Inextricably Interwoven with our Community

For a university to fully fulfill its mission, it needs to be inextricably interwoven with the community, both the internal community and the surrounding community. Some universities pay limited attention to their surroundings but I have always been proud of Hofstra’s history of embracing the community in ways that clearly meet important needs. Our NOAH program was the template for New York State’s Higher Educational Opportunity Program. This program has a long history of providing the support necessary for economically disadvantaged students who do not meet our regular admissions standards to receive a Hofstra education and ultimately receive their bachelor’s degree and an enhanced chance of succeeding. We also have a full service Community Service Center on campus which includes childcare, a psychological clinic, a speech and hearing clinic, a reading clinic, and a marriage and family therapy clinic, all in support of the community. We also work closely with many of the surrounding school districts in helping to provide support through STEP and Liberty Partnership Programs that enhance the chances for the economically disadvantaged students involved to succeed. Our Law School has multiple clinics in support of the community and our Medical School has a highly regarded pipeline program that serves to increase the numbers of economically disadvantaged students who are able to go on to medical school.

I am especially proud of two of our most recent initiatives, both making a major impact on and for the community. Through the efforts of two dozen Hofstra Democracy Fellows (Hofstra students) and with the support of the Kettering Foundation, the Hagedorn Foundation, the National Issues Forum Institute and the Goldman Foundation, we have moderated 100 nonpartisan issues forums in schools and libraries throughout Long Island. The issues of the day are so complex, our political parties so divided that nonpartisan discussions are harder and harder to find and solutions seems more and more elusive. We need less rhetoric and more discussion for the issues to be understood, and for workable solutions to evolve and consensus is to be established. These intergenerational civil conversations provide that setting and our students, with the guidance of a leading faculty member who is also a distinguished professor of nonviolent social change, are leading the way. Through this effort, which is called Deepening Democracy through Deliberation, we have been able to build on our hosting a presidential debate and facilitate this island-wide debate. We are also practicing democracy the way it should be practiced.

The latest initiative of our Center for Civic Engagement is also exemplary. Working as part of a team that includes our local community hospital, a new program has been implemented to help meet the non-medical health care needs of pediatric patients in the hospital. For example, what if a young child suffering from asthma lives in a home or apartment with a severe mold problem or a lack of heat in the winter time? The hospital and the patient’s physician will not be able to solve these problems directly but unless they are solved, the health of these children is likely to be compromised. Our students, under supervision, will run a help center that will work to resolve these issues. It is through their efforts that a total care initiative will be put in place for this vulnerable population.

For our students, we are providing highly worthwhile experiential learning. For our community, we are working with the community to address community and societal needs. The end result is that we are doing a better job fulfilling our mission, while promoting understanding and enhancing the quality of life. And as I stated in the beginning of this blog, I am proud of Hofstra’s record in that regard and even prouder that we are not resting on our laurels.

President’s Week- Part 2

Prior to this president’s week, I had never been in Las Vegas but now based on the experience, I should have gone sooner and more often. And I think my family feels the same way. It isn’t the gambling that turned me on, though I adjusted well to my overall loss of $2.00. Rather, it is the entertainment and just the sense that Las Vegas is an easy place to have a good time. Las Vegas also gave me the opportunity to explain to my kids the economics of gambling.

Everywhere you turn in Las Vegas gambling is prominent, starting at the airport when you disembark from the plane. Prime real estate in virtually every hotel is dedicated to gambling and clearly the public responds very favorably. My kids asked about winning a mega prize and talked about everything they would do with their large scale winnings. What I explained to them, and I think it registered well, is for so many hotels and other public places to devote so much space to gambling meant that it was a very profitable activity—for the hotels etc. Otherwise the space would be allocated for other purposes. And if these establishments as a whole are making substantial profits on gambling, the public was incurring substantial losses. I think they understood clearly that not everyone could be a winner and if the casino makes a tremendous amount of money, the public as a whole is losing that money. Yes individuals do win, but the odds favor the casino and the reality is that there are many more losers than there are winners. Just leave it to an economist to find those teachable moments to stress important economic concepts.

Las Vegas clearly benefits from legalized gambling but it also benefits from providing wall to wall entertainment, some of it free, others at varying costs. Many of the hotels had great free entertainment and great shopping malls; others had super amusement park rides and still others had thoroughly enjoyable shows that cost money but were worth the cost. We tried to cover as much as we could but there clearly is enough available to justify a few more visits. My kids loved the fire show at the Mirage, the pirate activity at Treasure Island, and especially loved the rollercoaster at New York New York. But the highlight of the visit was an unexpected stroll down memory lane that I took with my 15 years old daughter. We went to see Human Nature, which is a very successful Australian singing group, now in Las Vegas, that specializes in the Motown sound. I grew up on Motown and still love the music. My daughter had heard bits and pieces over time but it certainly didn’t make much of an impact on her previously. She loved the music and even loved the fact that Motown pioneers such as Smokey Robinson and Mary Wilson were present and introduced to the audience.

At the end of this vacation and especially at the end of this show, we were more in sync than before and what more can you expect from a vacation than great sights, entertainment, and being more closely aligned with your kids.

One last point, what impressed us most on this trip—the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam or Las Vegas? No contest—all of the above. I would gladly go back and the fact that there were some great chocolate desserts is icing on the cake.

President’s Week - Provost Prose

Up to age 18, I had never been on a plane and the furthest I traveled was to a camp in Pennsylvania.  My kids, who are not yet 18, have already flown hundreds of thousands of miles by plane and have flown across both the Atlantic and the Pacific. But the differences are even more profound.  Staying in touch with friends when I traveled, either with my parents or to camp, consisted of a once a week phone call and more frequent postcards.  I always looked carefully to find the right postcards, those that would give a friend or family member at least some sense of what I was seeing or experiencing.  Now my younger daughter stays in touch with her friends by facetimeing them and if she borrows my wife’s iPAD, she is even facetimeing multiple friends at the same time.  And since they are watching and talking with each other in real time, they are certainly remaining closely in touch.  Postcards have gone the way of phones with cords or payphones; replaced by instantly texting or emailing pictures or videos that show what you are seeing, once again in real time.  I’ve only used facetime once—for a work related meeting but I regularly text and email pictures.  I’m also the first to acknowledge that these changes are real improvements that we should all appreciate.

Finding a vacation that all of us want to go on for President’s week has become more of a challenge as my daughters have grown older.  This year we decided to travel to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, with a side trip to Hoover Dam.  My wife has seen all of the above previously; for my kids and me, all three were new experiences.  Hoover Dam impressed everyone. The scale of the dam and the difference it has made greatly fascinated us all.  And for my kids, it was important to hear, as part of the tour, that the dam was built without computers and without GPS etc.  It gave them a real sense—on a massive scale—that human ingenuity has transcended time and technology.  I can’t wait to take them to the Great Wall to reinforce that lesson.  Hearing what the workers on the dam went through as the dam was being built also gave them an important insight on why government regulations, such as the OSHA regulations, make such a difference in the health and wellbeing of workers.

The Grand Canyon was spectacular.  We explored various lookouts on the south rim, seeing the differences from different heights and locations, as well as the differences that time of day and weather related (cloud and sun) conditions made in what we were looking at.  No photograph can do justice to the Grand Canyon.  For me it was a dazzling look at the majesty and power of nature.  But here there was a difference in how some of us saw the Canyon.  For my younger daughter, she would clearly have welcomed a Disney effect, something that would have made the Canyon come more alive, even if it was all make believe.  For example, if Simba could have given a guided tour with the Canyon creatures singing a few songs, I think she would have appreciated the added action.  Think of it as an amusement park ride, instead of “It’s a small world,” we would have “It’s a large canyon.” No, I’m not advocating anything like this happening, though I think there could be a livelier film at the welcome center.  I also think that when we go back to the Canyon and take the mule ride down to the bottom, all of us will be fascinated by the experience.  And I am certain that as my kids grow older, they will more fully understand that an understated wonder of nature can still be dazzling.

Speaking of dazzling, we started and ended our trip in Las Vegas.  And stay tuned to next week’s blog to read about that part of our experience.

Sequestration

The one very minor positive for me in the current economic cliffhanger is that my vocabulary has expanded to include sequestration and I even find myself unfortunately using this word on a regular basis. In the next few weeks, I may even get to the point of asking friends and acquaintances how they are and how they will be after sequestration. The reality is I would be happier if I never needed to use this word again. More importantly, as I have indicated in previous blogs, failure of the democrats and republicans to agree on budget cuts would be extremely harmful for the economy. And especially since the signs of recovery are stronger, the downside of aborting that recovery and having a mandated sequestration becomes more devastating. Just so we are all on the same page, by sequestration I am referring to mandated, virtually across the board, reductions in most federal expenditures. Rather than making the decision in terms of priorities, these are autopilot decisions.

The mandated cuts in education, where we know upfront that education is an investment in our future, are particularly harmful. Between cuts in the work study program and cuts in the supplemental opportunity grants program, approximately 100,000 students will be adversely impacted by sequestration. Support for special needs students and students with disabilities would also be significantly reduced. No one can argue that the need for these programs will disappear or argue that there will not be significant consequences; what we will be left with are consequences, many of which will have their greatest impact on those who are economically disadvantaged.

We have no choice at this point in time other than cutting spending and limiting the increase in future spending. And since taxes were dealt with already, short term this is not an area that we can turn to help resolve the current situation. Even more importantly, I am not at all supportive of increasing the burden on taxpayers while not realistically confronting the expenditure part of the financial equation.

We know there need to be cuts in spending. For me, reducing spending in education should not be a significant source of savings. These would be short term savings with long term negative and counterproductive consequences. Passions are high on all sides of the spending/sequestration issue; many of us have specific priorities in one or more areas where we feel that spending cuts should be a last resort and perhaps a never resort. Those of us in education should do all that we can to passionately make the case for education. We can be sure that each area has it advocates. The case for education is very strong; our advocacy should be at least as strong.

Snow Job

The New York blizzard of 2013 really made an impact. With a range of snow falls that increased from about 6 inches in Manhattan, to 21 inches in my backyard on Long Island, to 30 inches in the eastern part of Long Island, there were areas even two days after the last flake hit the ground that were still impassable.

On Friday, the University closed at 2 PM. Up to that point in time there had been a dusting of snow followed by heavy rain. At closing time, the rain was transitioning to snow. To the credit of the University community, even with a dire weather forecast as of late Friday, Friday classes up to 2 PM were very well staffed and very well attended. It was a regular Friday in terms of participation; not even a phone call asking why we didn’t close earlier in anticipation of blizzard Nemo.

On Saturday night, however, just twelve hours after the snow stopped, my kids and I decided to venture into Manhattan to see a show which, I had learned earlier in the day would be performed as scheduled. My first inclination was to make use of mass transit and go into Manhattan via the Long Island Railroad since my local station was less than a mile from my house. Great idea but there was only one problem: the railroad had suspended operations on the branch that services my area. Mass transit, especially by rail, should be among the most reliable inclement weather providers of transportation. I understand the challenges but if mass transit is to make inroads against using a car, it needs to work that way.

The trip to and from Manhattan was effortless. Less traffic than usual and the famous Long Island Expressway, on the stretch of road from the western part of Long Island to the Queens Mid-town Tunnel to Manhattan was snow free and dry. Manhattan had a moderate amount of snow. The roads were fine and parking on the street was still easy to do. The next morning I drove my older daughter to a play date at a friend’s house and was shocked at the condition of a number of neighborhood roads. I’m not sure that the snow removal crews plowed these roads, and if they did, they certainly didn’t get the level of attention provided to many other neighborhood roads.

If there was quality control for the snow removal, it just didn’t work as it should have. Adjoining roads should not have the variability that these roads had. In thinking about education, K- 12 as well as higher education, we have some of the same variability problems. With differences in the results on standardized tests for the different sections/teachers, or differences in preparation for subsequent classes that impact how a student does in those classes, we know that the cause is often the teacher/faculty member teaching the class. What we don’t know, especially in the first example, is whether the cause of better student performance is teaching to the test or better teaching. As complex as the issue is, quality control and the consistency inherent in good quality control are essential. We should all redouble our quality control efforts, and we should all embrace the outcomes assessment that helps validate the outcome.

Honor Code

We are getting close to implementing our Honor Code and Honor Board and I am very excited by the our progress in this critical area. It is not that our campus is any different from most other campuses. We know that there is academic dishonesty taking place on virtually every college or university campus. We have just, however, made a commitment to push for a measurable decrease in such behavior. Students will sign an Honor Code that will serve as both a commitment as well as a reminder of the values we ascribe to and an Honor Board will work to promote activities in support of academic honesty and also ensure that there is fair and consistent treatment when there is a violation of the Honor Code.

Our Honor Code and Honor Board is an outgrowth of an extended campus wide discussion and debate regarding academic honesty. This debate was sponsored by a Task Force that had been established to review our existing policies on academic honesty and recommend possible changes. The discussion and the resulting recommendation then went through our campus shared governance, first passing scrutiny by the University Senate followed by the full faculty reviewing and recommending these policies. Our Senate is our shared governance organization that includes representation from the faculty, the students—both undergraduate and graduate – academic and non-academic administrators and a staff member. We are fortunate to have such a strong and vibrant facilitator of shared governance. After the action by the full faculty, I was pleased to endorse these recommendations and the President was pleased to approve them. The campus conversation and the campus governance process provided the greatest buy-in possible for this new initiative.

In selecting the Honor Board student members, I worked closely with our Vice President for Student Affairs to assure the best possible student representation (which includes serving as one of the three co-chairs of the board with the other two co chairs coming from the faculty and the academic administration). The faculty and administrators who have been chosen are clearly highly regarded opinion leaders widely respected by their colleagues and other members of our community. So far, so good.

And yet, to be realistic, there are two concerns that I have. First, a number of faculty, here and elsewhere, want to make whatever decision there is to be made in response to academic dishonesty themselves. Sometimes these actions are very lenient and other times very drastic but regardless these faculty don’t want to fit any framework or adhere to any standard other than their own. To this day, there are incidents of academic dishonesty that are never reported and are known only to the faculty member and the student or students involved. I believe that faculty should have wide latitude in resolving incidents of academic dishonesty but I also believe there needs to be full disclosure and reporting. Not to second guess the faculty member but to make sure that repeat offenses by the same students are dealt with sternly. My other concern relates to a number of students who have been so accustomed to cheating that it is both second nature and not recognized for what it is—unethical behavior, presenting someone else’s work as your own. I have even heard a story from a colleague about a student in a very good university who tweeted matter of factly about cheating. One comment noted that if this person had a smart phone in high school, Harvard would have been within reach while another tweet noted incredulously that that the cheating had only resulted in a C and how could that be. It will take considerable time, even with a heightened awareness of the importance of academic honesty for individuals like this to clean up their acts.

Our Honor Code and Honor Board are one major step forward for academic integrity. And now we have to work together that regardless of the school, and whether we are talking about higher education or K-12 education, students always receive a consistent message regarding the importance of academic honesty.

Yesterday

My older daughter and her best friend were going to an ice skating birthday party and I was the designated driver to the rink. We were ready to leave and my daughter texts her friend to let her know we will pick her up in a few minutes. But there was no imminent response. So what were we to do? Head to her house though there was no response from her or wait until she responds.

We ultimately decided to go to her house and we are waiting outside on the driveway but even now there is no response. My daughter sends another text and I just innocently say to her “why not just call?” The response comes instantly and puts me in my place: “calling is sooooo yesterday.” Yikes, what a comment and what an effort to put me in my ancient place.

Two minutes later, just as I was getting ready to call the parents, the response came in the form of my daughter’s friend leaving her house and heading to my car. We were on our way, though I wasn’t ready to forget about the “yesterday” comment.

I am significantly older than my kids but I’m not a “yesterday” kind of person. I was an earlier convert to email, to online shopping, to texting, to ebooks, and even to writing a blog. I also have a strong attraction to new technologies even though my wife feels it is more an attraction to gimmicks. But there is no convincing your kids and I remember feeling the same way toward my parents.

Technology has made an enormous difference in the education we deliver and in the life we lead. The information I can access and the transactions I can complete enhance my sophistication and improve the quality of my life. I’m not interested in going back and living in a world of less robust technology or less life saving health care. But I’m also old enough to realize that with technology you may pay a price; inter-personal skills now seem less sophisticated; social situations somewhat more stained; the pace of activities more speeded up. Having lived in yesterday’s world, I recognize its benefits and its limitations. Kids seem only to see the limitations of what existed before. What can we do to make sure education makes clear not only what has been gained over time, but also what has been lost. And also makes clear, that when choices need to be made, the newest technology is not necessarily always the best technology.