Billions for Community Colleges

According to President Obama, “We believe it's time to reform our community colleges so that they provide Americans of all ages a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future.” Meaning . . .

• $9 billion in competitive grants to community colleges and states over ten years
• $10 billion loan fund to expand community college facilities
• $50 million to expand online learning options

The President might announce his plan during his address to a community college audience in Michigan on July 14. The anticipated proposal follows today’s release of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) report, entitled: Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow, which highlights important attributes of a well-functioning education and training system that can provide U.S. workers with the skills needed for current jobs as well as those that will be created as a result of the Recovery Act and economic growth over the next decade. The report may be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Jobs_of_the_Future.pdf?tr=y&auid=5067542.

The expected proposal is speculated to have largely been structured on a May 2009 report from the National Center on Education and the Economy, entitled TRANSFORMING AMERICA’S COMMUNITY COLLEGES -- A FEDERAL POLICY PROPOSAL TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITY AND PROMOTE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, may be found at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2009/0507_community_college_goldrick_rab/0507_community_college_full_report.pdf.

The President’s op-ed may be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071100647.html.

This is in The Chronicle of HE blog: http://chronicle.com/news/article/3980/obama-says-community-colleges-key-to-economy

And on MSNBC--
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31908274/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

BUT WILL HE PLAY IT COOL?

Oh my.

What's going on?

$$$$$$$

7 Universities Providing Access to Free Literature Courses Online

Since all classes at CCSF will have a Moodle shell for online class management and instruction (see insight.ccsf.edu), think about how you might tech-enhance your classes by looking one or more of the free online literature courses offered at universities like MIT and UC - Berkeley.

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit.edu)
Major English Novels Course
MIT's OpenCourseWare program offers access to more than 80 free English language and literature courses. One of the most recent is the Major English Novels Course, which features readings, assignments and concentrated study of the novel genre. Registration is not required.

2. Western Governors University (wgu.edu)
Literature Course- Parts I and II
Western Governors University's Liberal Arts Department offers downloadable bachelor-level literature courses that are free to everyone. Course topics are split into ten modules and include everything from poetry and drama to fiction and literary ethics. Registration is not required.

3. The University of Utah (utah.edu)
Introduction to Shakespeare
The University of Utah's free literature course is a comprehensive introduction to the works of Shakespeare. The course is easy to download and includes seven lessons, reading assignments and other accessible resources. Registration is not required.

4. University of California, Berkeley (berkely.edu)
Shakespeare Course
UC Berkeley webcasts select courses every semester. The Shakespeare Course includes 32 lectures on Shakespeare and readings of his best works. All webcasts can be downloaded in mp3 format or heard on a free version of RealPlayer. Registration is not required.

5. University of Sheffield (shef.ac.uk)
Criticism and Literary Theory Course
The University of Sheffield's Department of English Literature provides free access to a great literary theory course designed for bachelor-level literature students. Course materials include an introduction, notes from lectures and links to relevant articles and resources. Registration is not required.

6. Open University (open.ac.uk)
Approaching Prose Fiction
The free English literature course offered by the UK's Open University introduces you to studying literary texts at a university level. The course takes about 20 hours to complete and includes several units of study. Registration is not required.

7. Utah State University (usu.edu)
Introduction to Writing
Utah State University doesn't offer a free course completely devoted to literature, but you can access an online interpretation of the university's English 1010 course. Materials include a PDF of the English 101 handbook, reading assignments and more. Registration is not required.

Leah Garchik on CCSF, 5/25, sfgate.com

City College of San Francisco threw its eighth annual fashion show last week, in the campus' new Wellness Center. Bleachers were crowded with students sporting an array of shiny pants, dirndls, ruffles and fishnet flourishes that reflected major interest in the subject at hand.

The show's energy and pizzazz were all the more impressive because it was totally student-produced, and I was also captivated by descriptions of the student designers provided in the program.

City College has more than 100,000 students, with 100,000 backgrounds, including Sara Axelrod, a Google ad saleswoman with a bachelor's degree; Stefanie Barriere, Jonathan Ochoco and Linda Lingren are lawyers; Lauren Davidson is a faculty assistant at UCSF; Shelly Foster has a bachelor's degree from Stanford and a San Francisco State teaching credential; Liza Hebb has a degree in biology; Ukraine-born Olena Holoulina works at the Ukrainian Consulate and has a master's in computer science; Caroline Jacopy, from France, has a degree in sociology; Juliana Loo is an Abraham Lincoln High School student ... I can't mention every one. But City College makes following one's passion affordable to all.

P.S.: Elisa Stephens, president of the Academy of Art University, which held its own polished fashion show a few weeks ago, was there cheering on the City College students, and announcing that her institution was giving a full scholarship to CCSF student Antonio Luna.

Liam Greger!

--from Laury Fischer of DVC--

The phone rang with some wonderful news this morning that you will all want to celebrate:

William Albin DuLaney Greger (no hyphen for this one) was born this morning, May 25, 2009 at 2:31 am Alta-Bates hospital. The baby — Liam to the world — is by all accounts simply wonderful: 8 lbs 4.5 ounces of perfection, 21.25”, and Apgar Scores of 8 and 9 — all excellent. Dad is doing great; mom is exhausted but completely excited and exhilarated -- having gone into the hospital at 3:30 am Saturday morning and finally giving birth this morning.

For now, as excited as we all are, Keri and Christoph are welcoming emails and preferring them (please no phone calls — and please no hospital visits until Keri can rest up). They think they’ll be in the hospital for three or four more days before heading home, if you want to send a card or something else wonderful.

What a blessed way for all of us to start the summer. Congratulations to Christoph and Keri — and Liam — we welcome you.

Area Man First In His Family To Coast Through College

MINNEAPOLIS—At first glance, Daniel Peterson seems no different than any other student: Wearing a ball cap, he's spent most of the evening browsing YouTube. Soon his buddies will . . .

My Precious

Live like a Hobbit . . .

JACK WAKES UP in stores now!

That's right, everybody, you can now buy JACK WAKES UP in stores everywhere and on the web here: You can also get free audio, and buy your copy here:
http://sethharwood.com/jack-wakes-up

Want to give it a trial first? Here's where you can read the first three chapters:

Open publication - Free publishing - More thriller

Hope I'll see you at a reading event soon!
http://booktour.com/author/seth_harwood

Seth

NY Times Piece on Higher Ed.

Web 2.0 to Book Deal in 3 Minutes

Re: posting this from Open Culture with thanks to Dan Colman.

After Seth Harwood got his MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he began publishing in traditional magazines and journals, as most young writers do. But those publications were slow to launch his career. Things changed, however, once he started publishing online. And they really changed when he released his crime novel Jack Wakes Up as a free podcast (via iTunes, RSS Feed, & MP3) and distributed it through social networks. Web 2.0 broadened the reach of his work, attracted fans worldwide, and ultimately landed Harwood a nice book deal with Random House. (RH will be publishing Jack Wakes Up in print early next month). In the short video above, Harwood gives you a quick look inside the making of his podcast, and how it brings exposure to his work. If you’re an up-and-coming writer, there’s certainly something here to think about. You can find out more about Seth’s work at SethHarwood.com.

This guy went to CCSF!

Jon Hammond, CCSF student, circa 1972.

NYTRB to review my novel JACK WAKES UP

YES!! I just found out today that my novel JACK WAKES UP (out May 5th from Three Rivers Press/Random House) will be reviewed in the Sunday NY Times Book Review on May 10th!!

Help me celebrate by hooting when you read this! (Please.)

I'll be giving a series of readings in SF and around the Bay Area that you can find out about here: sethharwood.com/readings Look for postcards about these events to show up on Diane's desk very soon, as well as COUPONS to buy the book at a discount from Books, Inc.
You can also view the postcard here.
All best!
Seth

Plugging My Blog: "Matt Duckworth Underwater"

Dear Fellow Faculty and Students,

I have started a blog that I invite you to check out. Here, I have started a collection of mini-essays, postcards, ruminations, artwork, favorite quotations, short-short fiction, and bibliographical annotations (more fun than it sounds!) in a forum organized, sometimes loosely, around an aquatic theme.

http://mattduckworthunderwater.blogspot.com/

I hope you will be amused, at least.

Thanks,

Matt

Lunch with writers?

Greetings, fellow wordsmiths!

In addition to our work at CCSF, we (Anna Mills and Erin O'Briant) are
both writers and are interested in socializing with other writers (of
any stripe) on campus. Therefore, we're planning an informal lunch at
PCR at noon on Thursday, April 30 for all who are interested in meeting
other self-identified writers who work here. If it goes well, we'll do
it a couple of times per semester.

At the first lunch, we can all talk about what we'd like to get out of a
regular writers' lunch--support, check-ins, a chance to seek out
critique partners, or just the opportunity to think of ourselves as
writers for an hour. We can also consider different times.

Sound fun? Please email Erin at eobriant@ccsf.edu or Anna at
amills@ccsf.edu by Monday, April 20 so we'll reserve enough room at PCR.
Staff, faculty, and administrators from all corners of CCSF are welcome;
please forward this email as you see fit. Of course, we have no funding,
so folks will have to buy their own lunches. Maybe there's something in
the stimulus package for writers eating salad together?

Happy writing,
Anna Mills and Erin O'Briant

Ocean-Balboa Progress? Maybe . . .