Cass R. Sunstein is a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and a prolific writer.  In Infotopia, he portrays the various options for gathering information.  Prediction markets, wikis, blogs and open source software are among the choices that he reviews.  Deliberation is a process of decision making that most of us are familiar with, particularly if we’ve served on a jury.  Sunstein describes the strengths and weaknesses of that process and how it can be improved or impaired depending on the size of the group and the influence of “experts” in the group.  While the transference of the knowledge and techniques described in many of these chapters may not currently be available to many small businesses, the fact that some of our largest and sophisticated corporations (Google, Microsoft) are utilizing them, may give rise to a wider and more affordable access in the future.

Infotopia is not a book intended for mass audiences.  Sunstein’s research and writing provides a reader interested in trends and statistical analysis of large populations a background solid enough to ask the right questions of a consultant or employee statistician.

Graphic from Measuring Up 2006, a publication of The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, showing the increasing costs of various consumer goods and services in relation to the Consumer Price Index.

As a recipient of financial aid in the 1970’s when I attended Duke and Tulane, I can relate to the continual and ongoing debate about the affordability of college.  I was fortunate to have parents who believed in the benefits of higher education and who told me to “go to the best school that you can get into and we’ll figure out how to pay whatever the financial aid office says that we have to pay.”  Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Fast forward a few decades and it’s difficult to pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading about the issues surrounding the affordability of higher education.  The subject is complex, solutions are complex, and many people have opinions on the issue.  Robert Bliwise writes an article in the July-August issue of Duke Magazine that articulates the view from his vantage point as a professor of public policy.  There are a few highlights that I’ll mention and will certainly resurface in a few ongoing pieces about the financial aid debate.

Bliwise begins with a description of a book published twenty years ago by Charles Clotfelter (Duke ’69) called Buying the Best.  Clotfelter, a public policy professor at Duke, examined the way selective colleges and universities competed for the best students and awarded aid.  Students weren’t price sensitive about an elite education in those days and financial aid was growing faster than any other area of campus spending.  In the article, Clotfelter discusses the issues between need-based aid and merit aid.  Clotfelter defends need-based aid as “a guarantor of the brand,” and states that the value of the institution would be diminished if only the affluent could attend.  I agree, personally and professionally.  Bliwise quotes Duke’s undergraduate admissions director, Christoph Guttentag, as stating that there’s now a competition between the “haves and the have-mores” in demonstrating the social contract balancing the affluent and the needy.  Bliwise provides a list of thirty-six “elite” schools that have created more generous financial-aid packages for families with incomes ranging from $40,000-$100,000 per year.

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As part of our ongoing efforts to have certain degree programs recognized for their conformity to national standards and for their quality, our Bachelor of Arts in Child and Family Development was recently certified by the National Council on Family Relations.  I asked Dr. Carol Passman, Program Director, to provide some background information on that certification.  Her summary is printed below.

In June 2008, the American Public University System received recognition from the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) for the University’s Bachelor of Arts in Child and Family Development program.  APUS’s is the first fully online program certified by the NCFR.  This professional organization confers certification on institutions granting degrees that include coursework meeting high standards and rigorous criteria needed for their graduates to receive NCFR pre-approval for Family Life Educator certification.  Pre-approval allows graduates an abbreviated application for full Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) status.

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As an elementary school student in the 1960’s, I can remember my father commenting on the issue that the Soviet bloc athletes were professionals (paid by the state) and that America’s athletes were amateurs.   I thought that was unfair until “we” redefined the participation rules and many of our professional athletes were allowed and encouraged to compete in the Olympics, where there are probably few examples of self-supported amateurs competing in any event regardless of the country that the athlete represents.

With the advent of popular marketing, the world has also seen the rise of professional athletes competing in what used to be an amateur-only arena, the Olympics.  The first Olympics to allow professional athletes to compete were the 1988 Games for some sports and the 1992 Games for the remainder.  It is no coincidence that this era also saw an unprecedented sports marketing boom.  The emphasis on professional sports, often to the detriment of amateur sports, has had a trickle-down effect on sports at the college and high school levels.

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Institutions receive accreditation from either a regional or national accrediting body.  Generally, it’s the institution that receives accreditation which covers all the programs offered by that institution at the time of the accrediting visit.  There are other accrediting bodies that accredit individual programs only, and that form of accreditation is referred to as specialty accreditation.  Recently, we received notice that our Emergency and Disaster Management program had received specialty accreditation from the Foundation of Higher Education.  I asked Dr. Chris Reynolds, Program Manager for our EDM program and our Fire Science program, to provide a little background on what the FoHE accreditation means for this program.

In 2007, the Emergency and Disaster Management program of the American Public University System initiated its accreditation request with the Foundation of Higher Education for Disaster and Emergency Management and Homeland Security. The Foundation of Higher Education (FoHE), working through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Higher Education initiative, along with practitioners and academics from around the world, developed a set of emergency and disaster management educational standards based on a hierarchy of educational objectives (much like Bloom’s Taxonomy).  These emergency management standards are centered on emergency management “best” practices, as defined by NFPA 1600 and the FEMA Higher Education initiative.

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Today is the 162nd birthday of the Smithsonian Institute.  On August 10, 1846, President James Polk signed an Act passed by Congress establishing the Smithsonian as a trust, to be administered by a Board of Trustees and a Secretary of the Institution.  The impetus for this Act was a bequest by a British scientist, James Smithson, who left his estate to his nephew, unless his nephew died without heirs in which case the estate went to the United States of America to “found at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”  Smithson’s nephew died in 1835, the money was delivered to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1838 and Congress debated the situation for eight years before passing the 1846 Act.

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