

Some Colleges Plan to Bring Back More Students in the Spring ($)

Colleges Are Canceling Spring Break. In Its Place: ‘Wellness Days’ ($)

Is Cal State's plan for in-person classes next fall an early indicator?

***HUMANITIES 

Why the Humanities Are in Decline

***ONLINE CLASSES  

Teaching: How to Make Breakout Rooms Work Better

A New Report Confirms Our Fears About Remote Learning's Impact on Students

Remote learning widens equity gap ($)

Students Struggling With Online Learning A ‘Wake Up Call’ For Universities

A practical guide to working remotely with all 16 personality types

Microsoft files patent for a system to monitor employees' body language and facial expressions during work meetings

***HIGHER ED IN COURT

Black employees at Southwestern College file lawsuit against school

Supreme Court rejects appeal to limit transgender students

Syracuse University sued for millions over going virtual during coronavirus pandemic 

Supreme Court denies LSU's attempt to claim immunity from lawsuit in death of fraternity pledge

Temple settles for $700K with Ed Dept over false U.S. News rankings data

***STUDENT CHEATING   

Privacy group files complaint against five online test-proctoring services

Associated Press Publishes List of “Best Essay Writing Services”

Why Russian undergraduates cheat and how they rationalise it for themselves and others

How teachers prevent cheating during distance learning

Poor Security at Online Proctoring Company May Have Put Student Data at Risk

Automated Proctors Watch Students. Now Senators Are Watching These Companies.

***ACADEMIC LIFE  

Student arrested after taking Fresno college teacher hostage

UT professor files new libel suits against students who accuse him of promoting pedophilia 

Ferris State U professor put on leave after student newspaper uncovers a history of science denial

Law Professor Says He Was Suspended Without Cause

Public protector investigating UCT professor’s alleged plagiarism

Three Options For Reforming College Faculty Tenure

Chapman professor draws attention, reprimand as Trump’s lawyer in Texas lawsuit

Univ of Washington professor fired after investigation finds sexual misconduct with 17-year-old student

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS  

The 33,000-square-foot expansion at Trevecca Nazarene University will house the physician assistant program

Jerry Falwell Jr. drops defamation suit against Liberty University  

St. Edward's University introduces new president

***RESEARCH 

How to write a superb literature review

Two papers using the same data about the same topic were published in the same surgical journal one month apart. They came up with completely opposite conclusions.

***STUDENT LIFE 

Dartmouth College revoked the on-campus privileges of 86 students who violated COVID-19 policies during fall term

What It's Like To Apply To College During The Pandemic

Completing College National and State Reports  

More high school seniors skip out on college planning amid COVID-19 

College Students Reflect On Another Semester During The Pandemic

Columbia students threaten to withhold tuition fees amid Covid protest

Inside one of the largest college journalism collaborations ever

***FREE SPEECH

Cambridge University rejects proposal it be 'respectful' of all views

Report: 88% of universities restrict expression — and online classes are especially dangerous for student speech

Education Department Blasts 'Culture of Censorship' at Colleges ($)

***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS

Johns Hopkins, long believed by university to be abolitionist, owned slaves, records show

NC State investigating employee accused of Proud Boys membership

University of Dallas Student Gov can't decide whether to approve a club focused on racial justice  

Lehigh College of Education plagiarized anti-racism section

Why Is Auburn University Losing Black Students?

***SEXUAL HARRASSMENT & ASSAULT

Biden vows ’quick end’ to DeVos’ sexual misconduct rule

Students join forces to fight campus sexual assault as Instagram accounts reveal disturbing pattern

Lawsuit: lax Eckerd College security led to rape

Bless you Prison

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It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.

That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: ‘Bless you, prison!’ I…have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: ‘Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!’”

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (Born Dec. 11, 1918), The Gulag Archipelago

Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, the virus, writing, and more - December 10

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***THE VIRUS 

More than a third of Americans live in areas where hospitals are running critically short of intensive care beds ($)

First signs of Thanksgiving COVID-19 wave emerge 

Your Old Radiator Is a Pandemic-Fighting Weapon 

Should I wipe down groceries during the pandemic? 

Nearly all coronavirus transmission happens in these 5 places

British Study: Low infection rates in schools

***THE VACCINES

The vaccines will be much less effective if introduced where the coronavirus is raging

Here’s Why Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear a Mask ($)

C.D.C. Call for Data on Vaccine Recipients Raises Alarm Over Privacy ($)

***VENTILATORS 

Who Decides Which COVID-19 Patients Get Ventilators? 

The U.S. Has Passed the Hospital Breaking Point

***JOURNALISM 

Neo-Nazi group member who threatened journalist gets prison time

A massive cross-border collaboration to finish the investigations of a murdered Mexican journalist

Appeals Court hands journalists big Freedom of Information Act win for gun data access

Half of U.S. adults don't know that Facebook does not do original news reporting

ICE Is Trying To Force BuzzFeed News To Divulge Its Sources

What can we learn from the local news anchor who has helped thousands of Americans get unemployment benefits?

A scientific search engine that generates one-sentence summaries of research papers

A Deputy Prosecutor Was Fired for telling Journalists about his state giving Jail Time to People Who Fall Behind on Rent

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Substack isn’t a new model for journalism — it’s a very old one

Inside Patch's new local newsletter platform

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Radio Disney Shutting Down Amid Restructuring

Did Google and Facebook kill the media revenue model? The Platforms vs legacy media

***WRITING & READING

When sound science meets imperfect grammar

The 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020

Sri Lankan man and his mobile library bring books to kids in remote areas

How to Gather the Oral Histories of COVID-19

Independent Bookstores Are Fighting Back Against Amazon Via a New Online Platform

The Future of Online Marketing: Automated Copywriting

***FAKES & FRAUDS

GOP State Commissioner Won't Impose COVID Workplace Measures, Says Virus 'Not Proven Likely to Cause Serious Physical Harm'

Anti-Vaccine Doctor Has Been Invited to Testify Before Senate Committee 

Homeowners in the Seattle suburbs have been getting disturbing visits from members of the Moorish sovereign citizen movement

Former Harvard cancer researcher faked a dozen images, say Feds

I Published a Fake Paper in a ‘Peer-Reviewed’ Journal

The internet is not ready for the flood of AI-generated text

***QANON   

Former Trump lawyer finds an ally in operator of QAnon’s Internet home

The making of the QAnon conspiracy cult

The QAnon conspiracy is fake. The harm it's doing to child welfare groups is real

QAnon's Rise in Japan Shows Its Global Spread ($) 

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitch Cracks Down on Hate Speech and Harassment ($)

Facebook hit with massive antitrust lawsuit from 46 states

Facebook reportedly tweaked its algorithm but it failed to decrease engagement on ideologically aligned pages

Reddit reveals daily active user count for the first time: 52 million

***LANGUAGE

The words that actually persuade people on the pandemic 

Merriam-Webster's top word of 2020 not a shocker: pandemic

Research Finds Brains Work Harder While Processing Descriptions Of Motion In Other Languages

***LITERATURE

"The Great Gatsby" and other 1925 Works Will Soon Enter the Public Domain

Dispute Erupts Over Translation Rights to New Nobel Laureate ($)

Questions raised over charity seeking to buy JRR Tolkien's Oxford house

Louise Glück, forgoing fanfare, accepts Nobel Prize in Literature at home

John Steinbeck, Bard of the American Worker

***CS LEWIS

Ten Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About C. S. Lewis

CS Lewis Expert Walter Hooper dies 

***POETRY

We went looking for poetry

Poet uses runaway slave ads to tell a story of resistance

Embracing Hard Work

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Think about how a typical English class works: You read a “great work” by a famous author, discussing what the messages are, and how the author uses language, structure, and imagery to convey them. You memorize particularly pithy quotes to be regurgitated on the exam, and perhaps later on second dates. Students are rarely encouraged to peek at early drafts of those works. All they see is the final product, lovingly polished by both writer and editor to a very high shine. When the teacher asks “What is the author saying here?” no one ever suggests that the answer might be “He didn’t quite know” or “That sentence was part of a key scene in an earlier draft, and he forgot to take it out in revision.”

Or consider a science survey class. It consists almost entirely of the theories that turned out to be right—not the folks who believed in the mythical “N-rays,” declared that human beings had forty-eight chromosomes, or saw imaginary canals on Mars. When we do read about falsified scientific theories of the past—Lamarckian evolution, phrenology, reproduction by “spontaneous generation”—the people who believed in them frequently come across as ludicrous yokels, even though many of them were distinguished scientists who made real contributions to their fields.

No wonder students get the idea that being a good writer is defined by not writing bad stuff.

Megan Mcardle writing in the Atlantic