What’s churning:
Metropolitan State College of Denver still would like to change its name, but the moniker “Denver State University” is off the table, according to President Steve Jordan.
Metro floated the name change at the legislature but backed off after objections that the name was too similar to that of the private University of Denver. Lawmakers were in a name change mood last spring and turned Mesa State College into Colorado Mesa University. Mesa arrived at that name after rejecting other possibilities that were criticized for similarity problems.
According to a release posted on Metro’s website this week, “Metro State has spent the summer conducting further outreach and analyzing branding considerations. An online survey of three new names, all containing the word “metropolitan,” was announced last week: Denver Metropolitan State University, Denver State Metropolitan University and Metropolitan Denver State University.”
The college wants a new name in order to, in the words of the release, “demonstrate the quality of the College’s degree; eliminate confusion that Metro State is a community college, when it is a four-year baccalaureate and graduate institution; clarify the College’s location in Denver; and make the name more concise.”
What’s on tap:
TODAY
The University of Northern Colorado Board of Trustees meets at 8:30 a.m. in the Panorama Room at the University Center, intersection of 10th Avenue and 20th Street.
Action items on the agenda are a revised 2011-12 budget to incorporate updates that include bond refinancing, Faculty Senate-approved revisions that update language in sections of the board policy manual, an oil-and-gas lease with Mineral Resources Inc. for off-campus well exploration, and resolutions to recognize trustees Darlene LeDoux and Carlotta LaNier, whose terms will be completed Dec. 31.
Remaining meetings for the 2011-12 academic year are scheduled on Jan. 13, March 9 and June 8.
Good reads from elsewhere:
The Nation Magazine in partnership with the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, today published “How Online Publishing Companies Bought America’s Schools.” The online version is appearing before the print edition.
One key paragraph: “From Idaho to Indiana to Florida, recently passed laws will radically reshape the face of education in America, shifting the responsibility of teaching generations of Americans to online education businesses, many of which have poor or nonexistent track records. The rush to privatize education will also turn tens of thousands of students into guinea pigs in a national experiment in virtual learning—a relatively new idea that allows for-profit companies to administer public schools completely online, with no brick-and-mortar classrooms or traditional teachers.” Full article.
The director of the Iowa Department of Education is asking for more time to study a proposed overhaul of that state’s teacher pay structure, according to the Des Moines Register. The delay could involve at least one year. A task force is being set up to look at the proposal, which would move base salary from $28,000 to $40,000 and link pay increases to proven effectiveness, as Colorado is trying to do. Full article.