“Fraternities need to grow up”
by Dominic Valente

ASU administrators have decided to expel Sigma Alpha Epsilon after a string of alcohol-related incidents this past year.

And who could blame them? After the death of Jack Culolias, could anyone blame them? After repeated warnings from the University and the demolition of Alpha Drive’s houses, could anyone blame them?

After Sigma Alpha Epsilon members dropped off a fellow brother at the hospital with a blood alcohol content level that exceeded the legal limit six fold, could anyone blame them?

Sigma Alpha Epsilon needs to grow up. If it plans on ever being considered a legitimate fraternity in Arizona again, it needs to change its culture, permanently.

The State Press
Arizona State University

Full article here.

“New qualifiers give fresh perspective on college rankings”
by Jerry Zhao

In a national college ranking based on social mobility, research and service released late last month by the Washington Monthly, four UC schools made the top 10.

Although traditional rankings have the upper hand when measuring the quality of education for the individual student, the Washington Monthly’s rankings take a more focused look at the immediate value a college provides to the public.

These factors represent services for which the public pays for and from which the public benefits.

“For every dollar that we put in the system, we generate $14 in economic activity,” said Dianne Klein, a UC spokeswoman. “There is a tendency for the public to forget that we are the University for all of California and the nation, so much of what we do are from a public mission to benefit people.”

Daily Bruin
University of California,Los Angles

Full artilce here.

“The flipped, flipped classroom”
by Bertrand Schneider, Paulo Blikstein, Roy Pea

The past years have witnessed the apparition of one of the largest educational revolutions of our time: many prognosticators trumpet how MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and flipped classroom models are one of the most promising educational approaches of the last century.

Paradoxically, those so-called “innovations” are incorporating none of the educational research produced over the past decades.

In numerous controlled and rigorous experiments, educational researchers have described how “tell-and-practice” classroom instructions are well-suited for supporting memorization of facts and procedures but prevent students from developing critical thinking and transferring their knowledge to new situations. MOOCs and flipped classrooms are merely recreating the same pedagogical structure without questioning the scientific validity of this model.

The Stanford Daily
Stanford University

Full article here.

“College dress code does not warrant judgment”
by Lauren Thurman

Exploring life outside the dress code norms with your dignity intact can be a cocktail of double standards, but CU’s general lack of regulations on clothing doesn’t give anyone the right to judge based on appearances.

More so than to stave promiscuity, dress codes are borne of the age-old tradition of vilifying and suppressing female sexuality. Many codes perpetuate the mentality that racer-back tops are the cause of impure thoughts.

Academic institutions have never been brought down by skimpy clothing. When have we seen a dramatic increase in male test performance as soon as sweater weather came around?

If we’re judgmental of our fellow students and their garments, we’re only giving new life to archaic concepts of propriety.

CU Independent
University of Colorado, Boulder

Full article here.