Democracy on the Local Level

Our local school board, of which I am vice president, recently held an open town hall meeting. The meeting was very well attended and the individuals present represented a broad spectrum of local opinion. These are challenging times for many local schools and in fact for many residents in the community. A sluggish economy and high taxes take their toll. But even with the formidable challenges present and the vast differences of opinion, I was impressed by the community and had great respect for all the voices that made their opinions known. In New York, we have a strict tax cap that will impact the school budget beginning next year. A very passionate resident who spoke early in the meeting pushed us to propose overriding the cap. Later in the program there were multiple retirees talking about the impact that the school budget and real estate taxes in general have on their well being. I understand and sympathize with both points of view. If resources weren’t scarce, we could do more in terms of serving the needs of our kids. If taxes didn’t rise, social security recipients who waited two years for an increase would have their purchasing power remain stable rather than being compromised by higher taxes. As the meeting continued, there were speakers who expressed concern about services for special needs children, speakers who questioned why there were defined benefit pension plans for individuals working in the school system, speakers who wanted to know the effect on class size and elective offerings under the tax cap. We reassured parents that special education programs were mandated and would not be trimmed. We talked about the problems inherent in a defined benefit pension plan but no one suggested or would suggest any change or diminution for existing employees. And we reminded the audience that defined benefit pensions were legislated by the state and that the school board had no options other than to adhere to the state requirements. We talked about the modest impact of the tax cap on class size, on elective offerings and the overall breadth and depth of the education we provide. At the end of the town hall meeting, almost three hours later, I think everyone in the audience had a clearer sense of the issues, of the opinion of others, and the fact that difficult questions rarely have black and white easy answers. What happens next? I have confidence that the critical issues are being aired in an open and transparent manner. I have confidence that the community is being well informed and that it has a real voice in the decision making process. And I also have confidence in the school board and especially in my colleagues and the superintendent that at the end of the day, we will make the decisions that are in the best interests of our kids, of our teachers, and of our community. Doing more with less should always be a goal but won’t result in major savings assuming that basic efficiencies are already in place. With mandated costs that are rising faster than the tax cap, there will be an impact and at the margin we will be making changes. But by hearing, listening, working together and striking a balance, I am convinced we will make the right decisions and serve the community well. Now if only Washington could function in the same collaborative way.

Carnomics

I’m a car person as you may have gathered from previous blogs. But it actually makes good sense to be an economist who also happens to be a car person given the important role that the automobile industry has played and continues to play, for good or bad, in our economy. Right now it is certainly for good. It is once again a very positive time in terms of the domestic automobile industry and all three key manufacturers—Chrysler, Ford, and GM – are doing well, having demonstrated impressive growth for the 2011 model year. Automotive News reported that “U.S. light vehicle sales were up 10 percent to 12.8 million in 2011 after a similar rise the year before.” And the promise is there of even better times. Just look at three key domestic products introduced at the 2012 Detroit auto show. The three, in alphabetical order, are the Cadillac ATS, which has the promise of making the kind of impact on the entry luxury market, presently led by the BMW 3 class, that has never before happened with a domestic product. My brother had a Cadillac Cimarron. Saying the car was forgettable was the nicest thing that anyone could say about it. It was better than the Vega that I bought which was the pits but it was on the low side of mediocre which made it a strong catalyst for foreign cars sales. The second is the Dodge Dart which is a genuinely attractive, well designed compact car. It should be able to compete effectively with both foreign and domestic competitors in a way that the Dodge Caliber never could. And the third is the Ford Fusion. The Ford is a very attractive competitor to the Camry or the Accord. It looks better than both of the other cars and many other competing brands, and seems to have the functionality and the quality to be a major player in the major arena of car competition. There are other cars in the wings from all three manufacturers that have the promise of being just as successful and the evidence is clear and, in fact increasing, that Detroit can compete successfully with the best cars around the globe. At the same time that I am watching the latest Detroit success story unfold in the form of all these impressive products, I have also been reading and have just finished “Once Upon a Car: The Fall and Resurrection of America’s Big Three Automakers- GM, Ford and Chrysler” by Bill Vlasic who is the Detroit Bureau Chief of The New York Times. The book starts at a time (2007) when light vehicle sales were 3 million above where they are today and is must reading for a very comprehensive overview of what went wrong and what ultimately happened to these three automobile titans. What went wrong, and this was just a few years ago, was just about everything—building cars that weren’t responsive to what customers were looking for; building too many overly similar cars (with Mercury and Pontiac being just two examples); too many different platforms, engines, etc. around the globe undermining economies of scale; and labor costs including fringe benefits (and health care programs) that created a clear and very serious economic disadvantage. The failure was across the board— arrogant, isolated management together with myopic labor and this book chronicles it all in a well written fast paced and thoroughly absorbing volume. What went wrong was just about everything, and what is going right now is just about everything which I hope continues into the foreseeable future. The US government deserves great credit for engineering much of the turnaround (specifically the saving of GM and Chrysler), and the car companies (led by Ford) deserve great credit for designing a comeback which demonstrates the strength still inherent in American manufacturing and the US economy. We should all celebrate this success story but also remember for the automobile industry and all industries including higher education, that success taken for granted is just the first step toward devastating failure.

Film Ratings

Last year at this time, as a result of a snow storm, my family and I spent over two days at Newark Airport and ultimately returned home without ever getting on an airplane to take a scheduled vacation in Hawaii.  Newark is a nice airport but it can’t compare to spending time in paradise.  This year, we decided to stay local and all in all it was a very low-key relaxing week with lots of much appreciated family time.  Also lots of time for movies and shows.  So within the last ten days, we have seen Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sherlock Holmes, Mission Impossible, TinTin and Snowy, Bonnie and Clyde, The Artist, My Week with Marilyn, Ridiculous Broadway, and War Horse.  And what was my favorite?  Well the reality was I enjoyed all of the above.

Having enjoyed all the films and the shows does not mean, however, that I didn’t have favorites.  The Chipmunks was pure fluff, a cute but slightly ridiculous story; however even a provost can’t help but appreciate three talented chipmunks. The stunts and special effects on Mission Impossible were spectacular.  I always enjoyed Mission Impossible when it was a TV series, and the movies have just elevated the intrigue, the stunts and special effects to movie perfection.  The characters made Sherlock Holmes and TinTin very worthwhile action movies.  Sherlock Holmes also had an interesting sense of humor and had no resemblance whatsoever to the Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone films I watched faithfully on TV.  And TinTin had Snowy, my idea of the ideal dog (though the dog in The Artist also comes close to meeting that ideal).  Bonnie and Clyde was Broadway fluff—an engaging pair of stars with lackluster songs and  featuring a continuing combination of loves songs/scenes followed by bloody violence.  Whatever happened to “make love, not war”?  The show was entertaining, had great staging with real Bonnie and Clyde news stories flashed on the background scenery but it was in no way memorable.  Ridiculous Broadway was great fun—especially the parodies of Les Mis, Fiddler, and Lion King—but once again nothing memorable. 

And now memorable begins. My Week with Marilyn, could only have been better if it was MY week with Marilyn and if it starred the real Marilyn Monroe.   Although she didn’t quite have the seductive face and perfect gestures and timing of Marilyn at her best, Michelle William’s acting was great and at a distance, she had the look and shape of the real Marilyn.  A movie without special effects or animation but a film at its best, easily transporting me to a different place and time.  Not profound but still a must see movie.

War Horse was a triumph.  The film is terrific, and as I had earlier indicated, the Broadway show is also a triumph.  For my older daughter, the film was better than the show.  She loved the background and vivid details of the film.  I loved the film but still prefer the Broadway show.  For me the story seemed more intimate and real on the stage, and the fact that the horses on stage were totally lifelike puppets made it all the more impressive.  Another must see film. 

And the winner is The Artist.  The film about the transition from silent movies to talkies gave me a real insight on the effectiveness of a silent film.  And the story of the silent screen star, who doesn’t believe that talkies are here to stay until it is too late, is clear and compelling in intimate detail even without words.  The Artist is my number 1 must see movie of this season.

Now admittedly, seeing all these films and shows does not make one a better provost or a better economist. What it does, is help create thoroughly enjoyable family time. And even without going to a warm climate, it made for an outstanding holiday break.  Plus, a second career as a movie or film critic might be worth exploring.

The SAT Scandal

I just finished listening to the Sam Eshagoff interview on 60 Minutes.  Before I comment on the interview, I would like to commend 60 Minutes for decades of worthwhile news and human interest coverage.  60 Minutes remains a leading example of TV at its best.

I am not as positive about either Sam Eshaghoff or ETS.  I’m not sure that Sam has learned his lesson or that he understands the seriousness of what he did.  He does understand he got caught and that seems to have caused some regret.  But anyone who believes that he “saved the lives” of students with awful records by taking the SATs for those students so they could get into schools that were otherwise unachievable, but doesn’t understand that he likely adversely impacted the lives of students who presented honest records but were not accepted because of space taken up by cheaters, doesn’t comprehend the seriousness of his actions.  Students need to be judged on their work; an awful record should not be neutralized or turned into a positive because the student and/or his or her family could pay for what the Nassau County Attorney General rightly calls “an academic hired gun.”  Sam may call his actions saving a life, I call it criminal fraud. That Eshagoff doesn’t get jail time makes sense to me but that his sentence is tutoring economically disadvantaged students on test taking, at what seems to be at his convenience, is too lenient given the fraud involved and the righteous attitude of saving lives presented during the TV interview. Does he realize how wrong and how serious his actions were?

The attitude expressed by ETS on 60 Minutes also needs work.  To be told we should not “overreact” to a system that lacked even minimal security is disconcerting.  I would agree that the vast majority of test takers are honest and therefore that the vast majority of test scores are accurate assessments of test taking capability.  But there clearly is and has been cheating.  That there hasn’t been more cheating does not  seem to be due to the efforts of ETS; rather it is a reflection of most people being honest.  Cheating needs to be dealt with firmly on all levels.  The ETS test taking procedures are being tightened up and that is a positive sign.  But the policy where no action is taken by ETS after the fact against a known cheater leaves much to be desired in my mind.  Basically it says since we didn’t catch you in a timely manner, you get a free pass and are able to enjoy the fruits of your ill gotten gains.  It may take substantial time to catch up with some criminals, including those guilty of white collar crimes. But does it really make sense to say that since we didn’t catch you at the time you took the test, you are free of all repercussions? I don’t think so.

I hope the investigations continue and that as many as possible of the individuals who wrongfully took exams for others are caught and held accountable.  And I hope that ETS is able to tighten procedures and restore the confidence we had in them. As educators we work hard to ensure that academic honesty is maximized.  Part of our mission is to make clear to our students the importance of honesty and its key role in our value system.  But part of our responsibility is also exposing cheating when it takes place and making sure there is accountability.  And I think we all would agree that we can and should do more on both counts.   

Write Timing

As I am entering the library earlier this week, I pass by a student on a cell phone and hear the student make the following statement: “I finished all my finals but I still have to write a 60 page term paper which is due in two days.”  As hard as it is to believe, the student clearly stated that the paper is due in two days.  I’m a good writer and assuming all the research is done, I could write a good paper in two days but I seriously doubt that I can write a first rate paper that is anywhere near 60 pages long (even assuming I use large margins and type size) in such a limited time frame.  I know nothing about the student I passed by; he could be an awesome student or an awful student but in either case, I would question whether time management was an area of strength for this person.

I think to some extent we all overestimate what we can do and how long it takes us to do it until the moment of truth arrives.  A 60 page paper is clearly a moment of truth.  And what does the student do at that moment—write continuously, ask for an extension, ask for an extension based on a traumatic event, borrow someone else’s paper?  The alternatives range from not good, to not smart, to counterproductive,  to not ethical, to perhaps fatal.  I still remember the person in graduate school who lost a grandparent every semester at final time.  The first time it happened everyone was sympathetic and the student was given extensions in all his courses. By the third time everyone was skeptical.  To my knowledge this person, though very intelligent, never completed his degree.

One semester in graduate school I had the opportunity to schedule all my courses for the semester on one day, with classes from early morning until late at night.  Since I was doing adjunct teaching at the same time, the one day schedule was irresistible to me.  Everything was going well, with all my exams and papers scheduled on different days until final exam time. For final exams there was a set schedule where the exam was the last class of the semester.  In some colleges and universities there are provisions where a student can reschedule a final if there two other finals are scheduled the same day.  There was no such provision that was available for me to make use of.  And so, I came to class and completed the four finals in one day.  I did very well on the first two, well on the third, and just OK on the fourth (though I knew the material well).  By the fourth exam, I was no longer exam focused.  Not surprisingly, I never took advantage of a scheduling opportunity like this again.

There are so many subjects that we teach well that are critical to a good education but we rarely teach time management.  Some university 101 courses do cover this material but I believe it is presented to a small minority of students and perhaps appreciated by even fewer.  An educated person also benefits greatly by being able to allocate his or her time in the best manner possible.  We should do more to reinforce this concept.

Right Time

Late this week, I received a letter from our longest serving faculty member.  This person has served for over 50 years as a full-time faculty member and continues to be an excellent teacher, an outstanding colleague and a respected scholar.  The letter started off by stating “Much to my own dismay, I have come to the conclusion that now is indeed the time to begin the process of my retirement.” The letter continues by noting that “there are moments when inevitability takes precedence over all else and I must defer.”

This faculty member will be retiring at the end of the 2013-2014 academic year when she will have completed 54 years of service.  Prior to that time she plans to maintain the same sustained high level of activity that has characterized her decades of service up to this time.  In addition she plans to help create a new institute on campus and plan a detective-fiction conference.  As you can tell, this person has been and continues to be a tremendous asset to the University and she will be missed.

Not every career works as smoothly.  When I first arrived at Hofstra there was a person who was both an excellent teacher and a nationally recognized scholar.  This person was one of a handful of Hofstra faculty that I had heard of prior to joining Hofstra.  But this person never wanted to leave even though, over the years, the person’s abilities declined until what remained was a shadow of the original outstanding scholar/teacher.  No colleague ever spoke to this person about what was happening but many colleagues suggested to department chairs and deans that it was, and had been for a number of years, clearly time for the person to go.

When is the right time to go?  The easy answer is when you are still at the top of your game, or in baseball terms, when you are still a 300 + hitter.  Life and finances sometimes makes that hard to do.  Lack of feedback also makes it hard to do.  I never cease to be amazed when faculty or administrators come to talk to me about the diminished skill set of a colleague without every talking to the colleague, even though this happens on a regular basis. Why can’t they talk first to the person they are talking about?  Students also tend to talk to other students about faculty but you can’t expect them to talk to the faculty member about these issues even though they are being shortchanged. Teacher evaluation programs can help but that feedback alone may not be sufficient.

For someone who has served many years, a soft landing is essential.  On-going comprehensive feedback is also essential.  The feedback can’t just be there when everything is going well.  With that combination together with the common sense of the overwhelming majority of faculty, I think the answer to when is the right time to retire will be clear.

Test Takers

I had a terrific experience as a doctoral student. The courses, the faculty, the other students all made for a wonderful educational journey. I was certain economics was the right field for me before I began and I was even more certain by the time I graduated.  Within this wonderful experience, one moment still stands out, not because it directly involved economics, not because it represented an intellectual breakthrough, but rather because I learned an important life lesson.

That moment was when I took my statistics qualifying examination.  That day approximately a dozen students came to take the exam.  The faculty proctor handed out the exam and we all began.  Now the statistics qualifying exam had a reputation for being rigorous but also had a reputation as an exam where typically 5 people passed.  If there were a small number of test takers or a larger number, the results always seemed to be the same—five students passed.  About thirty minutes into a two hour exam, the proctor decided to leave the room while we all continued working on our examinations.  Shortly thereafter one thing changed.  Even though this was not an open book examination, one of the test takers took out the textbook plus a notebook, and began working on the answers with the added support in clear view. What did I do and what did the rest of the class do?  Each of us just kept working on the examination and following the rules.

About an hour later, the proctor returned for the last 30 minutes of the examination period.  Within a few minutes most of us handed in our exams and left the room.  I thought I did well on the exam but nevertheless, was a little apprehensive.   I didn’t say anything to the proctor as I was leaving about the person cheating, and to my knowledge neither did anyone else.  A day or two later, I found out that one of my classmates reported the student who cheated.  His exam was disallowed and I was told he was suspended from the program.  A penalty that was certainly deserved.

When the results of the exam became known about two weeks later, I was relieved to learn that I had passed.  Five students passed this qualifying exam, and going from highest to lowest passing grade, I was number 5.  If the cheater hadn’t been turned in, I assume I would not have passed.

I have been thinking about the Long Island students who paid other students to take the SATs for them.  For a few thousand dollars, they were on the fast track to a much more impressive SAT score and the resulting benefits in terms of gaining admission or being awarded a scholarship.  But very often, just as was the case in my statistics qualifying examination, someone cheating their way to admission or a scholarship likely precluded the person deserving the recognition from receiving it.  In all the publicity regarding the exam takers and those who paid for someone to take the exam, the real potential victims have not been identified. They are the individuals who did everything right, but nevertheless would have been shortchanged out of the positive results of their efforts.  I know it can happen.  It almost happened to me.

I often think that we are not as stringent as we should be in our monitoring and enforcement of academic honesty and I also think that we are often too lenient in the penalties we impose for violations of academic honesty.  If we are to be fair to the individuals who do everything the way it should be done, we (faculty, students, and administrators) need to do more to eliminate cheating. If we turn the other cheek to cheating, we are hurting ourselves and cheating the system that we are part of.