News Links | November 20, 2014

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

Bates Technical College’s Dan Eberle honored Governor Jay Inslee honored Dan Eberle, a career advisor and the disability support services coordinator at Bates Technical College, with the state’s highest award given to a person with a disability. Eberle received the prestigious Governor’s Trophy in Memory of Carolyn Blair Brown at a ceremony held at Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond in October. The trophy is awarded to a Washington-state resident with a disability who significantly empowers individuals with disabilities in the community and in the workforce. Eberle earned this award because of his outstanding achievements in support of those with disabilities. The Suburban Times, Nov. 19, 2014 It's no mystery why LCC newbie was chosen to play Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes’ mind works so quickly that his body has trouble keeping up. So it benefits an actor playing Sherlock to have and edgy and energetic stride as he races about the stage solving mysteries. Chase Smell’s body language is one of the strengths he brings to the lead role in Lower Columbia College’s production of “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure,” which opened this week. Longview Daily News, Nov. 19, 2014 CPTC: The entrepreneurial spirit Denise Klug was low on finances but rich in vision when she opened her first hair salon at the age of 23. In the early 1980s in small town Colorado, the mother of Klug’s friend purchased a home that included a small beauty shop. Betty’s Beauty Boutique was dated and neglected, but Klug saw a golden palace. ... Klug arrived to Clover Park Technical College in the late 1980s as an instructor. Her experience in starting up salons from scratch helps her guide her students in preparing for their own business ventures. The Suburban Times, Nov. 19, 2014 SPSCC art exhibit shines spotlight on the lives of native Americans South Puget Sound Community College’s Native American Art Exhibition puts a spotlight on the lives of Native Americans from cradleboard to grave. The works in the seventh annual exhibition range from traditional objects, including a cradleboard by Cindy Arnold, to bold statements about the realities of Native American life and death — including sculptures by Charles Bloomfield, one drawing attention to suicides and another in remembrance of missing and murdered women. The Olympian, Nov. 18, 2014 Skagit students share taste of Mexico Handmade tamales, warm shrimp empanadas, fresh ceviche. Sound good? As part of an exchange program, culinary students at Skagit Valley College learned how to make those dishes and more from someone who knows best: Chef Luis Carlos De Roman, a culinary arts instructor at the Puerto Vallarta Instituto Technologico (Institute of Technology). For nearly three weeks, De Roman taught Skagit students how to make authentic Mexican food, serving it at banquets and in the Cardinal Cafe. His instruction gave students a first-hand opportunity to experience and learn about authentic Mexican cuisine. Skagit Valley Herald, Nov. 17, 2014 Chamber Orchestra to perform Dec. 1 at Centralia College The Pacific Northwest Chamber Orchestra will open its 12th season with its annual holiday-themed “Family Concert” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at Centralia College’s Corbet Theatre. Conductor/Music Director David Judd, a member of the Washington Music Educators Hall of Fame, is back for his fifth season at the helm of the orchestra. The musical selections will include Victor Herbert’s “March of the Toys,” Leroy Anderson’s “Christmas Festival” and traditional Christmas carol “O Holy Night” by Adolphe Adam, along with Mozart's "Symphony in G" and Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture." The Centralia Chronicle, Nov. 14, 2014

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

Open Education’s Publicity Problem Open educational resources, or OER, are public-domain learning materials that instructors and students can use free instead of shelling out for textbooks. If you didn’t know that, you’re not alone: 66 percent of faculty members said they were “unaware” of OER, according to a recent survey by the Babson Survey Research Group. At the same time, the survey results indicate that most of the instructors who were familiar with OER considered their quality to be “roughly equivalent,” in general, to that of traditional textbooks. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 20, 2014 Riskier majors may become more attractive if people know upside Students’ choice of academic major can be influenced heavily by how information about their potential earnings is framed, suggests a new study scheduled to be discussed here at this week’s annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. People told about pay variation in fields appear to look more favorably upon higher-risk majors with potentially big payoffs than do people who are provided only figures on average earnings, the study concluded. What remains unclear, according to a paper summarizing the study’s findings, is whether people’s expectations of financial success are based on realistic assessments of ability or on their own tendencies toward optimism or pessimism. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 19, 2014

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL

The use of fair use Publishers are seeking “corrective authoritative guidance” from the federal government to stop the trend of court rulings they say are expanding copyright exemptions beyond their legal intent, but higher education associations argue interfering could upset the balance between copyright holders and consumers. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 20, 2014 Promise goes grassroots A group that wants the federal government to pay for in-state tuition for the nation's lower- and middle-income students has a new pitch, and a new name. Redeeming America’s Promise, which was unveiled in June, has become the Campaign for Free College Tuition. The bipartisan nonprofit still wants the feds to fund scholarships to make tuition free at public colleges (see box for details). But its leaders said they aren’t waiting around for “Washington comity,” and will begin to throw their weight behind emerging tuition-scholarship programs in Tennessee and other states and cities. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 20, 2014 Rep. Kline Will Again Lead House Education Committee U.S. Representative John Kline of Minnesota, the Republican who leads the House education committee, will keep that post in the next Congress. As was expected, Kline's Republican colleagues voted Wednesday to officially name him as the committee's chair for the next two years. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 20, 2014 Default rate adjustments panned The top Democrats on the U.S. Senate and House education committees on Tuesday criticized the Obama administration for tweaking the student loan default rates of some colleges, a policy that allowed those institutions to avoid penalties. The U.S. Department of Education earlier this year adjusted downward the default rates for certain colleges whose high default rates would have otherwise placed them at risk of losing federal aid. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 19, 2014 Class-size measure triggers questions, worries in Olympia Lawmakers are just beginning to work on how they would pay for Initiative 1351, the measure to reduce class sizes. And they worry the multibillion-dollar measure will cost even more than advertised. The Seattle Times, Nov. 19, 2014 Senior democrats criticize changes in Education Dept.’s default rate Two senior Democratic lawmakers sent a letter on Tuesday to the education secretary, Arne Duncan, criticizing changes the Education Department has made in how it calculates cohort default rates on student loans. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Rep. George Miller of California took the department to task for exempting from penalties some colleges with default rates of 30 percent or more. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 18, 2014 Opinion: State faces historic budget challenges By Ross Hunter, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. When writing about the budget, it’s important to share good news as well as bad. First the good (it’s short): The revenue forecast picked up a little bit. The bad is that we face one of the most difficult budget cycles of my time in the Legislature, and perhaps worse than we’ve seen in many decades. The budget is showing strains from the slow recovery from the recession, we are seeing a slew of court cases that require us to spend significant amounts of money, and we are going to have to make significant progress in meeting our constitutional responsibility to fund public education. Crosscut, Nov. 17, 2014