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Month: April 2007

Large vs small, state vs private colleges

Large vs small, state vs private colleges

State educational institutions typically under perform private institutions for attracting top students and gaining financial endowments for a number of reasons. For proof of this allegation, one only needs to look at the college and university rankings offered by some of the major news and business magazines. This division of performance, or stated differently, making a longer continuum ruler of differences, perpetuates the current society condition of the rich getting more and the have not categories of our society never…

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Newsweek article reveals Virginia Tech incapable of good internal communications.

Newsweek article reveals Virginia Tech incapable of good internal communications.

In the April 30th issue of Newsweek in the article devoted to “Making of a Massacre” numerous examples were made describing not one but just about all of the bureaucratic offices could not effectively communicating with one another. For anyone that has worked for a college or university it just might not surprise that body of people. The reason? Colleges and universities are based upon the military model of leadership. It is top down command. Lateral communication is possible but…

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Book review of Noam Chomsky’s Failed States.

Book review of Noam Chomsky’s Failed States.

This is an extremely important book for the American people to read and understand.  I fear that what this book describes will come to nothing because of a number of small little aspects that work together to thwart this important message from getting out and being fully appreciated by those who do read it. I think the author has done a disservice to this country because the message he conveys is on the one hand so extremely important but his…

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Blowing My Cover My Life As A CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran.

Blowing My Cover My Life As A CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran.

This book was a girly girl read from beginning to end. Being a guy, I still found this a mildly entertaining read but I was put off by all of the references to this is how I felt at the moment type of dribble that some women love to expound upon. Then there is the group dynamics that are reported on from the author’s perspective, another female trait. Men do this too, but usually more succinctly and with less importance….

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Whiskers the cat

Whiskers the cat

My wife and daughter had noticed one of our two cats was breathing heavily and rather quickly. On May 25, my daughter and I took the cat to the local vet. As soon as the veterinarian came into the room he spotted right away the breathing problem and without an x-ray pronounced the expectation that Whiskers was only using about twenty percent of his lung capacity. He took X-rays and the lungs were full of fluid to such and extent…

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Arbitrary job guidelines.

Arbitrary job guidelines.

The state of California campus systems have job position guidelines. HR units on each campus will use those to set campus standards for hiring and for job evaluations, called desk audits. One staff member thought he qualified for being a TV Engineer. He currently held the position of Equipment Technician III. He was told by HR that only one TV Engineer was allowed on any state campus. That is in the state documents. The bad: after he retired, he found…

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Tables turned and tax payer pays.

Tables turned and tax payer pays.

The bad: allegedly a staff member was brought up on charges of assaulting another staff member. The good: During the legal proceedings, allegedly, the attorney for the university discovered that the work unit administrator was so allegedly deficient that the campus had to pay a very large settlement to the very employee that they wanted to punish. That employee, it is rumored, took that money and became a very successful day trader.

Tax payers pay for duplication.

Tax payers pay for duplication.

Two new TV studios had to be built on the same campus where a very large TV studio practically sat empty, only occasionally used for acting classes. The cost to the taxpayers for this duplication allegedly was in the millions.

Not hired but department chair fired.

Not hired but department chair fired.

The bad: A professor applied for a teaching position at another campus but was not hired. He found out from a friend working at the university where he applied for the job that the department chair allegedly hired a personal friend. The good: The other faculty members in the department found this out and had the department chairman fired.

Rush jobs.

Rush jobs.

High level managers can determine how university money is spent. The bad: Some times managers can use state funding to pay to make up for management errors which can result in state funds unnecessarily being drained. One example of this is poorly planned construction which often times comes from rushed jobs. College campuses must continue to function and the best times for construction is during semester breaks, which in most cases is way too short. If administrators fail to do…

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