Monthly Archives: December 2012

Interviewing at Church-related Colleges

If you get an interview at the American Historical Association or another meeting with a church-related college, you need to do your homework. What kind of church-related college is it? A good place to start is Robert Benne\’s Quality With Soul. Benne identifies four different types of church-related colleges. I have charted my own course […] … learn more→

The multibillion-dollar threat to research Universities

With each day, the so-called fiscal cliff looms larger as Congress and President Obama work to come to agreement on a federal-deficit compromise, which so far has proven elusive. Absent such an agreement by year\’s end, far-reaching spending cuts will be triggered as result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, through a mechanism called […] … learn more→

4 Ways to protect your personal brand from holiday mishaps

Plan ahead to save face during corporate events. There are tons of articles out there warning you to be on your best behavior during holiday events, but still, many find themselves the butt of their colleagues’ jokes the next day. I don’t know what it is about holiday parties, but many think it gives them […] … learn more→

The MOOCs fad and bubble: please tell us another story!

How can we escape this new buzz about MOOCs, since the launch of Coursera? Is there anything else than the bubble effect created by the media that is part of the strategy itself? This is how our financial economy works, nowadays, this ‘opinion economy’ as André Orléan labels it, where opinion and reputation are the […] … learn more→

A campus Christmas carol

This fall my wife and I both seemed to be circling around midcareer crises. We\’ve each been teaching full time for about a dozen years in our respective positions. We\’ve made minor changes: I have added a part-time administrative position to my teaching and writing, and she has shifted from one school to another in […] … learn more→

Scientists, this is a call to arms over energy policy

Climate change no longer attracts the headlines it once did, as the recent conference in Doha showed. Global media attention since its 2009 peak during the Copenhagen summit has fallen off a cliff – according to the Daily Climate global database, coverage in the subsequent two years was down by 42%. This is happening at […] … learn more→

Attendance not required

Fifteen years ago, my attendance policy in media ethics class was considered so unusual that The Chronicle of Higher Education did a news story about it, titled, \”Ohio U. Professor Will Take Any Excuse for Students\’ Absences.\” The article, still online, shared my reason for accepting any excuse, as long as a test or project […] … learn more→