Category: issues

“Looking through an economic prism, the authors [of the study] interpret grades in part as marketplace signals. With two exceptions, they see the gradual grade increases they found as mostly harmless, a practice that ‘is costless’ to faculty and ‘makes students happy’.”

“[A]s a new series at the Autry National Center [in L.A.] shows, the presence of homosexuals and transgender individuals in the American West is much older than the movie might lead you to think. It is, in fact, almost as old as the West itself.” The series, called “Out West,” includes “a gallery tour, panel discussions, lectures and performances to be rolled out in four installments over the course of 12 months.”

“Finance Minister Brian Lenihan did wield the axe – cutting overall arts funding by 6% and reducing the annual Arts Council subvention from €73.35m to €69.15m – but worse had been expected, given that a raft of arts agencies … had been targeted for abolition in a bid to help the cash-strapped Irish exchequer.”

Michael Kaiser: “By forcing the organization to build a new, larger donor base during the grant period, the transition when the grant is over is eased. The foundation’s money might be gone but the new donors attracted by the match help fill the void.”

“The 50 grants of $50,000 each were given by United States Artists, a Los Angeles-based arts-advocacy group that’s awarded the fellowships since 2006. The recipients, who hail from 18 states … include sculptors, playwrights, filmmakers, radio producers, choreographers, songwriters, poets and fashion designers.”

“Julien Vincent, a climate campaigner for Greenpeace, … said the climbers had taken special effort to ensure the Opera House sail was not damaged.” Police escorted the five climate-treaty advocates down and charged them with trespassing.

“Starting Jan. 7th, visitors will be able to buy day-of discounted tickets to performances at all Lincoln Center cultural institutions at a box office in the new David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center on Broadway between West 62nd and West 63rd Streets. Tickets will be discounted from 25% to 50% off regular prices.”

“European teenagers still spend more time watching television than they do with any other medium — 10.3 hours a week, on average. That compares with 9.1 hours on personal — rather than work- or school-related — use of the Internet. Perhaps more surprisingly, according to the report, 12- to 17-year-old Europeans appear to spend considerably less time on the Internet than people 18 and older, who are online 11.4 hours a week — again, not counting professional or academic use.”

“Thanks to technology, one of the core functions of a university – distributing information through its professors – is no longer entirely in its control. It’s a potentially unsettling development for universities and professors, and it has found its way into court, as professors take on commercial note services and grapple with how much to limit the recording and even filming of their lectures.”