SCUP Scan: Monday, December 14, 2009

From Inside Higher Ed, Rice at a Crossroads:

Baylor College of Medicine has become something of a Rorschach test for Rice University faculty members. Some look at the institution down the street and see a top tier medical school that could be enveloped into Rice at a bargain basement price. For others, Baylor is a financially beleaguered institution that will at best drain resources from Rice, and at worst suck it down like an anchor.

From The Chronicle's Buildings & Grounds Blog, "Gingerbread Has Its Strengths as a Sustainable Building Material": UBC students discovered that it has more strength when made with shortening, not butter.

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, Learning to Hate Learning Objectives:

I don't know whether accreditation works or whether it matters. I only know that, for me, teaching and learning are inseparable and driven not by "learning objectives," goals, outcomes, performance indicators, or assessment rubrics, but by complicated, often painful, but always irresistible compulsions.

From Today's Campus, an interview with David Feldman, Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary:

A plainspoken professor/author continues to paint a clear picture of the pressures on higher education costs and the results in the marketplace.

From University Business, Report Finds Structural and Safety Issues on College Campuses (MO):

Missouri’s college campuses look good from the outside, but within are cramped classrooms, deteriorating walls and outdated lab equipment, according to a state report out this week.