Governor Sandoval presented his State of the State address on Wednesday, January 15 in Carson City. In his address, he promised to restore merit and bring much needed funds into higher education in Nevada. But is his plan enough? Click on the links below to read a piece in the Review Journal. Below you will also find links to the text of both Governor Sandoval's speech and Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis' response.

Review Journal article...

Click here for the Governor's Speech...
Click here for Sen. Mo Denis' Response...

A new book challenges what has been thought of as common knowledge: professors do not make good teachers, especially professors at research institutions.

A qualitative study of 55 professors representing a range disciplines, teaching excellence, and demographics were interviewed in depth on their approach to teaching in higher education. Contrary to how many professors are viewed, the studied demonstrated that for those working in higher education teaching is an iterative process that one professor likened to the movie "Groundhog Day." Many professors reported a continual adjusting and improving of courses over years, while others stated their concern for teaching quality often caused them to overprepare.

Read the full article...

The Board of Regents will hold a special meeting this Friday, January 11 from 9:00 am in UNLV's Student Union. Click the link below to access this meeting's agenda.

http://system.nevada.edu/Nshe/index.cfm/administration/board-of-regents/meeting-agendas11111/

A new study from researchers at the Educational Testing Service (one of the major providers of assessment tests) demonstrated the importance of student motivation in assessing what a student has learned throughout their college career.

This study showed that students, who were told their assessment test would be shared with university professors, scored significantly higher than those who believed that only the research team would view their scores.

This study raises important questions not only for assessment but also for other standardized low-stakes tests.

Read the full article...

2012 saw many changes in the politics of ed-tech. The year began with regular Internet users and the titans of Internet technology defeating SOPA and PIPA. As the year progressed, we saw a marked upsurge in lobbying dollars spent by such companies as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. At the state level, ALEC has taken aim at education including advocating the penalization of students who take more than four years to complete college.

Examining these and other happenings in ed and ed-tech, this article from Inside Higher Ed reviews what we've seen in 2012.

Read the full article...

As of January 1, 2013 the AAUP will be restructured into three entities: the AAUP Foundation, The AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress, and the AAUP.

The AAUP Foundation, a 502(c)(3), will conduct fundraising for education and support programs. The AAUP-CBC will function as a labor union advocating for unionization and collective bargaining, while the AAUP, a 501(c)(6) professional organization, will support "advocacy" chapters.

State conferences will remain unchanged with this transition.

Read full announcement...

 

The AAUP released a new policy that argues against the appropriateness of blanket confidentiality agreements for faculty serving on committees engaged in shared governance.

While there has been a trend recently toward requiring faculty to sign confidentiality statements when serving on these committees, the AAUP contends that such blanket agreements hinder faculty's ability to represent the concerns and interests of the colleagues on behalf of whom they are to act.

Read the full article...

The Nevada Faculty Alliance wishes to remind our members and community supporters that the complete NFA PAC endorsements can be found in the fall issue of The Alliance and in the online edition found on our website. 

The following candidates for the U.S.  Senate and Congress have a proven record of excellence when advocating for higher education in Nevada. Each has exhibited a proven commitment to seeking out input from faculty as key stakeholders in quality, public higher education. 

Shelley Berkeley for Senate

Former regent an and longtime support of the NSHE and NFA, Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley has a record of working to keep college affordable – and to support, in particular, veterans seeking to return to college – and merits our endorsement.

Dina Titus for Congress (1)

During her prior term in congress longtime UNLV faculty member and NFA member Dina Titus showed her commitment not only to our issues but to us as constituents, and we enthusiastically back her campaign to return to congress.

John Ocegura for Congress (3)

The former Nevada State Assembly Speaker and former student of no fewer than four NSHE campuses, Ocegura has taken positions in support of the president’s agenda for college affordability and degree completion.

Steven Horsford for Congress (4)

As Nevada Senate Majority Leader, Horsford showed himself to be a passionate and deeply intelligent advocate for students and quality public education.  In 2011 he led the successful campaign to reduce the deep cuts proposed to NSHE. 

Horsford has a proven record of commitment and achievement in keeping higher education more affordable for Nevada families. Not only has he long been a strong voice for keeping costs to students down but he also took the lead in the legislature and accomplished what others tried for years but could not -- he passed a bill to study the system of financing higher education which had remained unchanged for decades. Then he took the lead as chair of the study committee to make higher education in Nevada more efficient and more productive.

This year, he brought clear thinking, careful management and a shrewd eye for detail as chair of the most important state level discussion of higher education policy in a generation, the interim legislative funding formula study committee. Throughout the process, he sought input from faculty across the state, and in his campaign he has made a priority of advocating for college access and affordability.  Even if his opponent had not called for the extreme position of calling for the abolition of the federal Department for Education – and with it all of federal financial aid (which is the case) – Horsford would be the clear choice for Nevada’s new fourth congressional seat.

There has been no legislator more committed to making college more affordable in Nevada and no candidate in this year's election better prepared to take this fight for access and affordability to Washington.

The Maxine S. Jacobs Foundation, the Nevada Department of Employment, Rehabilitation, and Training (DETR), and Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) will be announcing a public-private collaboration that will provide scholarships to qualified unemployed Nevadans. Funds will come from the Maxine S. Jacobs Foundation, recipient recruitment will be provided by DETR, and screening and instruction will be supplied by TMCC.

Details on this scholarship program will be presented on October 2 at 10:00am at the V. James Eardley Student Services Center, Red Mountain Building on the TMCC Dandini Campus. Questions may also be directed to Kate Kirkpatrick at 775-673-7206 or kirkpatrick@tmcc.edu.

The NFA Political Action Committee is a state entity, but it can and regularly does make endorsements in federal races when there is a clear choice on higher education issues. This year, the NFA endorses the following candidates.

Barack Obama for President. The Obama administration has made college affordability and national investment in higher education a priority since it entered office. The American Recovery and Revitalization Act of 2009 included hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support for public higher education in Nevada, which helped cushion the blow of the Great Recession on our students and institutions. Then, in March 2010, the president supported and signed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which redirected about $6 billion per year from subsidies to commercial banks to subsidize student loans into direct lending and into Pell Grants, which put students ahead of banks. This bill also included important reforms of student loans, limiting repayment in any given year to 10 percent of personal income, and forgiveness of debt remaining after 20 years of ontime payments (10 years in the case of public service workers). The administration has also been strongly supportive of community college students, with tax credits to offset tuition for retraining.

Perhaps even more importantly, the Obama administration has stressed educational quality by imposing rules that require institutions eligible for student loans and federal aid to document that they prepare their students for "gainful employment" and that a sufficient share of their students are able to repay their student loans – thereby cutting down on the predatory practices of for-profit colleges which have become notorious for recruiting under-qualified students to receive federal loans, but providing no valuable education or job training.

The Obama Department of Education also has strongly supported the college completion agenda, which has guided the System in the development of its new funding formula.

In a second term, President Obama has proposed a new fund to support innovation in higher education, while also proposing to tie federal financial aid to limits on tuition increases. As an organization committed to quality public higher education and the faculty who deliver it, NFA is proud to endorse Barack Obama for re-election.

Shelley Berkeley for Senate. Former regent and longtime supporter of the Nevada System of Higher Education and NFA, Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley has a record of working to keep college affordable and to support, in particular, veterans seeking to return to college merits our endorsement.

CD-1: Dina Titus for Congress. During her prior term in congress, longtime University of Nevada, Las Vegas, faculty member and NFA member Dina Titus showed her commitment not only to our issues but to us as constituents, and we enthusiastically back her campaign to return to congress.

CD-3: John Oceguera for Congress. The former Nevada State Assembly Speaker and a former student of no fewer than four NSHE campuses, Oceguera has taken positions in support of the president's agenda for college affordability and degree completion.

CD-4: Steven Horsford for Congress. As Nevada Senate Majority Leader, Horsford showed himself to be a passionate, articulate and deeply intelligent advocate for students and for quality public higher education. He took the lead in 2011 in the successful campaign to reduce the deep cuts to NSHE that had been proposed by Governor Brian Sandoval. This year, he brought clear thinking, careful management and a shrewd eye for detail as chair of the most important state level discussion of higher education policy in a generation, the interim legislative funding formula study committee. Throughout that process, he repeatedly sought out input from faculty across the state, and in his campaign he has made a priority of advocating for college access and affordability. Even if his opponent had not taken the extreme position of calling for the abolition of the federal Department of Education – and with it all federal financial aid (which is the case) – Steven Horsford would still be the clear choice for Nevada's new fourth congressional seat.