TCCTA Blog

Inside the Mind of Freshmen

2008-08-20T07:26:57-05:00

Today's freshmen (at least the ones coming straight out of high school) were born around 1990. Regardless of your age as a community college educator, you probably share very few cultural reference points with these students.

Each year, Beloit College in Wisconsin publishes a "mindset list" containing nuggets of information that the current crop of college freshmen take for granted. The list is created by Tom McBride, a professor of humanities at Beloit, and Ron Nief, the director of public affairs. For instance, today's younger students have never had a gas station attendant ask, "Would you like me to check under the hood?" They tend to believe that Clarence Thomas has always served on the Supreme Court and that caller ID has always been featured on phones.

Each generation suffers from such a lack of historical perspective, of course, but with the rapid pace of change these days, the gap is more quickly apparent.

The complete list (as offered by Inside Higher Ed.) is instructive as faculty march into the classroom this fall.

TRS August Newsletter Online

2008-08-19T07:41:21-05:00

The Texas Teacher Retirement System has published its August newsletter online, providing information on recent developments on investment policies, rules changes, and online tools to calculate benefits.

Active and retired TRS members will receive the newsletter in the mail, but newly hired community college employees may wish to peruse the online version for background information about TRS before deciding on whether to opt for TRS or ORP. It's just one more way of getting educated on a very important decision—a choice that reflects personal preferences, employment history, age, and a host of other factors. Under current law, the decision is irrevocable.

(Please keep in mind that higher education educators receive their health and dental insurance from the Employees Retirement System of Texas, not TRS. TRS-Care is a plan for public school employees and retirees. Therefore, the information in the TRS newsletter regarding health insurance will probably not apply to community and technical college educators.)

Here's the site. Newly hired employees should work closely with their campus Human Resource departments in formulating the decision on whether to choose TRS or ORP.

Forensic Science Cleared for Statewide Offering

2008-08-18T07:39:41-05:00

The academic discipline of forensic science has made a leap forward in receiving state approval, as of August 8.

The following is a message from Don Jacobs, chair of behavioral sciences at Weatherford College, who co-founded the first forensic science department and degree plan at a Texas community college:

Our almost five year wait is over; we are no longer required to apply for unique needs. Two FORS courses can now be offered in all 50 Texas community colleges—FORS 2440: Introduction to Forensic Science and FORS 2450: Introduction to Forensic Psychology can be offered as 3-hour courses or 4-hour lecture and lab courses, depending on equipment allocation. I have created a FORS blog," he adds, "where colleagues can check for the latest FORS UPDATES. Please visit this site to access the latest in community college forensic science happenings.

Mr. Jacobs urges colleagues of all disciplines who may be interested in a FORS start-up to attend the forensic science section meetings at the TCCTA annual convention in Austin, February, 19-21, 2009.

Question and comments can be directed to Don Jacobs at djacobs@wc.edu or 817-598-6431.

Four-Day Week at Florida College Apparently Works

2008-08-15T07:45:13-05:00

Due to the high cost of fuel, some colleges are considering a switch to a four-day work week. Community colleges are especially affected since most students at these schools drive to classes. Therefore, offering bicycles or encouraging walking, as many resident universities are attempting, just won't work.

A recent article on CNN.com highlights one school, Brevard Community College, in Cocoa, Florida, that decided to try a four-day work week a year ago. Obviously the decision provides an opportunity for study today.

"It worked out better than anyone could have imagined," college president James Drake Drake says. "If it weren't for the savings that we have netted from energy management and the four-day work week, we would not have been able to do several of the vital things that are going to help us attract and retain even more students."

The benefits to commuting students are obvious. Interestingly, however, the decision has also apparently resulted in less turnover among staff.

From the piece:

The four-day work week at Brevard has yielded even more positive results: There's been a 44 percent reduction in staff turnover, according to Drake.
"We have had a 50 percent increase in applications for employment during the same period this year as apposed to last year," says Drake.

Mili Torres, the director of enrollment at the Cocoa campus says her staff rarely misses work.

"Absenteeism has actually gone away almost in my department," says Torres.

Retiree Health Insurance Discussed in Hearing

2008-08-14T07:39:27-05:00

First some background. As Texas community and technical college educators know, the state provides health insurance for higher education retirees. The plans are funded by the Legislature each biennium and administered by the Employees Retirement System of Texas. Under current law the state provides complete coverage (besides co-pays, deductibles, etc.) for retirees and half coverage for all dependents. The coverage for retirees is virtually identical as that for active employees—until retirees qualify for Medicare, at which time ERS coverage becomes the secondary plan. (For complete information please visit the ERS Web site.)

This has nothing to do with proportionality, which is a whole other matter.

Now it gets complicated. During a recent (August 12) hearing of the House Committee on Pensions and Investments, the panel discussed the effects of HB 2365, passed during the 2007 Regular Session. The law exempts Texas state and local governments from compliance with an accounting provision promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, a non-profit advisory body with great influence over bond and securities policy.

The provision, known as "GASB 45," instructs governments to include long range financial liabilities for non-pension benefits in their accounting reports. Briefly, this means governments would have to include financial commitments in their current budgets for long-range liabilities, especially health insurance.

Now, Texas has a "pay as you go" budgetary process under its constitution, which does not, in theory, encumber future legislatures. Other states, such as Alaska, are constitutionally required to put money aside for projected liability. And many states have collective bargaining agreements that are binding on future sessions of their legislatures. Not so in Texas, which at least partially explains why our state is the only one to enact a statutory exemption from GASB 45.

Based on testimony during the hearing, the good news is that, so far, Texas has not suffered in its rankings with bonding agencies as a result of HB 2365. However, public officials remain concerned about the coming wave of baby boomer retirees, for whom the state has no particular plan regarding health insurance. During the hearing, witnesses from some local governments endorsed an idea to allow them to lock in funds for the future, but no such concept was advanced for state government during the hearing.

As one witness put it, the effect of HB 2365 is sort of an "academic" discussion right now. TCCTA will keep its members up to date on this important issue.

House Panel Briefed on TRS Developments

2008-08-13T07:46:31-05:00

The House Committee on Pensions and Investments received an update Tuesday (August 12) from Teacher Retirement System Executive Director Ronnie Jung and board chairman James Lee regarding a number of important issues. The interim panel is chaired by Rep. Vicki Truitt (R-Southlake).

As noted here earlier, the TRS board recently made a number of changes in their personnel and investment strategy for the massive pension fund. According to Mr. Jung, investing is increasingly complicated and the agency needed more specialized help in planning the future to achieve the best returns over a long period of time. For an overview of these changes, please visit the TRS Web site, under "What's New." (The Board of Trustees is composed of nine trustees who are appointed to staggered terms of six years. Three trustees are direct appointments of the governor.)

The TRS board has received criticism recently for accepting a request from the governor and Legislative Budget Board to lower the base state contribution rate in their official Legislative Authorization Request (LAR) for the next biennium to 6.4 percent, down from the current funding of 6.58 percent. The higher rate was pegged in the last Regular Session and paved the way for a "13th check" to retirees—the first such extra benefit in many years. Benefits enhancements for TRS active or retired members are not allowed unless the fund achieves long-term "actuarial soundness," as projected by state budget officials.

Importantly, however, the law currently stipulates that the state contribution rate cannot be less than the individual contribution, which is also at 6.58 percent presently. This was an important achievement during the last session of the Legislature. Furthermore, as Mr. Jung reminded the committee, during the last several sessions, the LAR request for the state contribution was routinely set at 6 percent, the constitutional minimum.

The TRS fund is one of largest in the country and quite robust in comparison to many pension plans in other states.

This is an early step in the appropriations process. The contribution rate will ultimately be determined by the next session of the Legislature for the 2010-11 biennium.

Anti-Virus "Cloudware" Launched

2008-08-12T07:29:44-05:00

Researchers at the University of Michigan have announced a new approach to computer virus protection. The idea is to send questionable software to an outside centralized source that can take a advantage of a variety of defenses and also provide constant updating.

CloudAV utilizes “cloud computing,” technology services conducted through an online network, not through software installed on a single computer.

According to the researchers, "The long term effectiveness of traditional host-based antivirus is questionable. Antivirus software fails to detect many modern threats and its increasing complexity has resulted in vulnerabilities that are being exploited by malware. These limitations motivate a fundamentally new deployment model for malware detection provided by antivirus software."

Also from the group's Web site:

We advocate a new model for malware detection on end hosts based on providing antivirus as an in-cloud network service. This new model provides several important benefits:
Better detection of malicious software: Antivirus engines have complementary detection capabilities and a combination of many different engines can improve the overall identification of malicious and unwanted software. This model enables identification of malicious and unwanted software by multiple, heterogeneous detection engines in parallel, a technique we term N-version protection.

Eliminating the impact of antivirus vulnerabilities: By moving the complexity of antivirus engines to the network service and isolating the engines within virtualized environments, CloudAV eliminates the impact of the numerous vulnerabilities present in antivirus engines that may be leveraged by an attacker to compromise a host.

Retrospective detection of previously infected hosts: When signature updates are received, previously analyzed files can be re-scanned, allowing the detection of malicious software and identification of hosts that have been infected by them.

Enhanced forensics capabilities: Information about what hosts accessed what files provides an incredibly rich database of information for forensics and intrusion analysis. Such information provides temporal relationships between file access events on the same or different hosts.

Improved deployability and management: Moving detection off the host and into the network significantly simplifies host software enabling deployment on a wider range of platforms and enabling administrators to centrally control signatures and enforce file access policies.

Law Allows Conditional Aid for Drug Offenders

2008-08-11T07:38:38-05:00

The new authorization of the federal Higher Education Act retains a controversial provision that takes financial aid away from students convicted of drug offenses. Many officials at colleges and universities have criticized this provision, saying it prevents individuals from entering the workforce. Most of these offenders committed non-violent offenses.

However, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required), the new law contains a provision that permits past offenders to redeem themselves with random drug tests, allowing them to qualify for financial assistance. More than 200,000 students have been denied aid, according to the piece.

Also in the article:

In a report accompanying the bill, lawmakers also call on the Secretary of Education to reword a question on the federal student-aid application that asks students about drug convictions, saying the question may have disqualified some eligible students.
Still, the decision by members of Congress not to strike the penalty entirely comes a disappointment to Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which called for the penalty’s repeal. The group says the penalty, which was added to the bill during the last reauthorization, in 1998, does nothing to deter drug use, increases the risk of recidivism, and has a disproportionate impact on students of color.

"ITunes U" Offers Free Lectures

2008-08-08T07:40:47-05:00

ITunes from Apple, which offers downloads of music and videos for sale, has also started offering free lectures from noted professors at prestigious universities such as Cal-Berkeley and Stanford.

Apple calls it ITunes U. The idea according to a recent article in the online newsletter siliconvalley.com, is to attract browsers checking out the free material, who will then notice a music or video offered for sale.

According to the article:

While an episode of "Desperate Housewives" will cost $1.99, a series of lectures by renowned University of California-Berkeley philosophy professor Hubert Dreyfus is absolutely free. A single song by pop diva Rihanna is 99 cents. The price of a course on modern theoretical physics by Stanford University quantum mechanics professor Leonard Susskind? Nada.
Apple calls it iTunes U, an unsung but popular feature of iTunes. Audio and video downloads of classroom lectures are available to anyone who wants to listen to them through a computer or an iPod. Though the program has existed on a smaller scale for a few years, it now offers more than 50,000 audio and video tracks - course lectures, language lessons, speeches - from scores of universities and colleges. Beginning in the fall, both UC-Berkeley and Stanford are planning expansions to their respective digital lecture programs.

For Apple, offering academic discourse is something akin to Trader Joe's providing free coffee to shoppers - anything that encourages customers to visit and hang out at the store is good.

Another feature offered from ITunes is the 60-Second Lecture. An Apple promotion reads:

Got a minute? Then you have time to enjoy a lecture from a faculty member at the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Speaking on a wide range of topics — from enthography to philosphy to music — the lecturers offer insight, whimsy, and, above all, brevity.

Here's the link to ITunes.

Commissioner Responds to Media on Financial Aid

2008-08-07T07:26:55-05:00

As reported here earlier, Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes favors awarding financial aid to students based not only on need, but merit (as measured by achievement and aptitude scores) as well. At the July 24 meeting of the Coordinating Board, in a rare conference call with Board members, Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) urged the panel to stick with the current TEXAS Grant program's need-based criteria. Without making any specific recommendation, the Coordinating Board passed along the commissioner's recommendation to the governor's office and LBB for consideration.

It is shaping up as an important debate. The commissioner argues that need-plus-merit produces better results. Sen. Ellis (a chief architect of the TEXAS Grants) says the current system is working, and reaching the students who need the aid most.

All are agreed the program should be better funded. However, some newspaper reports have apparently left the impression that the commissioner and Coordinating Board don't favor increases in funding for the TEXAS Grant program.

In an August 6 editorial in the Austin American-Statesman (registration), the commissioner attempts to set the record straight. Along the way he also endorses increased funding for student aid directed to community colleges.

From the piece by Dr. Paredes:

Here are the facts.
In mid-2007, the Legislature directed the board to undertake a study of financial aid to be submitted to the legislature by Aug. 1. The board, in turn, commissioned Higher Education Insights Associates (HEIA) to conduct the feasibility study. During late 2007 and early 2008, HEIA reviewed financial aid programs and offered recommendations in a report to the Coordinating Board in June 2008. The Coordinating Board met and discussed the recommendations for over three hours in a meeting on July 24. At the end of the meeting, the board did not approve or endorse any recommendations but authorized that the study be forwarded to the Legislature as required by Aug. 1.

The board directed other staff members and me to gather data on the impact the recommendations could have on students so they could consider final recommendations at a meeting in October.

Some media stories have mischaracterized the board's position on financial aid with statements such as "instead of increasing funding for student aid, Texas officials want to toughen eligibility standards."

In fact, increasing funding for state financial aid programs has been the coordinating board's priority since the inception of the TEXAS Grant program in 1999.

At the July 24 meeting, the board approved a request to the Legislature for more than $1.41 billion in student financial aid for 2010-2011, an increase of nearly 90 percent over the $746 million currently authorized.

And:

Not only does the board propose increases for TEXAS Grant which primarily is received by university students, but also for financial aid at community colleges, where the largest number of Texas students begin their college studies.
The feasibility study makes 16 recommendations regarding financial aid, but the sticking point lies principally with one that suggests several stronger academic criteria — ACT and SAT scores, class standing, more rigorous courses — for new TEXAS Grant recipients.

I happen to agree that the academic eligibility criteria for TEXAS Grants should be strengthened, and for several years, I have expressed support for "need+ merit" approaches to financial aid.

Research indicates that the best way to help all students, including the poor and students of color, is to set high academic standards for all and to provide each student the academic support necessary to reach them. I categorically reject arguments that suggest any group of students cannot achieve — or should not be held to — high standards.

Over the next several months, coordinating board staff members and I will examine various financial aid models that combine need with merit criteria that are challenging but not onerous. We will confer with political leaders as well as educators and financial aid experts. Only then will we offer recommendations for the coordinating board's consideration.