June 24, 2018
May is the most beautiful time of the year, with buds of our big front-yard apple tree exploding into wondrous white blossoms and the lilacs on the side of the house peaking in purple with their sweet scent. The reawakening of trees and flowers forms a colorful backdrop for celebrations of graduates and mothers.
June 1, 2018
One should aspire to and pursue one’s dreams and goals. Recently, I was pleased to see that David A. Longanecker, one of my top bosses and a national leader in higher education, has achieved his goal of becoming a truck driver, a goal he had articulated for many years.
October 2, 2017
My first job in journalism after college was as a copy editor for a newspaper in southern California. Despite having negative stereotypes of copy editors, I quickly learned that a copy editor fulfills an important, sometimes thankless, role in ensuring accuracy, clarity, and quality of a publication’s content. Copy editing has been a key part of my life.
September 11, 2017
Each August, The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes its Almanac with data on many aspects of the nation’s multibillion-dollar effort to educate 20 million undergraduate and graduate students. The 2017-18 issue includes 80 tables of data on college faculty members and administrators, students, and finances. Also included are summaries of data on each state and a national summary of these data.
August 24, 2017
The Minnesota School of Business and Globe University (MSB/Globe) are still fighting adverse court decisions almost a year after a district court found that they engaged in consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices by misrepresenting the job opportunities available for their criminal-justice graduates.
July 30, 2017
As the 2017-2018 school year approaches, many high-school seniors are far along in planning for their education beyond graduation while others are in the early stages. The student’s goal should be to develop a plan to pursue a college education that best matches the student’s personal, educational, and career goals.
May 23, 2017
When a college decides to close, the decision significantly affects the students, faculty, staff, and the communities it serves. At the end of December 2016, after several years of expanding, the Minnesota School of Business/Globe University discontinued most of its operation. The two for-profit schools are part of a family business owned and operated by Terry and Kathryn Myhre. The Myhre family bought Globe (founded in 1885) in 1972 and the Minnesota School of Business (founded in 1877) in 1988. For this blog post, the schools will be referred to as one entity—MSB/Globe.
May 18, 2017
Before my oldest daughter enrolled in the University of Southern California (USC) in fall 2001, I had three perceptions about the institution. I believed that the university had a great football team, that it was located in a rough area of Los Angeles and thus not safe, and that it enrolled primarily rich kids, thus earning the acronym University of Spoiled Children. One perception was accurate, but two were not.
April 3, 2017
Scanning the Minneapolis Star Tribune obituaries in early March, I came across one for Richard C. Hawk who passed away at age 83 of a heart attack in Leawood, Kansas. The obit summarized Dick’s many accomplishments in business, higher education, and music. But perhaps his most significant achievements were the development of Minnesota’s programs to provide access to and choice of higher education opportunities. His legacy is important and impressive, but his passing appears mostly unnoticed in Minnesota.
January 13, 2017
[Phil wrote the following piece in June 2015 prior to his youngest daughter’s college graduation.]