. . Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 08:23:38 -0700 From: Richard Hake <rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: AERA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [Net-Gold] Re: Foundations' Newfound Advocacy . . If you reply to this long (7 kB) post please don't hit the reply button unless you prune the copy of this post that may appear in your reply down to a few relevant lines, otherwise the entire already archived post may be needlessly resent to subscribers. . ******************************************** . ABSTRACT: Norman Stahl of the LRNASST list has called attention to Doug Lederman's (2012) "Inside Higher Ed" report "Foundations' Newfound Advocacy." Lederman, in turn, points to a paper " 'Advocacy Philanthropy' and the Public Policy Agenda: The Role of Modern Foundations in American Higher Education" [Hall & Thomas (2012)]. . Lederman wrote: "Hall and Thomas channel fears that the consensus that Gates and Lumina have built through their common agenda-setting (in league with federal and state officials) and their comparatively massive, widely distributed dollars (to a cottage industry of 'intermediaries') has given them 'outsized influence' and squelched alternative points of view." . ******************************************** . Norman Stahl (2012) in his LRNASST post of 13 Apr 2012 has called attention to Doug Lederman's (2012) "Inside Higher Ed" report "Foundations' Newfound Advocacy." . Lederman wrote [bracketed by lines "LLLLL. . . . ."; my inserts at ". . . . .[[insert]]. . . . ."]: . LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL . To many of the policy experts and researchers who work with them, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation . . . . .[[<http://bit.ly/IPimwP >]]. . . . and the Lumina Foundation . . . . .[[<http://bit.ly/HJ2fhP>]]. . . . have driven more significant (and beneficial) change in five years than American higher education has seen in decades. . To their critics, the two behemoths and a band of collaborating groups and think tanks (call them the "completion mafia") have hijacked the national agenda for higher education and drowned out alternative perspectives. . One doesn't have to fall squarely into one of those camps to acknowledge the extent to which the two foundations have remade the philanthropic landscape in higher education. A paper. . . . .[[ prepared for the 93rd annual meeting of the " 'Advocacy Philanthropy' and the Public Policy Agenda: The Role of Modern Foundations in American Higher Education" (Hall & Thomas (2012) which]]. . . . . aims to document -- through an admittedly impressionistic mix of data, interviews and other means -- just how thoroughly the two philanthropic giants (and others) have altered both the traditional foundation role in academe and (by extension) the public policy discussion about higher education. . . . . . . . . . . . Hall and Thomas channel fears that the consensus that Gates and Lumina have built through their common agenda-setting (in league with federal and state officials) and their comparatively massive, widely distributed dollars (to a cottage industry of "intermediaries") has given them "outsized influence" and squelched alternative points of view. . LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL . . . Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University <rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Links to Articles: <http://bit.ly/a6M5y0> Links to SDI Labs: <http://bit.ly/9nGd3M> Blog: <http://bit.ly/9yGsXh> Academia: <http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake> Twitter <https://twitter.com/#!/rrhake> . . . "The academic area is one of the most difficult areas to change in our society. We continue to use the same methods of instruction, particularly lectures, that have been used for hundreds of years. Little scientific research is done to test new approaches, and little systematic attention is given to the development of new methods. Universities that study many aspects of the world ignore the educational function in which they are engaging and from which a large part of their revenues are earned." Richard M. Cyert, former president of Carnegie Mellon University as quoted in Tuma & Reif (1980) . . . REFERENCES [All URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 14 April 2012.] . . . Hall, C. & S.L. Thomas. 2012. " 'Advocacy Philanthropy' and the Public Policy Agenda: The Role of Modern Foundations in American Higher Education" paper prepared for the 93rd annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada, April 2012; online at <http://bit.ly/HHNcIw>. [A footnote states "Do not cite or quote without permission," but since the paper has been both cited and quoted by "Inside Higher Ed" that admonition is, in my view, obviated by the fact that the cat is already out of the bag.] . Lederman, D. 2012. "Foundations' Newfound Advocacy" Inside Higher Ed, 13 April; online at <http://bit.ly/HG3wc2>. As of 14 April 2012 08:06-0700 there had been 11 comments. You may wish to add your own. . Stahl, N. 2012. "From Inside Higher Education." LRNASST post of 13 Apr 2012 10:53:11 -0400; online on the OPEN! LRNASST archives at <http://bit.ly/Hyw2IQ>. . Tuma, D.T. & F. Reif, eds. 1980. "Problem Solving and Education: Issues in Teaching and Research," Lawrence Erlbaum. Amazon.com information at <http://amzn.to/jcAK2d>. . .