This Week in Higher Ed | Feb 18 - Feb. 25

Grinnell College selects new president
On Wednesday, Feb. 17, Grinnell College announced that Raynard S. Kington—deputy director of the National Institutes of Health—would serve as the institution's 13th president. Many in higher education are calling the choice a bold one, saying that—as stated in an Inside Higher Ed article—it "reflects a subtle shift going on in the presidential selection process at liberal arts colleges," wrote Inside Higher Ed in a recent article. Kington was a unique choice for Grinnell primarily because the he was educated at research universities and has since worked exclusively at research institutions. According to Inside Higher Ed, experts say that his selection reflects an increased willingness of liberal arts colleges to appoint presidents who have never served as provosts or presidents at similar institutions. In addition, wrote Inside Higher Ed, "Kington, who is black and gay, also reflects what many see as an increased willingness by many colleges to consider a more diverse pool of leaders than they might have in the past."

Former GW employee arrested for threatening University students and faculty
A former George Washington University (GW) mailroom employee was arrested last week after allegedly calling "a University office and [making] threats to ‘kill faculty and students,'" reported The GW Hatchet last Monday. According to Metropolitan Police Department reports, the 53-year-old former employee—named James Ripley Markley Jr., who has not worked at the University since 1992—called a University office and "became angry after he was told that the person he asked to speak with no longer worked at the University." An affidavit in support of Markley's arrest warrant reports that the accused spoke with a mumbling tone, before cursing and saying that he would "[wreak] havoc on the University and kill students and faculty." During an interview with the Hatchet following his arrest, Markley conceded that he had called a University office, but he denied making threats. "I did not say those things to GW personnel. I did not say nothing of that sort," said Markley to the Hatchet. As a precaution, the GW University Police Department has issued a campus crime alert and increased its presence in areas where Markley had contact with faculty or staff members when employed. 

High school students submit YouTube videos as part of Tufts application
New York Times education correspondent Tamar Lewis reported last Monday that Tufts University is now accepting short YouTube videos from prospective students as part of their regular application. "Tufts," writes Lewis, "is known for its quirky applications. Along with the required essays, [the University] has for years offered applicants an array of option essays—‘Are we alone?' is one of this year's topics—or a chance to ‘create something' out of a sheet of paper. So it was not too far a stretch, this year, to add the option of posting a one-minute video that ‘says something about you.'" About 1,000 of Tufts' 15,000 applicants submitted videos this fall, and, according to the Times, some have even gotten thousands of hits on YouTube.

Princeton pilots Amazon's Kindle in classes
In what Princeton University called its e-reader pilot program, three Princeton courses last semester experimented with incorporating the Kindle DX into the classroom in an attempt to save paper. According to The Daily Princetonian, the experiment reduced "the amount of paper students printed for their respective classes by nearly 50 percent." For example, in one course, Civil Society and Public Policy, students printed an average of 762 pages, compared to the 1,373 pages printed in past years in the course. Despite saving paper and money, however, many students and professors involved in the program found the technology limiting, given restrictions with note-taking and engaging in general with the reading material. "I expected it to be a really useful tool that would enhance my experience, but it has hindered my studies in a lot of different ways," said Eddie Skolnick, a Princeton sophomore. "I wasn't able to absorb the material as well as if I had hard copies of the readings, and I had to deal with a lot of technical inconveniences just from the design of the Kindle." Following a somewhat negative response to the program, the University has no current plans to officially incorporate the Kindle into its courses.