UCLA vs VA, Bad PowerPoints, and More - Around the College Town
Links related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of Oct. 13 - 20.
Note: each week Around the College Town will feature a list of links from stories I am reading that are related to urbanism and higher ed, often combining both. This will include a brief commentary on each link. These may grow into future articles by me. Submit a link if you think it fits.
FOIA Files: The University of California - Racket News Substack
Matt Taibbi and gang just released a massive cache of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents that they received from the University of California system. They are slowly going through the materials and documenting the ‘the evolving definition of academic freedom’. This probably means more controversy on the horizon for the UC system.
UCLA Appeals Judge Carter's Lockout Order - Home of the Brave Substack
Speaking of the UC system, UCLA has more controversy beyond what I wrote last week on the Homeless Professor. It seems the university was leasing land from the nearby VA for the school’s baseball facilities. Now, the VA wants the land back for veteran housing, and the judge presiding over the case isn’t too happy with UCLA here.
“the school counted free tickets to baseball games, hot dogs, and merchandise as part of its ‘in kind’ contributions to veterans.”
An Endowment for Housing? - LAist
On the opposite end of the spectrum from the UCs and UCLA is the local community college system. Sierra College, outside of Sacramento, has unveiled an Endow-A-Bed program, where donations are geared directly towards housing students. Many community colleges are scrambling to build dorms due to the housing crisis. If Sierra’s program works, may it be a replicable model? More to come on this in a future post.
Tribal College Campuses Are Falling Apart - ProPublica
ProPublica has a photo exposé on the terrible conditions of tribal colleges in the US. The deferred maintenance bills just keep piling up. Tribal colleges also have an awkward funding scheme relative to other publics where they must request through the Bureau of Indian Education, a federal agency. I saw the same neglect during my trip to Bacone College.
Students Raise Privacy Concerns Over Using QR Codes to Get into Bathrooms - Fox 11 LA
Nearby me in Huntington Beach, California, one high school is having students scan a QR code for permission to use the bathroom. Students are rightly annoyed by this practice. It’s just another long list of items to show how weird Americans are about bathrooms. Future post on this.
Your PowerPoints Probably Suck - Inside Higher Ed
One thing everyone, not just students, struggle with is PowerPoints. Most people cram a million things onto the screen, or try to have some fancy graphics/ movement. These are just simply bad practice, and I see it from professors it good institutions. How are students going to learn when even the best in our field aren’t good at presentations? Well, Inside Higher Ed has an essay on how to improve. All good advice.
Professor Killed in Incident Involving Garbage Truck - The Batallion
Finally, a somber link to a fellow professor who was killed this past week. Hilaire Kallendorf, who taught in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures at Texas A&M, was hit by a garbage truck and died as a result. The sad story is part of our broader dangerous roads in the US. Just a few years ago, a cyclist was killed by a garbage truck in the same area near campus. RIP.