“The culinary literacy of college students is increasing,” said Tom Post, president of campus dining for Sodexo, a food service and facilities management company that works with 600 campuses in North America. “Students today grew up watching celebrity chefs on TV, eating organic food, enjoying authentic world cuisine and valuing good nutrition.”

Food for Thought
There’s no debate about the existence of what’s commonly called brain food. Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins–they all help you think and help your brain stay in tip-top shape. Is it any wonder that there’s been a push to provide good food at college cafeterias?

I remember using fake names to order our grilled cheese sandwiches (I was Vladimir, and my friend was Whitney). I also remember missing class, clutching my stomach (and a trash can) because of a bad Polish Dog from the cafeteria. The joke was that the cafeteria kept you regular–whether you wanted to be or not. The food choices were beginning to evolve, but a trip to the cafeteria nearly always left one sedentary. There’s definitely such a thing as food that’s bad for the old noggin’.

When We Got Cookin’
It was because of this that we sought out the dorm’s cooking facilities. We weren’t allowed anything other than a teapot or coffee maker in our rooms (not even a hot plate), which limited illicit in-room cooking to ramen, or noodle tea (we were such clever little rule benders).

I remember late nights in the main study lounge (fortuitously, the kitchen was right off this lounge) switching off between doing physics homework on the chalk board, cooking, and eating. I still remember a friend of mine making fresh biscotti during finals week, though I couldn’t tell you what classes I was taking or what I learned that semester.

Online Education Loses This One
I’m a big supporter of the dorm experience. I made lifelong friends, had adventures, and generally grew quite a bit as a person in the dorms. Cooking in the dorms and the community involved gave me some of my fondest college memories. An online education saves you the cost of room and board, but it comes at the price of these experiences. Keep this in mind.

So, Science, What Have You Done for Me Lately?
What blows me away about these statistics about America’s feeling regarding science can be summed up with a single piece of technology that has grown immensely in popularity–not to mention gotten ridiculously more complex–from 1999 to 2009: the cellular phone. In 1999, when science was in better standing with the public, my cell phone could do two things: make phone calls and send text messages (at least I seem to remember that being an option, I can’t say I tried to use that feature much at that point). Now you can get anGPS-enabled iPhone that connects to a nationwide 3G network to stream videos at speeds that would have made a 1999er’s head spin. It has a touch screen. It has a digitial compass and voice recognition software–that actually works. It knows which way up and rotates its display accordingly. For Pete’s sake, it has accelerometers and a built-in camera. It’s the most advanced piece of technology ever to be so widely desired–not to mention possessed.

So, to those of you who took this survey and decided that we aren’t doin’ so hot on the science front: if you’re reading this, you’re on the Internet and chances are pretty high you didn’t have to listen the screech of a 14.4 dial-up modem to get here. Take a moment and look around you. If you aren’t impressed by the technological innovations of the last decade, you’re either blind or a ludite.

• What drives you?
• If you can’t answer the first part, then why are you bothering to get out of bed?

Now, there’s no wrong answer to part one. It’s your life; you get to decide what drives you. It’s the second part that should hit home. You shouldn’t just be going to work; you should be working towards something. It’s all too easy to forget sometimes, which is why it’s often necessary to proactively remind yourself why you do what you do–lest you get stuck in a rut or lose sight of the light, leaving you to wander that tunnel blindly.

This is where rebranding your day comes in. Think of slogans like, “Fake it ’til you make it.” Next time your in a foul mood, try smiling for a while. You’ll start off feeling ridiculous, but you’ll be smiling in earnest in just a few hours. If you’re still alive, chances are high that you want to be. Figure out why, focus on that, and make your day about it. Life isn’t about trudging from one basic need to the next. When it starts to feel that way, take a step back, a deep breath, count to ten–whatever you have to do, get some perspective. Life is like surfing. You can ride the waves, or you can get tumbled–it’s your choice.

A Goal Is a Dream with a Deadline
Figure out what you want from life. If your answer is nothing, then–again–why’d you even get out bed? Now, break down how you’re going to get there. This is an extremely intimidating task–suddenly you’ve decided to grab the reins rather than simply going through the motions. You’ll be better for it, I promise.

Starting by writing it out works very well, but staring at a blank sheet of paper won’t get you anywhere except discouraged. Start getting down ideas. Ask yourself what drives you. Figure out what you want, and start writing out ways to get it.

Be Realistic
I use a little lesson I picked up from Existentialist philosophy: the idea of facticity versus transcendence. Facticity is what you cannot change; transcendence is what you can change. Identifying too much with one or the other leads to despair.

Say, for example, you were born without legs. You can’t change this, which puts it into the category of facticity. If you decide your goal in life is to win the 100-meter dash in the Olympics, you’re identifying too much with your transcendence. You’re setting yourself up for failure and a life of despair and depression. If, on the other hand, you decide that because you don’t have any legs you’re a cripple incapable of accomplishing anything, you’re identifying too much with your facticity. Again, you’ve slipped into despair.

This example is extreme, but it gets the point across. Balancing your facticity and transcendence is a constant struggle. Ambition demands you push the limits of your facticity, and ambition is what gets you out of bed every morning. You desire to do something, accomplish something.

Education as a Means to Transcendence
Most every important life goal is going to involve success. If your goal in life is something abstract, like being happy, it’ll break down into requirements like eliminating stress by living well and within your means. In our society, that requires money. To get money, you need a job. To maintain the happiness part of the goal, you need a job you like. This is where education comes in.

You can get a high quality education online and keep your current job while your earning that degree. You can take advantage of a local community college, where night classes are offered more often than in traditional universities. The fact of the matter is, more education makes you look better to employers and succeeding in whatever school program you choose makes you feel proud of yourself.

It’s not going to be easy, but nothing that’s truly worth it is ever easy–the difficulty adds value. When you wake up tomorrow, get that special glint in you eye that says, “I’m in control, and I am going to succeed.” Go forth and achieve.

Pulling Together as a Planet for Higher Education
Call me a skeptic, but we–at least in these United States–can scarcely agree on a direct plan of action to fix higher education’s ills, let alone agree what said ills actually are. We’ve got ethical issues in business schools. We’ve got funding issues everywhere. In the face of a worldwide recession, can a group of intellectuals in a notoriously abstract field really pull together in a productive manner?

Another goal, seems almost narcissistic:

“The Conference will reaffirm the importance of higher education and research in meeting global challenges, as well as in building more inclusive, equitable and sustainable knowledge economies.”

Is this conference going to be an international group hug during which world leaders in various educational fields tell each other they’re making a difference?

Advertising Answers
Advertisements for the conference ask the following questions:

• To what extent is higher education today a driver for sustainable development in the national and international context?
• Does the sector live up to the expectations placed in it to induce change and progress in society?
• How does higher education contribute to the development of the education system as a whole?
• What are the most significant trends that will shape the new higher education and research spaces?
• How are learners and learning changing?
• What are the new challenges for “quality” and “equity”?

I’ll be reporting back next week with some actual information on what was accomplished, but at this point, it seems too nebulous for this business-minded blogger.

Dept. of Education: Speaking of Sallie Mae…
The U.S. Department of Education has just chosen Sallie Mae to help the Federal Student Aid Title IV Student Loan Management/Servicing program. Sallie Mae and three other companies will be servicing $550 billion in loans that are owned by the Dept. Education.

I’ll admit, I’m a little gun shy about moving loans around because of the recent economic situation. Call me skeptical, but is Sallie Mae really a sound choice? Moody’s Investor Services recently rated Sallie Mae’s debt non-investment grade. This rating implies substantial credit risk and generally maintains the negative outlook for the company. While it’s true that this rating is a slight improvement from Sallie Mae’s previous rating, do we really want the government teaming up with them?

At least their hearts are in the right place.

First, the good news: Arne Duncan, who is the Secretary of Education, has just announced an $18.5 million dollar plan to “enhance libraries in 57 low-income school districts across the United States” (from the press release).
This is great to hear. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve become a little concerned about the literacy of our up-and-comers. I was recently wandering through the halls of a local high school (on my way to meet a teacher friend of mine, not just recreationally), when I heard the students talking in a language I couldn’t readily identify. It was verbalized text message jargon. An example: “OMG, my BFF was all ‘WTF’ and was like LMAO! K, TTYL!” It was frightening, confusing, and a little depressing.

In all seriousness though, there are a great many schools out there that could use some extra funding pushed towards literacy programs. Secretary Duncan had this to say about the grants:

Encouraging students to improve their reading is a key to their success in school and in life. These grants help schools give students access to the most up-to-date books, technology, and highly trained library personnel to improve teaching and learning and to challenge students to achieve.

Now, Moving on to the Weird News…
Apparently, I missed the first go-round on this story, but I’ve caught up–and I’m disgusted. In Corpus Christi, TX, at a state school for the mentally and developmentally disabled, they’ve been fighting. The fights have been organized by staff members. The fights have been bet on by staff members. The fights have been going on for over thirty years. Now, it’s one thing to have a boxing club or a wrestling team; it’s an entirely other, sick thing to pit mentally and developmentally handicapped students against each other. Apparently, a similar school in Austin was also participating, and–get this–the winners from each school were brought in to fight each other. Congratulations, Texas, you’re home to some of the most depraved individuals in the country.

In Georgia, some one has been cheating on standardized tests: the principal. With help from the assistant prinicpal, answers were changed on fifth-grade standardized tests. They wanted to make sure that they met the federal achievement standards. Now, correct me if I’m wrong here, but aren’t principals, especially principals of elementary schools, supposed to be a moral compass for the youngsters they watch over? How on Earth are we to explain to these kids that they shouldn’t cheat after something like this? With an education system full of this kind of stuff, is it any wonder that we’ve been suffering the consequences of underhanded financial dealings? Thankfully, the principal resigned.

Point That Finger Where It Belongs
We’re recovering from nearly a decade of anti-intellectualism and apathy. The mistakes of an administration that boasted a regular-guy president you could go have a drink with, have left us all with a bad taste in our mouths, and the results of the last election were a case in point. Our new president boasts quite an education–not to mention a track record of using it–which actually helped get him elected, in spite of his age. Things are changing. The very mottoes of the new administration during the election–namely: Yes, we can. and A vote for change.–show that much, but our history of beating up the smart kids is still haunting us.

The Budget Cuts
The idea that those who cannot do, teach, is preposterous, backward, and even a fair bit responsible for the funding cuts in education. It’s easy to pick on the teachers and take money away from schools. It’s also a horrible idea.

I went to an overcrowded high school. It was build for 1800 and there were 2200 of us. We made do, but several of my friends and I walked door-to-door campaigning for the bond issue that was going to fund the building of a new high school. It amazed me how many negative reactions we got–and this wasn’t during a recession. Everything from remarks about teachers wasting money to schooling not being important, was thrown at us. People shouted from cars as we put up signs, and they generally didn’t have anything nice to say. It was not my first or last time dealing with the public’s ideas that education isn’t important and the schools are wasting money.

Now, we’re seeing 30,000 pink slips being disseminated throughout the California education system, a myriad schools cutting admission and classes, and students unable to even consider going to their dream schools because there’s simply not much money to go around.

The Bubble
The budget cuts are hitting universities pretty hard, leading to many questioning whether or not we’re in a kind of higher education bubble. The fact of the matter is not that a degree is being overvalued, but that large amounts of funding have been cut, forcing colleges to push the bill onto the students. We may have been floating in a bit of a bubble a few years ago, but now we’re sinking, and we must not take our education system–the basis for building our future through the betterment of our children–down with the ship.

The Associated Press reported this about a recent survey:

71 percent of high schools reported that more of their students are forgoing their “dream schools” this year than in previous years. And there is little doubt money is a big reason. “With the exception of one or two students, it was THE determining factor in their decision,” one high school official wrote. Said another: “Parents were willing to pay for prestige in the past. This year they wanted prestigious schools IF the financial aid packages would work for them.”

Often, the trouble with dream schools is that the student applying is attempting to be upwardly mobile. This means that he or she might–just barely–make the cut for admission. Students who barely make the cut rarely find that they’re being offered much financial incentive from their dream schools.

I remember applying for college in a three-tier system: dream schools, schools I’d probably get into, and safety schools. The financial aid I was offered can be broken down respectively as: student loans, a fair amount, and a full ride. This is pretty typical, and in this economic climate, people (parents and students alike) want more debt like they want a hole in the head.

How Much Is That Fancy Alma Mater Worth?
Friends of mine with prestigious names attached to their bachelor’s degrees have one thing in common: they all went back to school for graduate degrees. Sure, their dream-school degrees helped them get into the various graduate programs, but once you get a higher-level degree (i.e., higher level than your previous degree) the focus shifts to your most recent alma mater.

I’ve heard it said more than a few times that it doesn’t matter where you get your bachelor’s degree–as long as you go to a good graduate school. Of course, you’ve got to do well in your bachelor’s program for this to be true.

Dollar–and Penny–Wise
Getting your degree from an online university could be just the option for students and parents looking pinch pennies for a while. Not only is it easier to work full-time (easier, not necessarily easy) while attending an online degree program, it’s often cheaper across the board. There’s no commute, no additional room and board, no parking fee, and no strict attendance policy keeping you from holding a job. If you’re looking to pinch pennies, online degree programs are the way to go.

With more and more people taking advantage of online programs, the general public’s acceptance of these degrees has grown significantly. This means that not only potential employers, but also that dream school you put off, will respect your degree when you hand over that CV.

Don’t give up on your dreams just because money’s a little tight lately. Just put them on hold until you’re in a better place to take full advantage of having that prestigious name next to your degree. It’ll look better beside a graduate degree anyway.

Toy or Tool?
Listening to lectures between classes, researching statistics on the go, having breaking news sent right the palm of their hand–the potential, practical uses for one of these devices are numerous. The question is, will students use their new toys for good or ill? The few professors who came out against the new requirement (9 against versus 40 in favor) argue that students will be checking Facebook, not facts, during class.

Anyone who has ever walked into a large lecture hall filled with laptop-laden students, has seen that at least half of the screens aren’t covered in notes. Students chat online, play games, and otherwise escape the realities of the classroom while appearing to be rapt note takers. It’s just a fact of life. The idea that requiring students to carry an iPhone-like device will in any way change this reality is almost laughable. Some will be playing; some will be paying attention–let their grades sort it out.

Footing the Phone Bill
Another big criticism of the new requirement is the cost. Tough times equal tight budgets, and in addition to the high, up-front cost of these devices, service plans come with quite a price tag. Will the university be offering additional aid to cover this? No answer on that front yet, but probably not. College is a notorious drain on the ol’ budget, making this requirement bad news for parents and working students.

The Internet is Changing Everything
The fact of the matter is that in Internet is changing the way we do most everything. I’ve often wondered what will replace the collected-letter genre–will we buy books composed of collected tweets? Status updates? Text messages? Odds aren’t good. That’s a small price to pay, though, for the new levels of productivity we’ve acheieved thanks to instant communication and research.

When asked about the new requirement, Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, said, “It really shows how both journalism and education are changing in transformational ways. The biggest effect the Internet will have is not how we play or communicate, but how we learn.” I think he underrates the communicative advancements a touch, but–it’s true–the Internet is changing the way we do most everything. It’s quite possibly the most important invention since the printing press, and I, for one, am excited to see what the future holds.

Students? What Students? Where?
The absent-minded professor cliché has its roots in research-driven-instructor reality. Anyone who has made it through enough schooling to become a full-fledged professor knows how to do research and has probably come to enjoy it. The trouble comes when these flighty professors let teaching duties slide to accommodate their intensive research schedules.

Now, there’s one obvious benefit to having research savvy professors: They’re on the cutting edge, not stagnating in outdated theories or outmoded schools of thought. These professors are advancing their field. Sure, it’s time consuming, but the benefits are numerous.

Pressure Point
The trouble comes with publishing. Research is great, but getting it published (especially the more esoteric stuff) is often difficult. Another benefit of the Internet, though, is that it’s made getting published a lot easier. The low overhead of online journals has made it possible for a great many more articles to be seen by an even greater number of people. The trick before this was to research and research and research and then write paper after paper after–you get the idea–until one finally got published, at which point the professor could relax for a day or two, maybe even get back to teaching.

You Make Your Hours; I’ll Make Mine
Just like students at online universities, professors have a more flexible schedule than they would at a brick-and-mortar college. This isn’t to say that teaching online takes less time, far from it. It simply allows professors to do their research without having to leave for an hour to go teach a class.

The publishing expectations vary from school to school, so publish or perish is still a concern, but at least our absent-minded professors  don’t have to worry about keeping track of a schedule.