Mar

29

Mentoring Graduate Students

March 29, 2009 | by Will Millhiser | Leave a Comment

Some of us mentor doctoral students. I had a positive experience as a student, but I understand from others that there can be a great deal of variance in the quality of the relationship from the points of view of both the professor and student. There’s apparently so much variance that the graduate student senate [...]

Mar

22

Guest Post: Orpheus in the Businessworld ossia Thinking Outside the Box

March 22, 2009 | by Leah Schanke | 1 Comment

The following is a guest post from Dennis Slavin, Associate Provost for Faculty Development at Baruch College. He can be reached at Dennis.Slavin@baruch.cuny.edu.
About ten years ago the (then) executive director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Harvey Seifter, approached me with a novel idea: a residency for Orpheus at Baruch College. Those of you who know [...]

Mar

17

How elite are we?

March 17, 2009 | by Will Millhiser | 7 Comments

Did you see “Disadvantages of an Elite Education” (American Scholar, 2008) in which former Yale professor William Deresiewicz contrasts the education at Yale and Cleveland State, an inner-city university much like Baruch? The article was unexpectedly thought provoking. For example, consider this:
“[S]tudents at places like Yale get an endless string of second chances. Not so [...]

Mar

11

A+ . . . Despite Heavy Accent

March 11, 2009 | by Elisabeth Gareis | 10 Comments

Question: A student gives a presentation. He has a heavy foreign accent and is at times incomprehensible. Overall, the speech seems well researched and on target. What do you do?
a. Give him an A.
b. Subtract points for incomprehensibility and give him a B.
c. Tell him that the presentation was unacceptable and that he should improve [...]

Mar

3

Why Post Grades on Blackboard?

March 3, 2009 | by Will Millhiser | 5 Comments

Did you see the article “Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes” by Max Roosevelt in the 18-Feb-2009 NY Times? The article asserts that students are feeling more entitled to high grades than in years past.
I made a small change about five years ago that significantly reduced the number of end-of-semester grade disputes. I wonder [...]