The CUNYfirst computer system experienced widespread outages and slowdowns at the start of the semester that severely disrupted students, faculty and staff across CUNY campuses. Students were unable to register for classes or access important systems. Faculty could not access class rosters, schedules or online systems. The breakdown meant lost time and income for adjuncts and heavier workloads for full-time faculty. It also led to students being denied financial aid or leaving CUNY altogether. Surveys found issues across every CUNY college. While some fixes have been implemented, problems with the overcentralized system persist.
Russ Poulin is the Deputy Director, Research and Analysis for WCET - WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies.
He spoke to ACCESS on Examining federal distance education regulations regarding 'state authorization' and 'last day of attendance.'
Taking Leadership in Mystery of MOOCs and the Mass Movement toward Open Educa...cjbonk
Back-up keynote at MOOCs and Open Education Around the World preconference symposium prior to E-Learn 2013 in Las Vegas, October 2013. (Note: this was a back-up talk in case our connection to George Siemens in Canada did not work. It almost didn't.)
The document describes a web services portal developed at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon to provide online services for students. It analyzes student needs and identifies services that can be automated, such as obtaining parking permits, class schedules, transcripts, and payments. The solution was to develop a PHP/MySQL platform integrated with the school's student information system. The platform allows free services and paid services. It provides benefits like reducing lines and allowing access anywhere. Future work includes adding more payment options and services.
Low-income students attending urban high schools face disadvantages in accessing and using the internet for college-related activities like applications, financial aid, housing, and registration. As universities move these processes online, students without internet access at home or school struggle to complete them. They also have less guidance from college counselors who provide paper-based financial aid forms instead of assisting with the online process. This puts low-income students at a disadvantage for entering college.
Everything you always wanted to know about MOOCs but were afraid to ask.Lorna Campbell
Slides for a lecture on "Everything you always wanted to know about MOOCs but were afraid to ask" presented as part of Queen Margaret University's MSc in Professional and Higher Education, by Lorna M. Campbell, Cetis, using Adobe Connect on Thursday 5 December 2013.
Feature City College, Selma Shomial Ahmad ClarionShomial Ahmad
An award-winning feature that used archival materials to tell a narrative story on how City College students fought for civil rights both in the South and at their college. Praised by historian of urban education, Stephen Brier, as a "first-rate piece" with a "a clear-eyed understanding of CUNY’s actual history unclouded by overly romanticized visions of past political glories."
The ROTC program at CUNY is set to become permanent after operating as a 3-year pilot program. The program began in 2012 at City College and York College, but faced some resistance from faculty at other campuses. The memorandum that established the pilot program does not outline a clear role for faculty governance in approving curriculum. While the program has grown to 120 cadets, some faculty and the PSC union oppose making the program permanent, arguing it was established without proper faculty input and oversight. The Army now plans to approve making the City College program permanent, which could allow the program to expand to other CUNY campuses.
Russ Poulin is the Deputy Director, Research and Analysis for WCET - WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies.
He spoke to ACCESS on Examining federal distance education regulations regarding 'state authorization' and 'last day of attendance.'
Taking Leadership in Mystery of MOOCs and the Mass Movement toward Open Educa...cjbonk
Back-up keynote at MOOCs and Open Education Around the World preconference symposium prior to E-Learn 2013 in Las Vegas, October 2013. (Note: this was a back-up talk in case our connection to George Siemens in Canada did not work. It almost didn't.)
The document describes a web services portal developed at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamon to provide online services for students. It analyzes student needs and identifies services that can be automated, such as obtaining parking permits, class schedules, transcripts, and payments. The solution was to develop a PHP/MySQL platform integrated with the school's student information system. The platform allows free services and paid services. It provides benefits like reducing lines and allowing access anywhere. Future work includes adding more payment options and services.
Low-income students attending urban high schools face disadvantages in accessing and using the internet for college-related activities like applications, financial aid, housing, and registration. As universities move these processes online, students without internet access at home or school struggle to complete them. They also have less guidance from college counselors who provide paper-based financial aid forms instead of assisting with the online process. This puts low-income students at a disadvantage for entering college.
Everything you always wanted to know about MOOCs but were afraid to ask.Lorna Campbell
Slides for a lecture on "Everything you always wanted to know about MOOCs but were afraid to ask" presented as part of Queen Margaret University's MSc in Professional and Higher Education, by Lorna M. Campbell, Cetis, using Adobe Connect on Thursday 5 December 2013.
Feature City College, Selma Shomial Ahmad ClarionShomial Ahmad
An award-winning feature that used archival materials to tell a narrative story on how City College students fought for civil rights both in the South and at their college. Praised by historian of urban education, Stephen Brier, as a "first-rate piece" with a "a clear-eyed understanding of CUNY’s actual history unclouded by overly romanticized visions of past political glories."
The ROTC program at CUNY is set to become permanent after operating as a 3-year pilot program. The program began in 2012 at City College and York College, but faced some resistance from faculty at other campuses. The memorandum that established the pilot program does not outline a clear role for faculty governance in approving curriculum. While the program has grown to 120 cadets, some faculty and the PSC union oppose making the program permanent, arguing it was established without proper faculty input and oversight. The Army now plans to approve making the City College program permanent, which could allow the program to expand to other CUNY campuses.
- Jerry Brown announced a pilot program between San Jose State University and Udacity to offer online college classes beginning that semester, funded by a donation to support hiring effective faculty and developing progressive and executive training courses.
- This online nursing program is for students with a bachelor's degree in another field who want to become registered nurses. It typically takes 1-2 years to complete and students earn a master's degree upon graduation.
- A study of an online circuits course at San Jose State that supplemented materials from an MIT MOOC found completion rates rose from 59% to 91%, showing online and blended learning can have completion and satisfaction rates equal to or slightly higher than face-to-face alone.
- After over
Article 8Education for All 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve.docxdavezstarr61655
Article 8
Education for All? 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve Their Mission. (Cover story)
The open-door policy at community colleges is unique in American highereducation. It allows all comers--a retired grandmother, an Army veteran, a laid-off machinist--to learn a skill or get a credential. That broad access--the bedrock of the community-college system--has prepared hundreds of millions of people for transfer to four-year colleges or entry into the work force.
But these days, the sector finds itself in a fight to save that signature trademark. As budgets dwindle and the pressure to graduate more students grows, community-college educators from instructors to presidents worry about the future. Less state and local money is making its way to college coffers, prompting painful choices. And the clarion call for the sector to produce more graduates, part of a nationwide effort to boost education levels, has forced colleges to use scarce resources for degree programs rather than for remedial courses.
The focus now is on the best-prepared students, and not on those who may never graduate. Community colleges foresee a day when access to all is no longer the norm but the exception.
"Community colleges are being hammered to increase graduation rates," says Gary D. Rhoades, a professor of highereducation at the University of Arizona, who also works with the Center for the Future of HigherEducation, a research group. "One way to do that is to change the sort of student you serve." Such a shift would profoundly affect the millions of low-income and minority students who look to attend community colleges every year, many of whom need remedial education first.
In a report in February, the American Association of Community Colleges sounded the alarm on how the national completion agenda is starting to affect community colleges. "In policy conversations," it said, "there is a silent movement to redirect educational opportunity to those students deemed 'deserving.' "
That is an uncomfortable thought for a sector that prides itself on being all things to all people all the time: offering English-language classes for immigrants and enrichment programs for senior citizens. But early evidence suggests that some community colleges are already making judgment calls about whom they educate, and how.
Many of those decisions center on remedial education, long an obstacle to improving graduation rates. Academically unprepared students are usually required to enroll in a sequence of remedial courses to get ready for college-level work. More than 60 percent of students at two-year colleges are steered into developmentaleducation, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. Because a considerable number of students place into the bottom rung of those courses, it tends to take them a year or more to complete the sequence. Many fail, or do not progress, and just drop out.
Labeling low-level remedial courses a "dead en.
Essay 2 Log Type or write on this Log and email it to me by Fridacullenrjzsme
Essay 2 Log: Type or write on this Log and email it to me by Friday, March 13. (OPTIONAL: if you compete this log in your notebook - and it is LEGGIBLE - you can take a picture of it to email me.)
Remember that LOGS and OUTLINES account for 10% of your FINAL GRADE.
Part 1: Read and annotate (underline, highlight, etc.) “Colleges Are Turning Students’ Phones into Surveillance Machines, Tracking the Locations of Hundreds of Thousands” by Drew Harwell.
· Make two LISTS of the most important PROS and CONS of this surveillance mentioned by the ARTICLE (They Say)?
· Freewrite your RESPONSE to these PROS and CONS (I Say).
PROS: IDEA + QUOTATION that illustrates this idea
CONS: IDEA + QUOTATION that illustrates this idea
MY RESPONSE TO THE PROS AND CONS: Answer this question: Do you think, on balance, that tracking college students is a good or bad thing? Of course, you can say that it is BOTH GOOD AND BAD, but in that case, how can colleges reduce the negative impacts and increase the helpful aspects?
Part 2: Read and annotate (underline, highlight, etc.) “Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets.” Fill in the chart below. You are looking for IDEAS and EVIDENCE from this article that 1) sums up SINGER’S MAIN POINTS and 2) you can CONNECT to the question of college surveillance of students.
QUOTATIONS form “Visible Man”
WHAT THE QUOTATION MEANS: In other words…..
HOW THIS IDEA COULD RELATE TO “Colleges Are Turning Students…”
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Colleges are turning students’ phones into
surveillance machines, tracking the locations of
hundreds of thousands
By
Dec. 24, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. EST
When Syracuse University freshmen walk into professor Jeff Rubin’s Introduction to
Information Technologies class, seven small Bluetooth beacons hidden around the Grant
Auditorium lecture hall connect with an app on their smartphones and boost their
“attendance points.”
And when they skip class? The SpotterEDU app sees that, too, logging their absence into a
campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. It also alerts Rubin,
who later contacts students to ask where they’ve been. His 340-person lecture has never
been so full.
“They want those points,” he said. “They know I’m watching and acting on it. So,
behaviorally, they change.”
Drew Harwell
https://spotteredu.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/drew-harwell/
Short-range phone sensors and campuswide WiFi networks are empowering colleges
across the United States to track hundreds of thousands of students more precisely than
ever before. Dozens of schools now use such technology to monitor students’ academic
performance, analyze their conduct or assess their mental health.
But some professors and education advocates argue that the systems represent a new low
in intrusive technology, breaching students’ privacy on a massive scale. The tracking
systems, they worry, will infantilize students in the ver ...
The document discusses how online education is transforming colleges and universities in the United States. It begins by cautioning institutions not to "perfect the irrelevant" and to know what business they are in. It then provides statistics on internet and social media usage to illustrate how ready society is for online learning. Several studies are cited showing online and blended students perform equal or better than face-to-face students. Examples are then given of several universities that have experienced growth and strategic benefits from online education, including increased access, flexibility, and revenues. The document advocates for a focus on quality using a collaborative consortium approach.
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and .docxjacksnathalie
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and Intercultural Paper
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and Intercultural Paper
BSCOM/485
Kierra Brown
Claudia Newton
April 6th , 2020
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and Intercultural Paper
Northwest Valley Community College
There is no organization that wants to be put at risk and exposed as vulnerable to cyber-attacks; Northwest Valley Community College is not the exception to the rule. What will separate one organization from another is how the organization handles the crisis. How Northwest Valley Community College communicates issues to their employees and their customers will determine the continued success of the school.
Breach
Northwest Valley Community College has just experienced a massive data breach where student’s information has become vulnerable to hackers. Northwest Valley Community College’s financial information as well as personal student and faculty information has been attacked. Regard faculty information that has put at risk includes their social security numbers, health information, and salary information that has been exposed. This data breach has caused a massive amount of distrust among students and faculty as there is no way to know how far the information has gone and what will be done with it. This shake-up has caused the cohesiveness of the faculty and students to be challenged due to the breach. “Group cohesiveness possess the kind of bonds that foster trust, openness, and the ability to manage conflicting views productively” (Beebe & Masterson, 2015). In order to restore cohesiveness among faculty and students, the administration will need to be forthcoming with information regarding the impact of the breach.
Perceptions
Since the breach occurred, some of the students and faculty members are waiting to see how the administration staff handles the communication efforts. So far, administration has been open and mostly forthcoming with information regarding the specifics of the information that was leaked what they know so far. The administration staff has taken an informative approach with faculty by “providing needed information to personnel so they can do their jobs in an effective and efficient manner” (Richmond, McCroskey, & Powell, 2013). By advising faculty and students on the status of the breach, they can attempt to move forward in their daily activities. Administration has found that they have to employ some of the persuasive function regarding the staff and students, advising them that the administrative staff is working towards a resolution and influencing them to continue being productive (Richmond, McCroskey, & Powell, 2013).
Communication
The administration staff at Northwest Valley Community College has to have a level of optimism and realism during this crisis. “We cannot be genuinely optimistic in conflict without also being realistic and realism without optimism is .
The Langara Biology Club is organizing a food drive to collect canned goods for the BC Food Bank. The food drive donation boxes have been placed on the second and third floors of the A Building. Biology Club president Shaun Singh hopes the drive will generate donations of canned food to help Vancouver's homeless and less fortunate. Working with the BC Food Bank was an easy partnership for the club. Singh hopes to collect enough canned food donations to provide hundreds of meals for those in need. The drive has generated interest among Langara students after being promoted through posters and newsletters.
By Drew HarwellColleges are turning students’ phones into .docxjasoninnes20
By Drew Harwell
Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance
machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands
washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-
machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands
When Syracuse University freshmen walk into professor Jeff Rubin’s Introduction to
Information Technologies class, seven small Bluetooth beacons hidden around the Grant
Auditorium lecture hall connect with an app on their smartphones and boost their
“attendance points.”
And when they skip class? The SpotterEDU app sees that, too, logging their absence into a
campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. It also alerts Rubin,
who later contacts students to ask where they’ve been. His 340-person lecture has never
been so full.
“They want those points,” he said. “They know I’m watching and acting on it. So,
behaviorally, they change.”
Short-range phone sensors and campuswide WiFi networks are empowering colleges across
the United States to track hundreds of thousands of students more precisely than ever
before. Dozens of schools now use such technology to monitor students’ academic
performance, analyze their conduct or assess their mental health.
AD
But some professors and education advocates argue that the systems represent a new low
in intrusive technology, breaching students’ privacy on a massive scale. The tracking
systems, they worry, will infantilize students in the very place where they’re expected to
grow into adults, further training them to see surveillance as a normal part of living, whether
they like it or not.
“We’re adults. Do we really need to be tracked?” said Robby Pfeifer, a sophomore at Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond, which recently began logging the attendance of
students connected to the campus’ WiFi network. “Why is this necessary? How does this
benefit us? … And is it just going to keep progressing until we’re micromanaged every
second of the day?”
This style of surveillance has become just another fact of life for many Americans. A flood of
cameras, sensors and microphones, wired to an online backbone, now can measure
people’s activity and whereabouts with striking precision, reducing the mess of everyday
living into trend lines that companies promise to help optimize.
1/8
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands/
https://spotteredu.com/
AD
Americans say in surveys they accept the technology’s encroachment because it often feels
like something else: a trade-off of future worries for the immediacy of convenience, comfort
and ease. If a tracking system can make students be better, one college adviser said, isn’t
that a good thing?
But the perils of increasingly intimate supervision — and the subtle way it can mold how
people act — have also led some to worry whether anyone will truly know when ...
Running Head Mis-581 (Milestone week-2)1Running Head Mis.docxcowinhelen
Running Head: Mis-581 (Milestone week-2) 1
Running Head: Mis-581 (Milestone week-2) 2
Mis-581 (Milestone week-2)
Team 3
Lompri Koroma, Tianye Lin,Maodo Sow,Nikhil Vasani
MIS581
July-16, 2017
Prof, William Ying
Statement of the Business Problem (System Request Form)
Introduction
Keller College is one of the outstandingcollegein New York City that was started almost a century ago. The college offers outstanding learning, teaching and research on anadequate environment. The campus has all resources, and the classrooms are equipped with today’s technology to place the students in an interactive learning environment.
Moreover, the college has outstanding programs in engineering, education, social sciences, architecture and liberal arts that prepare students for future and produce outstanding leaders in almost all fields. Keller is among the colleges in New York where undergraduates get opportunities to conduct research with qualified professors, publish, and present their research findings.
Moreover, the college offers students with serene environment for learning. The school has plenty of lecturers who teach the students either through online or onsite classrooms. The students are given the possibility of choosing which model works the best for them, and they can also learn through both models.
Additionally, the school has spacious spaces for students to participate in co-curriculum so that they utilize their talents. The students get the opportunity of socialization through clubs. The college enrolls a larger number of students every year, to join the institution purposely to undertake several courses offered by the institution, especially through online platform.
Unfortunately, despite the institution been able to handle all matters through online platforms, the students’ enrollment process seems to be a little long. The prospect students may have to undergo a long process before being admitted to the school.
Business Problem Statement:
The Keller College enrolls the students through a computerized system, where students will either have to go to the campus or be in touch with some school representatives, in order to follow their admission process. Through this computerized method, the students are admitted when they provide all the information needed. The staff entitled for first-year admission record the details of the students.
The present state of the existing student information system as perceived through our research was found to have met the five requirements of quality software, namely: Data Reusability, Data Maintainability, security, usefulness and functionality, and evaluation on the system.
Data Reusability of the existing system seems to be performable, since as a prospective student, who did submitted all required documents in 2013, I was asked again to resubmit documents for my enrollment 2017.
1. With regards to the enrolment procedures and the keeping of records of students, the existing system is fa ...
1. The Joy Luck Club depicts the experiences of Chinese immigrant women and their daughters in the 1940s.
2. As a patriarchal society, China favored men over women, especially in marriage where women were seen as subordinate property intended to serve their husbands and bring prestige.
3. The female characters found their experiences shaped by sexism in the Chinese culture through expectations to prove their worth, responsibilities over their own desires, and the male hierarchy that disregarded women.
The document discusses using social media for student recruitment, engagement, and retention in higher education. It notes that the economy has influenced where students apply to college and that perceived quality, course variety, academic facilities, graduation employment rates, and graduation rates are important factors for students. It advocates using social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to foster student engagement, provide timely information, and create two-way interaction. Measuring engagement and using social media for ongoing connection and marketing efforts can help with enrollment, retention, and supporting the university brand and reputation.
Academic Dishonesty Lived Experiences Of Students Receiving Services From On...Sarah Marie
1. The document discusses a study examining the lived experiences of students who use online academic commissions, which provide paid services to complete school assignments and exams.
2. These commissions have grown with the rise of online learning during the pandemic, and some see them as enabling academic dishonesty.
3. The study uses a phenomenological qualitative approach to understand students' perspectives on using these services and how it might impact education quality.
Graham & McKay: Strength and Support: Updates from SUNY System on Student Eng...Alexandra M. Pickett
SUNY Online Summit 2021 Day 3 Presentation
Presentation: Strength and Support: Updates from SUNY System on Student Engagement
Speakers: Dr. John Graham, SUNY Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
Lisa L. McKay, Senior Assistant Provost & Director, SUNY University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD).
https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/2021/02/05/student-engagement/
https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/tag/day-3/
Annual conference for the SUNY online teaching and learning community of practice.
https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/
February 22-26, 2021 Virtual Event
Conference website: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/
Program: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/program/
Speakers: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/speakers/
Recordings/ Materials: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/live-recordings/
Program Tracks: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/program-tracks/
Article on the Columbia Missourian about the reaction of students to the new billing changes in their health fee, with the explanation of why this is happening.
The 49th annual Clark College Jazz Festival was held from January 27-29, 2011. Roosevelt High School from Seattle won the Sweepstakes trophy, their fifth win since 2000. On the first day, middle school bands performed for the first time. Outstanding musician awards went to students from several middle schools. For the high school vocal jazz competition, Ridgefield High School placed first in the A division, Fife High School first in the AA division, and McMinnville High School first in the AAA division. The festival is one of the oldest and largest jazz competitions in Washington state.
This session is aimed at managers with responsibility for the delivery and evaluation of online learning and teaching. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic colleges have been forced to make an abrupt shift to remote learning, often existing in makeshift offices. Join us as we examine the challenges that this new environment presents and the lessons learned thus far from approaches developed in other UK nations and further afield.
We will share our thoughts on what leaders have learned about how to manage their institution during this difficult time and how they are addressing the challenges now and anticipating those in the future. Colleagues will be invited to join the discussion, raise questions and contribute examples from their own experience.
Presentation delivered by Ian Beach, HMI, Education Scotland, as part of the Virtual Bridge Session series.
Follow along at https://twitter.com/Virtual_Bridge and see what's coming up next at https://bit.ly/VBsessions
Recording available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG0lCuRRX2U
Continuing education has long held a special place in society as the school for adults intent on bridging the skills gap. That is a reputation it deserves—according to the US Department of Education, US adult learners are older (average age, 31), are more likely to have full-time jobs and are more likely to come from the 30 million students who dropped out of school earlier in their lives.
Albolushi 1
Othman Albolushi
ENG 101
Dr. Janet Starner
October 13, 2014
Learning Online
Education has been repeatedly touted as the key to a better world. If that were not the case, then the United States may not have thought to increase it’s higher learning institutions from less than one thousand at the turn of the 20th century to the current staggering number of 4000 (Hjortshoj). Similarly, students would not be working themselves into a stupor in high school if education were not an important factor in their lives. And in our world today, the highest form of learning is usually in institutions such as colleges and universities where one can receive undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate diplomas and degrees. Learning online in your class is important because it will increase the skills of students in their jobs
Whichever mode of study a high school graduate student will choose, whether they opt for going for the physical classes themselves or going digital and pursuing their studies online, one thing that stands out is how their high school education and experience has prepared them for college. According to Keith Hjortshoj, students who join high school, no matter how prestigious or unknown the school was, appear seemingly unprepared for the norms and way of the academic college life. He gives examples of two of his students, from two different backgrounds, who despite their different performances from high school, perform differently in school. Eduardo came from a tough neighborhood, attended a similarly tough school but was successful and went on to college. In college, he performed much better than was expected of him, based on his background. Maria, on the other hand, came from a wealthy home, attended a prestigious high school and did very well in her finals. However, when she went to campus she failed her sophomore year (Hjortshoj).
Hjortshoj goes on to explain that students fresh from high school think that the same methods they used in high school, be it during assignments or exams, will work in college. The sad reality is that they do not necessarily do. Of course, virtues like hard work and determination are universal, and as such should be applied everywhere, but in regards to how work is actually done, the rules are somewhat different (Hjortshoj). Those that opt for online learning may find that they are more willing to rely on the course notes and lectures given by their teachers when tackling assignments and preparing for exams. But as Hjortshoj explains, this tactic will not work because they fail to understand what the questions and assignments really ask for. Although learning online could be useful in one way it can also be unfair in another way.
Traditionally, going to university entailed physically going to the institutions and attending classes offered there. This has been the norm since universities and colleges were established. However, thanks to the ever dynamic and progressive technology in our .
- Jerry Brown announced a pilot program between San Jose State University and Udacity to offer online college classes beginning that semester, funded by a donation to support hiring effective faculty and developing progressive and executive training courses.
- This online nursing program is for students with a bachelor's degree in another field who want to become registered nurses. It typically takes 1-2 years to complete and students earn a master's degree upon graduation.
- A study of an online circuits course at San Jose State that supplemented materials from an MIT MOOC found completion rates rose from 59% to 91%, showing online and blended learning can have completion and satisfaction rates equal to or slightly higher than face-to-face alone.
- After over
Article 8Education for All 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve.docxdavezstarr61655
Article 8
Education for All? 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve Their Mission. (Cover story)
The open-door policy at community colleges is unique in American highereducation. It allows all comers--a retired grandmother, an Army veteran, a laid-off machinist--to learn a skill or get a credential. That broad access--the bedrock of the community-college system--has prepared hundreds of millions of people for transfer to four-year colleges or entry into the work force.
But these days, the sector finds itself in a fight to save that signature trademark. As budgets dwindle and the pressure to graduate more students grows, community-college educators from instructors to presidents worry about the future. Less state and local money is making its way to college coffers, prompting painful choices. And the clarion call for the sector to produce more graduates, part of a nationwide effort to boost education levels, has forced colleges to use scarce resources for degree programs rather than for remedial courses.
The focus now is on the best-prepared students, and not on those who may never graduate. Community colleges foresee a day when access to all is no longer the norm but the exception.
"Community colleges are being hammered to increase graduation rates," says Gary D. Rhoades, a professor of highereducation at the University of Arizona, who also works with the Center for the Future of HigherEducation, a research group. "One way to do that is to change the sort of student you serve." Such a shift would profoundly affect the millions of low-income and minority students who look to attend community colleges every year, many of whom need remedial education first.
In a report in February, the American Association of Community Colleges sounded the alarm on how the national completion agenda is starting to affect community colleges. "In policy conversations," it said, "there is a silent movement to redirect educational opportunity to those students deemed 'deserving.' "
That is an uncomfortable thought for a sector that prides itself on being all things to all people all the time: offering English-language classes for immigrants and enrichment programs for senior citizens. But early evidence suggests that some community colleges are already making judgment calls about whom they educate, and how.
Many of those decisions center on remedial education, long an obstacle to improving graduation rates. Academically unprepared students are usually required to enroll in a sequence of remedial courses to get ready for college-level work. More than 60 percent of students at two-year colleges are steered into developmentaleducation, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. Because a considerable number of students place into the bottom rung of those courses, it tends to take them a year or more to complete the sequence. Many fail, or do not progress, and just drop out.
Labeling low-level remedial courses a "dead en.
Essay 2 Log Type or write on this Log and email it to me by Fridacullenrjzsme
Essay 2 Log: Type or write on this Log and email it to me by Friday, March 13. (OPTIONAL: if you compete this log in your notebook - and it is LEGGIBLE - you can take a picture of it to email me.)
Remember that LOGS and OUTLINES account for 10% of your FINAL GRADE.
Part 1: Read and annotate (underline, highlight, etc.) “Colleges Are Turning Students’ Phones into Surveillance Machines, Tracking the Locations of Hundreds of Thousands” by Drew Harwell.
· Make two LISTS of the most important PROS and CONS of this surveillance mentioned by the ARTICLE (They Say)?
· Freewrite your RESPONSE to these PROS and CONS (I Say).
PROS: IDEA + QUOTATION that illustrates this idea
CONS: IDEA + QUOTATION that illustrates this idea
MY RESPONSE TO THE PROS AND CONS: Answer this question: Do you think, on balance, that tracking college students is a good or bad thing? Of course, you can say that it is BOTH GOOD AND BAD, but in that case, how can colleges reduce the negative impacts and increase the helpful aspects?
Part 2: Read and annotate (underline, highlight, etc.) “Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets.” Fill in the chart below. You are looking for IDEAS and EVIDENCE from this article that 1) sums up SINGER’S MAIN POINTS and 2) you can CONNECT to the question of college surveillance of students.
QUOTATIONS form “Visible Man”
WHAT THE QUOTATION MEANS: In other words…..
HOW THIS IDEA COULD RELATE TO “Colleges Are Turning Students…”
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Colleges are turning students’ phones into
surveillance machines, tracking the locations of
hundreds of thousands
By
Dec. 24, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. EST
When Syracuse University freshmen walk into professor Jeff Rubin’s Introduction to
Information Technologies class, seven small Bluetooth beacons hidden around the Grant
Auditorium lecture hall connect with an app on their smartphones and boost their
“attendance points.”
And when they skip class? The SpotterEDU app sees that, too, logging their absence into a
campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. It also alerts Rubin,
who later contacts students to ask where they’ve been. His 340-person lecture has never
been so full.
“They want those points,” he said. “They know I’m watching and acting on it. So,
behaviorally, they change.”
Drew Harwell
https://spotteredu.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/drew-harwell/
Short-range phone sensors and campuswide WiFi networks are empowering colleges
across the United States to track hundreds of thousands of students more precisely than
ever before. Dozens of schools now use such technology to monitor students’ academic
performance, analyze their conduct or assess their mental health.
But some professors and education advocates argue that the systems represent a new low
in intrusive technology, breaching students’ privacy on a massive scale. The tracking
systems, they worry, will infantilize students in the ver ...
The document discusses how online education is transforming colleges and universities in the United States. It begins by cautioning institutions not to "perfect the irrelevant" and to know what business they are in. It then provides statistics on internet and social media usage to illustrate how ready society is for online learning. Several studies are cited showing online and blended students perform equal or better than face-to-face students. Examples are then given of several universities that have experienced growth and strategic benefits from online education, including increased access, flexibility, and revenues. The document advocates for a focus on quality using a collaborative consortium approach.
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and .docxjacksnathalie
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and Intercultural Paper
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and Intercultural Paper
BSCOM/485
Kierra Brown
Claudia Newton
April 6th , 2020
Organizational Communication Analysis Part II – Interpersonal and Intercultural Paper
Northwest Valley Community College
There is no organization that wants to be put at risk and exposed as vulnerable to cyber-attacks; Northwest Valley Community College is not the exception to the rule. What will separate one organization from another is how the organization handles the crisis. How Northwest Valley Community College communicates issues to their employees and their customers will determine the continued success of the school.
Breach
Northwest Valley Community College has just experienced a massive data breach where student’s information has become vulnerable to hackers. Northwest Valley Community College’s financial information as well as personal student and faculty information has been attacked. Regard faculty information that has put at risk includes their social security numbers, health information, and salary information that has been exposed. This data breach has caused a massive amount of distrust among students and faculty as there is no way to know how far the information has gone and what will be done with it. This shake-up has caused the cohesiveness of the faculty and students to be challenged due to the breach. “Group cohesiveness possess the kind of bonds that foster trust, openness, and the ability to manage conflicting views productively” (Beebe & Masterson, 2015). In order to restore cohesiveness among faculty and students, the administration will need to be forthcoming with information regarding the impact of the breach.
Perceptions
Since the breach occurred, some of the students and faculty members are waiting to see how the administration staff handles the communication efforts. So far, administration has been open and mostly forthcoming with information regarding the specifics of the information that was leaked what they know so far. The administration staff has taken an informative approach with faculty by “providing needed information to personnel so they can do their jobs in an effective and efficient manner” (Richmond, McCroskey, & Powell, 2013). By advising faculty and students on the status of the breach, they can attempt to move forward in their daily activities. Administration has found that they have to employ some of the persuasive function regarding the staff and students, advising them that the administrative staff is working towards a resolution and influencing them to continue being productive (Richmond, McCroskey, & Powell, 2013).
Communication
The administration staff at Northwest Valley Community College has to have a level of optimism and realism during this crisis. “We cannot be genuinely optimistic in conflict without also being realistic and realism without optimism is .
The Langara Biology Club is organizing a food drive to collect canned goods for the BC Food Bank. The food drive donation boxes have been placed on the second and third floors of the A Building. Biology Club president Shaun Singh hopes the drive will generate donations of canned food to help Vancouver's homeless and less fortunate. Working with the BC Food Bank was an easy partnership for the club. Singh hopes to collect enough canned food donations to provide hundreds of meals for those in need. The drive has generated interest among Langara students after being promoted through posters and newsletters.
By Drew HarwellColleges are turning students’ phones into .docxjasoninnes20
By Drew Harwell
Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance
machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands
washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-
machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands
When Syracuse University freshmen walk into professor Jeff Rubin’s Introduction to
Information Technologies class, seven small Bluetooth beacons hidden around the Grant
Auditorium lecture hall connect with an app on their smartphones and boost their
“attendance points.”
And when they skip class? The SpotterEDU app sees that, too, logging their absence into a
campus database that tracks them over time and can sink their grade. It also alerts Rubin,
who later contacts students to ask where they’ve been. His 340-person lecture has never
been so full.
“They want those points,” he said. “They know I’m watching and acting on it. So,
behaviorally, they change.”
Short-range phone sensors and campuswide WiFi networks are empowering colleges across
the United States to track hundreds of thousands of students more precisely than ever
before. Dozens of schools now use such technology to monitor students’ academic
performance, analyze their conduct or assess their mental health.
AD
But some professors and education advocates argue that the systems represent a new low
in intrusive technology, breaching students’ privacy on a massive scale. The tracking
systems, they worry, will infantilize students in the very place where they’re expected to
grow into adults, further training them to see surveillance as a normal part of living, whether
they like it or not.
“We’re adults. Do we really need to be tracked?” said Robby Pfeifer, a sophomore at Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond, which recently began logging the attendance of
students connected to the campus’ WiFi network. “Why is this necessary? How does this
benefit us? … And is it just going to keep progressing until we’re micromanaged every
second of the day?”
This style of surveillance has become just another fact of life for many Americans. A flood of
cameras, sensors and microphones, wired to an online backbone, now can measure
people’s activity and whereabouts with striking precision, reducing the mess of everyday
living into trend lines that companies promise to help optimize.
1/8
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands/
https://spotteredu.com/
AD
Americans say in surveys they accept the technology’s encroachment because it often feels
like something else: a trade-off of future worries for the immediacy of convenience, comfort
and ease. If a tracking system can make students be better, one college adviser said, isn’t
that a good thing?
But the perils of increasingly intimate supervision — and the subtle way it can mold how
people act — have also led some to worry whether anyone will truly know when ...
Running Head Mis-581 (Milestone week-2)1Running Head Mis.docxcowinhelen
Running Head: Mis-581 (Milestone week-2) 1
Running Head: Mis-581 (Milestone week-2) 2
Mis-581 (Milestone week-2)
Team 3
Lompri Koroma, Tianye Lin,Maodo Sow,Nikhil Vasani
MIS581
July-16, 2017
Prof, William Ying
Statement of the Business Problem (System Request Form)
Introduction
Keller College is one of the outstandingcollegein New York City that was started almost a century ago. The college offers outstanding learning, teaching and research on anadequate environment. The campus has all resources, and the classrooms are equipped with today’s technology to place the students in an interactive learning environment.
Moreover, the college has outstanding programs in engineering, education, social sciences, architecture and liberal arts that prepare students for future and produce outstanding leaders in almost all fields. Keller is among the colleges in New York where undergraduates get opportunities to conduct research with qualified professors, publish, and present their research findings.
Moreover, the college offers students with serene environment for learning. The school has plenty of lecturers who teach the students either through online or onsite classrooms. The students are given the possibility of choosing which model works the best for them, and they can also learn through both models.
Additionally, the school has spacious spaces for students to participate in co-curriculum so that they utilize their talents. The students get the opportunity of socialization through clubs. The college enrolls a larger number of students every year, to join the institution purposely to undertake several courses offered by the institution, especially through online platform.
Unfortunately, despite the institution been able to handle all matters through online platforms, the students’ enrollment process seems to be a little long. The prospect students may have to undergo a long process before being admitted to the school.
Business Problem Statement:
The Keller College enrolls the students through a computerized system, where students will either have to go to the campus or be in touch with some school representatives, in order to follow their admission process. Through this computerized method, the students are admitted when they provide all the information needed. The staff entitled for first-year admission record the details of the students.
The present state of the existing student information system as perceived through our research was found to have met the five requirements of quality software, namely: Data Reusability, Data Maintainability, security, usefulness and functionality, and evaluation on the system.
Data Reusability of the existing system seems to be performable, since as a prospective student, who did submitted all required documents in 2013, I was asked again to resubmit documents for my enrollment 2017.
1. With regards to the enrolment procedures and the keeping of records of students, the existing system is fa ...
1. The Joy Luck Club depicts the experiences of Chinese immigrant women and their daughters in the 1940s.
2. As a patriarchal society, China favored men over women, especially in marriage where women were seen as subordinate property intended to serve their husbands and bring prestige.
3. The female characters found their experiences shaped by sexism in the Chinese culture through expectations to prove their worth, responsibilities over their own desires, and the male hierarchy that disregarded women.
The document discusses using social media for student recruitment, engagement, and retention in higher education. It notes that the economy has influenced where students apply to college and that perceived quality, course variety, academic facilities, graduation employment rates, and graduation rates are important factors for students. It advocates using social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to foster student engagement, provide timely information, and create two-way interaction. Measuring engagement and using social media for ongoing connection and marketing efforts can help with enrollment, retention, and supporting the university brand and reputation.
Academic Dishonesty Lived Experiences Of Students Receiving Services From On...Sarah Marie
1. The document discusses a study examining the lived experiences of students who use online academic commissions, which provide paid services to complete school assignments and exams.
2. These commissions have grown with the rise of online learning during the pandemic, and some see them as enabling academic dishonesty.
3. The study uses a phenomenological qualitative approach to understand students' perspectives on using these services and how it might impact education quality.
Graham & McKay: Strength and Support: Updates from SUNY System on Student Eng...Alexandra M. Pickett
SUNY Online Summit 2021 Day 3 Presentation
Presentation: Strength and Support: Updates from SUNY System on Student Engagement
Speakers: Dr. John Graham, SUNY Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
Lisa L. McKay, Senior Assistant Provost & Director, SUNY University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD).
https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/2021/02/05/student-engagement/
https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/tag/day-3/
Annual conference for the SUNY online teaching and learning community of practice.
https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/
February 22-26, 2021 Virtual Event
Conference website: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/
Program: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/program/
Speakers: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/speakers/
Recordings/ Materials: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/live-recordings/
Program Tracks: https://sunyonlinesummit2021.edublogs.org/program-tracks/
Article on the Columbia Missourian about the reaction of students to the new billing changes in their health fee, with the explanation of why this is happening.
The 49th annual Clark College Jazz Festival was held from January 27-29, 2011. Roosevelt High School from Seattle won the Sweepstakes trophy, their fifth win since 2000. On the first day, middle school bands performed for the first time. Outstanding musician awards went to students from several middle schools. For the high school vocal jazz competition, Ridgefield High School placed first in the A division, Fife High School first in the AA division, and McMinnville High School first in the AAA division. The festival is one of the oldest and largest jazz competitions in Washington state.
This session is aimed at managers with responsibility for the delivery and evaluation of online learning and teaching. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic colleges have been forced to make an abrupt shift to remote learning, often existing in makeshift offices. Join us as we examine the challenges that this new environment presents and the lessons learned thus far from approaches developed in other UK nations and further afield.
We will share our thoughts on what leaders have learned about how to manage their institution during this difficult time and how they are addressing the challenges now and anticipating those in the future. Colleagues will be invited to join the discussion, raise questions and contribute examples from their own experience.
Presentation delivered by Ian Beach, HMI, Education Scotland, as part of the Virtual Bridge Session series.
Follow along at https://twitter.com/Virtual_Bridge and see what's coming up next at https://bit.ly/VBsessions
Recording available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG0lCuRRX2U
Continuing education has long held a special place in society as the school for adults intent on bridging the skills gap. That is a reputation it deserves—according to the US Department of Education, US adult learners are older (average age, 31), are more likely to have full-time jobs and are more likely to come from the 30 million students who dropped out of school earlier in their lives.
Albolushi 1
Othman Albolushi
ENG 101
Dr. Janet Starner
October 13, 2014
Learning Online
Education has been repeatedly touted as the key to a better world. If that were not the case, then the United States may not have thought to increase it’s higher learning institutions from less than one thousand at the turn of the 20th century to the current staggering number of 4000 (Hjortshoj). Similarly, students would not be working themselves into a stupor in high school if education were not an important factor in their lives. And in our world today, the highest form of learning is usually in institutions such as colleges and universities where one can receive undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate diplomas and degrees. Learning online in your class is important because it will increase the skills of students in their jobs
Whichever mode of study a high school graduate student will choose, whether they opt for going for the physical classes themselves or going digital and pursuing their studies online, one thing that stands out is how their high school education and experience has prepared them for college. According to Keith Hjortshoj, students who join high school, no matter how prestigious or unknown the school was, appear seemingly unprepared for the norms and way of the academic college life. He gives examples of two of his students, from two different backgrounds, who despite their different performances from high school, perform differently in school. Eduardo came from a tough neighborhood, attended a similarly tough school but was successful and went on to college. In college, he performed much better than was expected of him, based on his background. Maria, on the other hand, came from a wealthy home, attended a prestigious high school and did very well in her finals. However, when she went to campus she failed her sophomore year (Hjortshoj).
Hjortshoj goes on to explain that students fresh from high school think that the same methods they used in high school, be it during assignments or exams, will work in college. The sad reality is that they do not necessarily do. Of course, virtues like hard work and determination are universal, and as such should be applied everywhere, but in regards to how work is actually done, the rules are somewhat different (Hjortshoj). Those that opt for online learning may find that they are more willing to rely on the course notes and lectures given by their teachers when tackling assignments and preparing for exams. But as Hjortshoj explains, this tactic will not work because they fail to understand what the questions and assignments really ask for. Although learning online could be useful in one way it can also be unfair in another way.
Traditionally, going to university entailed physically going to the institutions and attending classes offered there. This has been the norm since universities and colleges were established. However, thanks to the ever dynamic and progressive technology in our .
1. Clarion | October 2014 news 5
looking lost, and many of these stu-
dents understandably asked for help
in finding their classrooms,” said a
HEO at a community college. Unfor-
tunately, he could offer little help: “I
was also not able to get into CUNY-
first to look up their schedules.” An
assistant professor who described a
similar scene was concerned about
how CUNYfirst’s repeated break-
downs will impact graduation rates:
“Students were wandering around
lost and helpless. Is this how we in-
crease persistence?”
More than 100 people responded
within a few days to a PSC-CUNY
survey on CUNYfirst’s problems
this semester, raising a wide range
of issues. Ordering supplies for a bi-
ology class was delayed so long that
it almost forced the class to be can-
celled. With students unable to reg-
ister, classes that routinely fill up
failed to do so. When adjuncts lost
classes as a result, they lost a major
portion of their income, while full-
time faculty ended up with swollen
teaching loads next semester.
Yedidyah Langsam, professor of
computer science and chair of the
Brooklyn College Faculty Council,
said that in discussions among fac-
ulty governance leaders there is
universal dismay with the system:
“Every single college, branch of
CUNY said the same thing: ‘The
disruption during registration, the
most critical part of the semester
for students, is totally inexcusable.’”
Because of these severe service
disruptions, CUNY central admin-
istration extended the deadlines
for 100% tuition refund and for late
registration fees.
The outages were due to the sys-
tem’s inability to handle the large
number of users at times of peak
demand. “We actually started see-
ing issues the Wednesday before
classes started,” Christian Keck,
CUNYfirst project manager at Ba-
ruch, told The Ticker, the college’s
student paper. “We started seeing
a sluggish performance on that
Wednesday and we saw the sys-
tem go up and down, kind of like a
rollercoaster ride. One minute you
had no issues, and the next minute
it was extremely sluggish or you
were unable to do anything, includ-
ing log in.”
According to a CUNY adminis-
tration statement, “Despite
previous load testing, these
problems arose during peak
loads created by an unprec-
edented number of concurrent
user sessions.” The Ticker
reported that the University’s chief
informationofficer,BrianCohen,told
a September 8 meeting of CUNY col-
lege presidents that CUNYfirst has
been designed to serve as many as
10,000 simultaneous users, and prior
tothisyearhadneverseenmorethan
7,000. But in responding to questions
from Clarion, the administration de-
clinedtosayhowmanysimultaneous
users the system had experienced
this Fall.
testing,testing?
“Steps have been taken to ensure
that these problems…do not recur
during periods of peak demand,”
the administration pledged. “Al-
though Oracle conducted load test-
ing at various points prior to the
semester’s start, CUNY is taking
a close look at how the testing was
conducted. [CUNY] is also prepar-
ing to conduct its own load testing
by recreating the problems, imple-
menting fixes, and then testing at
peak loads,” the statement added.
“While CUNY is undertaking ma-
ny steps to make its system more ro-
bust,” the administration asserted,
“additional costs [needed] to fund
these efforts will be minimal.” When
asked about the total cost of devel-
opment and implementation of CU-
By SHOMIAL AHMAD & PETER HOGNESS
CUNYfirst, the University-wide
computer system that handles ev-
erything from course registration to
employeepay,promisesonitshomep-
agethatyoucansignintothesystem
“fromanywhere,anytime.”Butatthe
startofthesemesteritwasmorelike
“from nowhere, at no time,” CUNY
staff, faculty and students said. The
system crashed repeatedly across
the university and was generally
unusable on the first day of classes.
Improvement was slow, with major
disruptions persisting during the
following week. As Clarion went to
press in early October, intermittent
problems remained.
“I had no access to attendance ros-
ters, no access to room assignments,
no access to anything!” said Julio
Valentin, an adjunct lecturer in law
and police science at John Jay Col-
lege. Outages and slowdowns contin-
ued for about two weeks, he said, but
“it seemed like forever.”
meltdown
“Students couldn’t register for
my courses,” a professor at Queens
College told Clarion. “I told them to
come anyway. As for me, I couldn’t
get into any computer system in or-
der to upload a curriculum, set up
Blackboard, and so on.” Then the
uploading of attendance records
got corrupted: “So students were
just dropped from courses in which
they had properly enrolled and for
which they had paid. They couldn’t
get access to Blackboard after that,
and couldn’t do their assignments.”
“I’ve never seen anything like
this in all my days of working with
computer systems and networks,”
he added. “And I’ve been doing it
since the 1980s.”
The CUNYfirst meltdown kept
some students out of the classes they
wanted, or out of CUNY altogether.
“I was unable to make changes to my
students’ schedules as needed,” said
Victoria O’Shea, who works in the
ASAP initiative at Queensborough
Community College. “In the end, it
left two of my students attending
part-time. Another student, whose
dismissal appeal was approved late,
was unable to register for classes
this semester.”
“Admissions were affected,” a
longtime CUNY faculty member
told Clarion. “Students were ac-
cepted and they paid and then they
could not enroll. Some decided to
go to other universities. Then, they
struggled to get their money back.
We lost students.”
“I’ve heard innumerable serious
problems from students,” said Mo-
nique Whitaker, an adjunct lectur-
er in philosophy at Hunter. “There
were students with financial aid that
had been there but [was] suddenly
reflected as not having been award-
ed. Another student was deregis-
tered from all her classes without
warning due to a CUNYfirst glitch.”
“A high volume of students simply
wandered around outside my office
NYfirst, which various sources have
put at figures ranging from $250
million to $600 million to nearly $1
billion, the administration declined
to answer. (Full text of the CUNY
statement is online at psc-cuny.org/
CUNYfirst-admin-response.)
“The trouble is that, even when it
is online, CUNYfirst doesn’t work
properly,” said Hunter’s Whitaker.
“It’s hopelessly under-resourced
and ill-suited to the user population
it supposedly serves.”
“CUNY Central has to learn that
with this excessive, blind push for
top-down centralization that they
so highly tout come demands on
computing power that simply were
not met,” agreed a professor at Ba-
ruch. The predictable result, he
said, has been “crashes and crip-
pling slowdowns.”
Complaints about CUNYfirst on
the campuses certainly extend well
beyond its crashes and slowdowns.
“Due to CUNYfirst-related account
problems, we had well over 250 stu-
dents and a handful of faculty unable
to access Blackboard course sites for
their face-to-face, hybrid, and com-
pletely online courses for weeks
into the semester,” Helen Keier, who
manages support services for John
Jay Online, told Clarion. “These is-
sues are not due to Blackboard, but
result from CUNYfirst.”
At City College students were
retroactively being denied finan-
cial aid – sometimes aid that had
already been awarded in the past
Spring semester. Even students this
semester in good standing
with Pell and TAP grants
were denied financial aid
because of rigid and inaccu-
rate definitions of “Satisfac-
tory Academic Progress.”
“We must be the only university
on the planet that came up with a
computer system that punishes our
best students,” said Jane Gallagher,
professor of biology at CCNY.
This summer Gallagher began
to see large numbers of student
who lost their financial aid without
warning. Gallagher, who stepped
in and began volunteering once
she saw the problem, says 900 stu-
dents at City College were affected
this Fall. The problem isn’t just a
CUNYfirst issue, according to Gal-
lagher, but it stems from how CU-
NYfirst connects with data from
DegreeWorks and the financial aid
software FACTS.
CCNY’s faculty senate passed
a resolution opposing retroactive
tuition bills and the removal of stu-
dent aid because of “imposition of
previously unenforced restrictions
on course selection.”
As a result of such widespread
problems, CUNYfirst has few fans
in the University’s student body. “I
can’t emphasize enough how much
trouble [CUNYfirst has] caused me
and my students, nor how much stu-
dents despise this system,” says
Whitaker. “And I’m very much with
them on that.” A student-initiated
petition demanding that CUNY
fix the system (at tinyurl.com/
CUNYfirst-petition) has drawn
about 1,000 signatures so far.
“I don’t know if CUNY adminis-
trators look at social media,” Com-
munications Technology Assistant
Professor Michael Branson Smith
told Clarion. “The ire of students is
unbelievable…. It’s really bad to see
all this negative language about a
product of our campuses.”
As the semester got underway,
one student tweeted, “You know
school starts tomorrow...because
CUNYfirst crashes today.” Another,
tweeting as @cunysecond, wrote,
“If you having #collegeproblems I
feel bad for you son. I’m logged into
100 different websites, and #cu-
nyfirst ain’t one.” But while there
were many jokes at CUNYfirst’s
expense, student tweets about the
system contain far more profanity
than humor.
Faculty and staff also weighed
in via social media. When the sys-
tem went down on the first day of
classes this Fall, Smith himself
tweeted a remixed video clip he
had created that shows a computer
specialist hurling his laptop to the
ground; Smith’s editing adds a large
CUNYfirst sticker to the back of the
computer. It quickly became a hit
online.
socialmedia
Perhaps the most prolific and rig-
orous satire came from the parody
Twitter account @CUNYfrist, cre-
ated in the first days of the semester
when CUNYfirst was crashing hard
(see page 11).
Smith, who teaches at York Col-
lege and also advises students, says
not everything is bad with CUNY-
first. He says the system makes it
possible to compare large amounts
of data in the query viewer, which
helps him track the growth of his
program and identify graduating
students who need to come into
advising.
But others say that any such
gains from a more centralized sys-
tem will continue to come at too
high a price; they argue that CUNY
should pull back from the CUNY-
first project. “CUNY Central needs
to provide or restore greater local
control to individual colleges and
campuses, so that local fixes can be
accomplished by local IT staff who
best know our needs,” insisted a
professor at Baruch.
PSC Treasurer Mike Fabricant
urged staff and faculty who have
not yet done so to share their ex-
periences and ideas on CUNYfirst
by filling out the PSC’s brief survey
about the problems this semester, at
psc-cuny.org/form/cunyfirst.
“CUNY needs to change course
on CUNYfirst,” Fabricant told
Clarion. “And that has to start with
listening to the University’s staff,
faculty and students. Failure to do
so in the design of CUNYfirst has
cost the University hundreds of
millions of dollars. It has saddled
us with a broken computer sys-
tem that hurts students, staff and
faculty through delay and an inef-
ficient explosion of time dedicated
to what were once simple, quickly
completed tasks. That’s a waste of
money and human energy that our
University cannot afford.”
CUNYfirst’s breakdown
Disruptions at semester start
‘We
lost
students.’
Above, a common sight this semester.