A brief foray into the Second Amendment

Being out of the country, I tend to lose track of what's going on back in the States. I get occasional news headlines when I surf across various websites, but unless I make the effort to look at The New York Times or Washington Post websites, I haven't been too informed of news at home other than that covered by the British press.

However, the last week, here are the headlines from home that have grabbed my attention on the web, and unfortunately, they have nothing to do with higher education policy:

"Pain, grief, questions in NY shootings aftermath" - 13 killed by a gunman in Binghamton, NY before taking his own life

"Gunman Kills 3 Police Officers in Pittsburgh"

"Father Kills Five Children in Third US Multiple Shooting" - Washington State

"Gunman Kills 8 at a N. Carolina Nursing Home"

"3 adults, 3 children die in apparent murder-suicide" - all killed by a gunman in Santa Clara, CA

How many more deaths will it take before this country is willing to implement real, effective gun control laws?

For those of you worried about Larry Summers. . . .

I know there was great concern over Larry Summers' future after he was ousted as president of Harvard a couple of years ago. Not to worry -- according to the Washington Post, he's certainly landed on his feet financially, earning almost $8 million last year. That's on top of his $587,000 salary as a Harvard economics professor.

Presentations from across the pond

I'm giving a few presentations while I'm here in London, so I'll try to remember to post links to them here. Here are the first two:

• Birkbeck Institute for Lifelong Learning Seminar Programme, Birkbeck, University of London, London England, 02/24/09, "Financing of higher education in a turbulent economy: Challenges for the United States and the United Kingdom"
  
• Institute for Education Policy Research, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent England, 03/25/09, "Access to higher education in the United States: Issues and challenges"
  

My 2.75 minutes of radio fame

I was interviewed on this evening's Marketplace (American Public Media) broadcast about college costs. You can listen to the story, or if you're more of a visual rather than aural kind of person, you can read a transcript.

How not to do enrollment management

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

U. of California at San Diego Accidentally Congratulates 28,000 Rejected Students

The admissions office of the University of California at San Diego accidentally e-mailed letters of congratulation and welcome to its entire undergraduate applicant pool, including 28,000 students who had been rejected earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported. Campus officials blamed the mistake on an “administrative error” that involved selecting the wrong database of recipients.

To be fair to UCSD, at the bottom of the article there's a correction stating that the students weren't actually mailed acceptance letters, but they were instead invited to a reception for admitted students. Here's a link to the full article. And this is not an April Fool's joke.