Valdosta State University graduate Stephen Dupuis (VSU '08) teamed up with UGA grad Stephen Turner to create Defy Thirst, which strives to empower developing nations through sanitation education and the sharing of efficient, inexpensive water filtration technology. It is good to know that our graduates from this university are not only able to earn a living but contribute to solving the problems of the world.

ILLER: Obama Zombies Strike Back

Jessica Colotl fights back!


They just f _ _ _ ed with the wrong Mexican!

World Cultural Preservation

My former professor, Richard Kurin, has been the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture" at the Smithsonian Institution for over 25 years now. An interview with Dr. Kurin posted on the U.S. State Department's propaganda organ America.gov has been making the round among progressive news outlets like Scoop and cultural resources blogs like Saving Antiquities.

I am amazed that Kurin has not only survived but flourished as organizer and recruiter of international acts for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as many of the Silk Road Project events and exhibits at museums in our nation's capitol. The profile advertising his appearance at the Canadian Museum Association conference in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Kurin describes many of his most recent accomplishments:

(Kurin)... has worked with cultural figures ranging from Pete Seeger, Yo-Yo Ma, Mickey Hart, and Bernice Johnson Reagon to the Aga Khan and the Dalai Lama. He helped draft an international treaty on safeguarding the world’s living cultural heritage. He has produced major events for the Smithsonian’s 150th anniversary, the opening of the World War II Memorial, the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, and programs for numerous presidential inaugurals, including that of President Obama.

I highly recommend the interview with Kurin posted at America.gov.

Who are the Climate Skeptics?

Back on December 16 of 2009, Jim Lippard posted a lengthy investigation of the denialist infrastructure in terms of citations, credentials, and organizational affiliation. I came across his blog by accident while reading Juan Cole today.

Brass Evolution

The marching band at Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Missouri was forced by conservative parents to abandon a t-shirt in which hominid ancestors were shown marching along with brass instruments. Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt asked that all band members turn in their shirts after the band marched at the Missouri State Fair. Pollitt told Tony Ferrell of the Sedalia Democrat that the Sedalia School District is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned.

Many of us do believe that biological science and the theory of evolution are neutral with respect to religion. Not so Richard Dawkins, however, who has prominently posted this story under "Wingnut News."

Electronic Reserve, Copyright, and Fair Use

Back in January of 2007, I wrote an entry here about "Fair Use" of digital images in my teaching. At that point in my career, I did not have occasion to distribute written materials to students other than my syllabi and an occasional handout. I have subsequently taught a few classes in which I assigned readings on reserve or provided photocopies to my students. Although I definitely believe in crediting an author or photographer for original material, my primary duty is to my students. Most of them are working hard at jobs off campus to afford the materials for which they must already pay in order to pass my classes.

The "electronic reserve" was a new concept to me until I read about it yesterday morning as the subject of a lawsuit against Georgia State University by three leading academic publishers. Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and SAGE Publications charged GSU with "enabling professors to provide students with digital copies of copyrighted course readings."

¹Hafner, Katie, 2008, "Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter," New York Times, April 16.

²Nielsen, Brian, 2009, "Publishers Sue Georgia State U. on e-coursepack," NUL Copyright, April 16.

³Stewart, Claire, 2009, "What does the lawsuit against Georgia State mean?," NUL Copyright, April 20.

⁴AAP, 2009, Publishers Take Action Against Georgia State University Copyright Infringement, Association of American Publishers, Washington, D.C.

⁵Hirtle, Peter, 2009, "Georgia State: Don't Forget the User," Library Law Blog, May 4.

⁶Liebler, Raizel, 2009, "The Georgia State E-reserves lawsuit: Is Fair Use Dead? Or is it the traditional publishing model?" Library Law Blog, May 7.

⁷Heyward, Kerry, 2009, "(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Copyright Law," Center for Teaching and Learning Newsletter, p. 2, Georgia State University, Atlanta.

⁸Board of Regents Copyright Committee, Regents Guide to Understanding Copyright & Educational Fair Use. Atlanta, Ga.: University System of Georgia.

Excellent Blog Awards

I received my E over a year ago from George, the Decrepit Old Fool, but I apparently neglected to pass the award on as requested. I am certain that I would have chosen a completely different set had I attended to this right away. The list below suggests that I have become a bit more focused on geology, which is only partially true. There really are quite a lot of excellent geologists who are also excellent bloggers.

Ron Schott
Volcanista
Clastic Detritus (Brian Romans)
Lounge of the Lab Lemming

Evolution... not just a theory anymore (Greg Laden)
De Rerum Natura (Reed Cartwright)
Grrlscientist (Devorah Bennu)
Imnakoya's Grandiose Parlor
Loomnie
Cup O'Joe

The "Excellent Blog" Award appears to have originated with Project Mommy, a blog written by Shannymar about her daughter Kayla. Brandy Betz, creator of Moue Magazine, described the spirit of the award when she passed hers on back in February of 2008.

I will have more to say about each of my excellent bloggers later. If you have read this far, please do yourself a favor and support Grrlscientist Devorah Bennu in her campaign to blog an expedition to Antarctica. She has 715 votes and is only a few hundred away from winning.

Valdosta is TitleTown, USA! ! !

Thanks to any of you readers who voted for this at ESPN!

Bootleg Textbooks

Randall Stross writes today in the Business Section of the New York Times about bootleg or "pirate" versions of college textbooks being downloaded from websites such as PirateBay. Professor Stross seems to almost endorse the practice, and appears to provide all of his own course materials online at San Jose State University.

Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch died yesterday, July 25, of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was only 47 years old but already had a distinguished career as a pioneer in the creation of "virtual reality." Randy was a popular professor at Carnegie Mellon University when he was stricken last year with the cancer which finally killed him.

Speaking to an overflow crowd in McConomy Auditorium Randy delivered a one-of-a-kind last lecture that is now inspiring audiences around the globe through the internet.

Double-dipping Educators

At my university and many others in Georgia, retired faculty are allowed to continue teaching and receive some salary after they begin taking their pensions. For many universities, this has been an excellent mechanism to maintain academic standards in spite of belt tightening by state government. Some abuses have occurred, however, and the policy has come under attack recently in both Florida and Massachusetts.

I fear that the cures being proposed for the abuses will be worse than the disease. On the other hand, I would like to see universities hiring young dynamic faculty rather than making do with dead wood who are trying to supplement their pensions. On balance, I believe that most educators are in this business to impart knowledge. The "double-dipping" that I know about provides senior faculty with a mere pittance of what they made as full-time tenured faculty. We are lucky to have most of them around. At Valdosta State University, in particular, they provide continuity and enhance the university's reputation for quality undergraduate teaching.

FIRE in Action: Valdosta State University

What happens in Nebraska......

This week I am on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln to grade Advanced Placement exams in Environmental Science (APES). We had spectacular weather last night, with tornadoes touching down both southwest and northeast of us. Fortunately, we were spared the worst of it. Our open forum with representatives of the College Board was shut down early.

Browsing the internet for news on last night's weather, I came across several stories about the fellow shown in the picture above. Sanford Kaplan is a local geologist, an adjunct at the university and at a community college who runs a consulting company called Earthsource Consulting. Kaplan also coached soccer for Northeast High School here, and that is where he apparently got himself in some trouble. The sordid and bizarre tale of Kaplan's sadomasochistic games with young boys in his garage grows with every newsday here and is a fertile source of content for blogs such as JailBeta, Weekly Vice, and Bad Bad Teacher. We do get lonely in this profession, but this creep deserves to be locked away where he can do no harm to the young.

Hayden Barnes reinstated

The student shown in this picture was deemed a "clear and present danger" to Valdosta State University last semester and expelled. Hayden Barnes is a particularly vocal and confrontational member of our campus environmental group, "Students Against Violating the Environment." Protesting against the two large parking decks included in the ongoing construction here at Valdosta State, Hayden made an unfortunate symbolic use of the name of our current university president. He put up posters around campus with a title at the top that read "S.A.V.E. — Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage." President Ronald Zaccari, who is soon to retire as university president, deemed Hayden a "clear and present danger" and expelled him.

Hayden's reinstatement by the Board of Regents is being celebrated by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) as a victory for free speech at Valdosta State University. I would love to have more students here as lively and motivated as Hayden seems to be.

R. I. P. Cayle Bywater

Cayle was my neighbor, I believe, when I lived at apartments on West Hancock Street before I moved down here to Valdosta. She must have moved out of those apartments last fall, however, because the news stories report her going missing from a house on South Milledge Avenue near Memorial Park. I was actually called by a reporter a little after the first of the year, and I do recall both her and her dog. She impressed me as an energetic and spirited young woman.

Cayle's body was found yesterday in the lake at Memorial Park. That lake had already been dredged at least a week earlier, but apparently they missed the body then. The Athens coroner reported no evidence of a violent struggle. We can comfort ourselves that Cayle may not have had to experience the sort of violence and terror that were the fate of her fellow UGA grad, Meredith Emerson.

Power Shift, 2007

Some of my students told me this past week that they would be missing class this Monday for a trip to Washington, D.C. I soon found out that these students, members of the Students Against Violating the Environment (SAVE) group here at VSU, will be participating in a national consciousness-raising event called "Power Shift."

From what I am learning about this event, I am very proud of my students and even a bit jealous. Tonight's rally is apparently being held at the University of Maryland, and the students will then travel to Capitol Hill on Monday to rally for increased federal environmental legislation. I just hope that they do not wind up getting hauled off to jail by the Capitol police. A few of them are a bit brash and outspoken.

Chancellor Erroll Davis and P-Card Fraud

The current chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Erroll Davis, came to his current position from a successful career as a business executive. The former CEO of Alliant Corporation, Davis is the first non-academic and also the first African American to hold the chancellor's job as a permanent position.

In light of Chancellor Davis's corporate background and his recent emphasis on streamlining university administration and our service to students, it is ironic that the fraudulent use of state procurement cards ("P-Cards") should have come to light under his watch. Testifying before a subcommittee of the Georgia House of Representatives headed by Representative John Heard (R - Lawrenceville), Chancellor Davis implied that P-Card fraud is somehow related to the focus of universities on academics at the expense of customer service. I find this comment very self-serving on his part. Those of us who are focused on academics may not be skilled in personnel management, but we are not the ones committing this fraud.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and reporter Andrea Jones are to be commended in any case for staying on top of this story and providing an online blog forum for it to be discussed by Georgia citizens. I am surprised that more students are not taking an interest, as it is really their money that was stolen as much as "the taxpayers."

Procurement Card Fraud at GPC

Frequent readers of this blog will recall that I taught at Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) for nearly six years on and off before I moved down here to Valdosta this fall. I was disheartened although not entirely surprised to learn of the fraud in the use of Procurement Cards ("P Cards") at GPC. Two investigative reports and one opinion piece appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this past week. Here are my PDF versions of these pieces:

Buying Binge, by Andrea Jones (Oct. 5, 2007)

Perdue Cracks Down on Cards, by Andrea Jones (Oct. 5, 2007)

Audit: Abuse of Credit Brazen, by Maureen Downey (Oct. 8, 2007)

Most of the fraud appears to have involved employees at the Clarkston and Decatur campuses, and I taught primarily at the Lawrenceville campus over in Gwinnett County. P Card fraud has been committed by employees of Georgia Tech as well.

Nonetheless, this shows something I have often remarked. We in higher education are sometimes our own worst enemies. It seems that we all cut corners or juggle our budgets and work assignments for our own personal gain and that of our close friends and colleagues. The community colleges and lower tier schools do see some of the worst of it. That is unfortunate because that is where the needs are the greatest. Several dedicated faculty members could have been moved from part-time to full-time status with the money that was wasted on personal gifts, vacations, car payments and other fraudulent purchases.

Patrick Michaels no longer state climatologist

Renowned for his denial that fossil fuel emissions are the most likely cause of current global warming, Patrick Michaels has resigned as state climatologist for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Michaels claims that his budget and salary had been "politicized" when he was asked by Virginia's Democratic governor, Timothy Kaine, not to use the title of state climatologist. Joseph Zieman, the current chair of Michael's department, however, counters that it was the consulting Michaels did for energy companies that got him into trouble.

Hat tip to Greg Laden for the link.