UD this morning, in a George Washington University newspaper editorial.

A widely-used source for online courses called Udemy has begun an initiative called the Faculty Project where professors post free courses on the site.

Margaret Soltan, an English professor, was contacted by a Udemy associate several weeks ago and now has an 11-lecture series on poetry with more than 100 subscribers from around the world.

“My experience so far has been great. I look forward to every Saturday when I get to film my lecture,” Soltan said.

Why did an outside organization … provide this course?

Professors such as Soltan are helping spread knowledge and open up the world of higher education but they should have the opportunity to do this under the GW banner.

The elite institutions are already launching their own versions of free online courses. It would be a shame for the University to be left behind.

… is a very bad response to international university rankings, as Andres Oppenheimer pointed out not long ago in the Miami Herald. He was lamenting Latin America’s decision to create its own ranking system, in response to the region’s poor showing in established global rankings. It is, he wrote, “the equivalent of withdrawing from the soccer World Cup to compete only within the neighborhood.”

And now Russia, with a similarly bad showing, is talking about doing the same thing.

Instead of spending its money to create a pretend world in which Russia gets to be a winner, that country would do better to fund anti-corruption initiatives in its universities.

… in my series on what it’s like to do a MOOC, is here.

As a follow-up to this post — about a group of Australian scientists so dismayed by alternative medicine having crept into the university curriculum that they have formed a pressure group to fight the trend — there’s this heartwarming father-and-son tale.

Dad runs a cult-of-personality clinic (watch the film) which will cure you of incurable cancer if you’ll just listen to the Leader. Sonny’s CEO of a big vitamin concern that uses Dad’s research to back up its product claims. The big vitamin concern dismisses conflict of interest charges with the following argument: “The mere fact of both having the same surname was the ultimate disclosure in itself.” Game, set, and match.

Meanwhile, there’s an ongoing court case in which Australia’s regulatory Therapeutic Goods Administration has ordered the vitamin concern to stop making claims about their stuff’s effectiveness having been “clinically proven,” onaccounta it ain’t – despite Dad’s best efforts – been.

“I’m covered from head to toe in chalk,” he said. “I don’t use PowerPoint. Ever.”

Recipe for success.

… Distinguishing Between Good and Bad Poetry, has just been published. To watch it, go to the Faculty Project page, scroll down to Poetry, and enroll. It’s free. So far 112 people have signed up. Join the crowd.

… I’ve been recording my third lecture in my series on poetry for the Faculty Project. The lecture should be available this evening.

This sign appears on a building at the
Academy of Fine Arts on Mysliwiecka
Street in Warsaw.

It’s where Mr UD’s father,
Jerzy Soltan, worked.

The sign says:

Thank you for this place,
Professor Jerzy S.

************************

UD thanks Andrzej.

… has been nominated to head the World Bank.

Under withering attack from much of the faculty (“In our view [Hogan] lacks the values, commitments, management style, ethics, and even manners, needed to lead this university, and his presidency should be ended at the earliest opportunity.” Ouch.), Michael Hogan has announced his resignation.

***********************

UD thanks Wendy.

Beier further demonstrates his deference by welcoming feedback mid-way through each term. Sometimes the feedback leads to big changes, like the time he ditched PowerPoint presentations.

An award-winning teacher is interviewed.

Given arrest rates on big-time university basketball teams, it’s not surprising that police have begun arresting players at their games.

When [an Old Dominion University player] didn’t show up to court [on a DUI charge], an arrest warrant was issued.

[A] Virginia Beach detective drove to the Ted Constant Center Wednesday night, knowing [the player] would be there.

After warming up with the team, [the player] came off the court and was arrested in the back of the arena.

Yes. For the sake of fan and donor morale, it’s much better to arrest them in the back of arenas. Seeing team members arrested on court before games would be a downer.

“…[F]or 25 years, I lived and breathed business, and the economy, and jobs. I had successes, and failures. But each step of the way, I learned a little bit more about what makes our American system so powerful. You can’t learn that teaching constitutional law [at] the University of Chicago, all right?”

We’ll see if the perennially popular professor-as-pussy strategy works for Mitt Romney.

Back in 2007, on the advice of [T. Boone] Pickens, the [Oklahoma State University] Cowboys athletic department purchased policies for 27 of their very biggest fans. Most were donors and season ticket holders, and all were over the age of 65. Upon an insured donor’s death, Lincoln Financial would pay out $10 million to the sole beneficiary, the OSU athletic department. It was called the “Gift of a Lifetime” program, and it was a wager, like all life insurance, but presumably the actuarial tables were in the university’s favor.

Then, no one died.

… OSU sued Lincoln Financial, trying to recover their premiums… Last week, a federal judge in Dallas dismissed [that, and Lincoln’s countersuit], leaving Oklahoma State on the hook for that $33 mil, and forcing them to pay court costs…

OSU, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor OSU, nor yet canst thou kill me.

Their livingness doth make you desperate men,
Who with death-lust and lawsuits dwell;
No charm sends donors down to hell
Nor gives them heart attack or stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One litigation past, you pay out millions,
And still death hies! OSU, thou shalt die.

********************************

UD thanks Dave.

This story combines drug smuggling with academic point scoring – a new combination, I think.

A professor of physics at the University of North Carolina is in an Argentine jail because Buenos Aires airport police discovered an elaborate compartment in his luggage into which a lot of cocaine had been placed.

[Paul] Frampton says the cocaine had been cleverly built into a piece of his luggage without his knowledge, but he declined to say how it might have gotten there, saying that revealing details might harm his defense.

Frampton says the UNC provost has done little to help him, and has in fact stopped his pay. Why?

[Bruce] Carney had long been jealous, he said, because Frampton had earned tenure much more quickly and because Carney’s academic accomplishments were paltry compared to his own.

“I am one of the most published physicists, and really he hasn’t done much that is of interest,” Frampton said.

The provost is sorry he’s in jail … and is also sorry “to hear that Frampton had been missing the meetings of the general relativity class he was supposed to be teaching.”

Frampton responds that only one student signed up for it. Possible reason here.