Saturday, December 28, 2013

Progress Toward Free Higher Education: City College of San Francisco


In the latest state attempt to salvage the California higher education social contract, bill SB 520 indicates that 85% of California Community Colleges (CCC) reported having waiting lists for their fall 2012 course sections, with a statewide average of more than 7,000 students on waiting lists per college.  This figure of nearly 500,000 individuals does not include those for whom such a salient fact discourages pursuit of higher education – be it a child entering high school or an adult entering retirement.

These individuals are not only denied access to higher education, they are left vulnerable to exploitation by venture and “philanthrocapitalists” chomping at the bit to get a piece of the SB 520 online solution.

This circumstance is particularly offensive since the affected have a right to free higher education, as ratified by the United States in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [here after, International Covenant].  Article 13, sections 2 (c) and (e) read:

(c) Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education; and (e) The development of a system of schools at all levels shall be actively pursued, an adequate fellowship system shall be established, and the material conditions of teaching [academic] staff shall be continuously improved.[Emphasis added]

Because California colleges have missions specifying open admission, access to higher education is not restricted based on age, race, sex, scholastic or physical ability; though it is restricted based on economic means and available institutional resources - what the International Covenant calls the “basis of capacity."

The largest such open mission is held by City College of San Francisco (CCSF), which this July stands to lose its institutional accreditation.  This will significantly further reduce access to higher education – not to mention its impact on the material conditions, fellowship system and right to earn a living of academic staff.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

My First MOOC: Helping Me Better See Features and Redesign of Higher Education

NOTE: This post was generated in response to Cathy’s N Davidson’s November 23rd HASTAC post and its “Evolving, Collaborative Template of Open-Ended Questions.”   There was posted today a revised version of these questions, with considerable conceptual distinction.  Nevertheless, I think the response I offer to the first version is instructive, so I have posted it.  I have stopped work in light of the revised focus on credentials, but have managed to cover the following shared topics/headings: 1) About our university/What we value; 2) Comparables; 3) Costs; and 4) Students/Learners.  As for my thoughts on the professional model and credentials please see: 1) The Inmates Should Be Running Higher Education and 2) Badge Movements and the Professional Higher Education Model.



As part of the crowd contributing to an evolving document in Cathy N Davidson’s Coursera MOOC, “The History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education,” I offer response to the exploratory questions posed by Cathy - see excerpt below from her November 23rd blog post on HASTAC.



Designing Higher Education From Scratch
#FutureEd
Posted by Cathy N. Davidson
November 23, 2013
HASTAC (hastac.org)
PUBLIC DRAFT
COMMENTS WELCOME

If you were creating an institution of higher learning from scratch, what would it look like?  Would it be a “fix” or a radical reshaping? U.S. model or other? Research university, liberal arts college, community college, vocational--or are there exciting new ways to erase those distinctions? Publicly funded, private, for profit? Residential? How many of these elements do MOOCs (hailed in the hype as the “future” of higher learning) address? Until we “see” the features of higher education at present, it’s hard to think about change.  Below…are some template questions to get us started on this thought experiment designed to inspire innovation. What are we missing?  Please make additions, suggestions, comments.  (This project will last until May 2014 and maybe beyond.  This is just a start.)


I believe the entrepreneurial higher education models I am developing are viable alternatives to the current institutional model of: 1) university and college principal service providers; 2) public funding and 3) union labour representation.  I refer to this institutional model as the triad.  The response below is restricted to the professional model – though a co-operative model also offers promising response. The headings and numbered questions in black are Cathy’s, while my responses are in blue.

I have enrolled in the MOOC.  I hope something like this gets assigned as homework…

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