All-day retreat at Winthrop University

Early this week, faculty leaders at Winthrop University convened all day to "re-imagine higher education," among other charges.

We learned that higher education, the business we're in, needs to be more permeable, lighter and more fluid.

Also, an administrator reminded us that the world we're in demands that we change, and we must respond to changes in our world with "guarded flexibility."

But what changes are essential?

That's a key question.

We also, as professors, need to have goals and objectives for our students that are clear, attainable and assessible.

We heard a ton about assessment and accreditation and re-accreditation.

A colleague of mine remarked (quietly) that we are being "assessed to death."

A group of faculty had been charged earlier this year with ascertaining what all Winthrop University graduates should possess. This is what that faculty group came up with after looking at all the academic programs at our university, as well as programs at other universities:

1. Winthrop graduates should have critical thinking skills.
2. Winthrop graduates should value multiple perspectives--the interconnectedness of the world--(in their work and as they search for truth and meaning)
3. Winthrop graduates should be effective communicators
4. Winthrop graduates should be socially responsible.

Twas an enlightening retreat. Some intellectual fire. Some mind-numbing stats. Much discussion on how to do what we do better or more effectively.

And, as always, we had a delicious lunch.

Time to get started with a new school year--the 125th for Winthrop.

Wonder if they had retreats in those first 25 years?

Police brutality in South Carolina?

Look at this video; I hate to prejudge a law enforcement officer but what do you think?

Lane Kiffin and press conference

My colleague Guy Reel shared this interesting story with a link to video of reporters arguing over whether to take off camera statements from former Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin when he quit to go to Southern Cal. The WBIR news director said since it was a press conference, they shouldn't agree to any off-camera comments; what's interesting, as Reel notes, is the other reporters are arguing with him.

Be sure to click on the youtube video accompanying the story.... it's 7-8 mins. but worth looking at and showing to anyone interested in journalism ethics.

By the way, SPJ is presenting the WBIR news director an ethics award at its national convention in Las Vegas coming up in a few weeks.

Woman fights off intruder who snuck into bed with her

This TV news report from Huntsville tells it all.

Hide your wife. Hide your husband!

And for a lighter and funnier take on the same news item, turn up your sound and enjoy this video.

Pseudo recession?

All the news outlets--CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and major newspapers like USA TODAY, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times--keeping beating the drum that the U.S. is mired in a recession.

Furthermore, the news gurus say that while recovery from the current recession is happening, it's glacially slow, and most things (spending, wages, jobs, workers' benefits, pensions) will never reach pre-recession levels.

Here's what I think, based on the long checkout lines and crowded, busy parking lots I've experienced this summer at Wal-Mart and Lowe's stores in Tennessee and the Carolinas. I'm also basing my thoughts on what I've encountered in recent months at fast food outlets like McDonald's, Wendy's and Chick-Fil-A.)

We are in a pseudo-recession. A lot of people still have money and they're spending like crazy.

Don't believe me?

Visit any Wal-Mart or McDonald's or Lowe's.

The cash registers are zinging! Employees at restaurants and retail outlets seem stressed to the max, barely able to keep up with the never ending flow of anxious-to-spend-money customers.

What recession, really?!

The darker side of love

Fact or reality, the old saying goes, is stranger than fiction.

Consider:

I've been doing a good bit of self-examination lately--about love, about romance, about relationships, about what matters in life.

I had a conversation yesterday with a woman, whose name we will not use in this blog post. But suffice it to say she's in her mid to late 70s. She's a widow. She had been married for at least 50 years, I'm sure.

Me: Did you ever once in your marriage contemplate leaving or divorcing him?

Her: I didn't contemplate divorcing him, but I did contemplate murdering him, not once, but many times!

And I had thought through all those years that she had been happily married.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Doggy humor

My cousin in Florida sent me this dog art. Worth a few giggles. Thanks to LW for these.