Day: December 13, 2019

“Liberal education is more critical than ever if we take into account our nation’s historic mission of educating for democracy,” Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, said.

Those statements come as an increasing number of small, liberal arts colleges in America are closing or being taken over by larger academic institutions… and as the number of international students coming to the U.S. is at an all-time high. (According to a recent report by  Open Doors 2019, recently released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs). [[ ]]

Pasquerella spoke in detail about this topic, and touched on many other issues in an in-depth interview with VOA earlier this month at the AAC&U offices in Washington.

The following is a transcript of the full interview.

VOA: Thank you for taking the time to sit with me today. First, tell us about your association.

Lynn Pasquerella: The Association of American Colleges and Universities has a mission of advancing the vitality and public standing of liberal education equity and quality as the foundations for excellence in undergraduate education in service to democracy.

VOA: Let’s talk about the status of small liberal arts colleges across the US. Where is it right now and what’s happening with them?

Pasquerella: There’s a prevailing national rhetoric that calls into question the value of higher education in general, and liberal education in particular.

A number of small liberal arts colleges are at risk, in part because of this rhetoric, but also because they have served very distinctive missions. Many small, faith-based institutions in the past, had relied on the clergy, to do administrative work, to teach classes. And as their numbers are dwindling, the colleges are finding that they’re having trouble keeping up with the payroll.

But there are many, many liberal arts institutions that are thriving today, and at AAC&U we believe that that mission is more critical than ever.

VOA: Can you give me some examples of colleges that have either closed or been taken over by larger academic institutions, and examples of colleges that are doing okay.

Pasquerella: In the headlines recently there has been attention paid to places like Mount Ida College, looking at a partnership with the University of Massachusetts being absorbed by that. Marlborough College is looking at a perspective absorption by Emerson, that’s being contested right now.

At Sweetbriar and Hampshire colleges we’re thinking about ways that they could partner with other institutions — the Board of Sweetbriar made a decision to close the college, but the alumni got together and revitalized the college and it is continuing to grow and strengthen.

Hampshire College decided a year and a half ago not to admit a first year class, but they have allowed students who had already been admitted to the college to attend if they chose to and are very active in recruiting a new class, and their numbers continue to grow.

So these are colleges that have been at risk, who have looked at innovative ways to take new directions… there’s a recent book out by Mary Marcy — who is the president of Dominican [University] in California — and her book focuses on the small college imperative and the ways that colleges that are committed to the liberal arts, but are small, can partner with others with business and industry K through 12 to create new pathways for excellence for student success.

And so, colleges like Bates College have new innovative programs that are connecting curriculum to career in ways that will help address some of the concerns of the skeptics around the fact that a liberal education is seen as inconsistent with employability in this world that is STEM-focused.

VOA: What is your assessment of Trinity College,? Like many colleges, it’s had its set of challenges, but seems to be doing well.

Pasquerella: Trinity College is a very prestigious, liberal arts institution in Connecticut — was founded in 1823 with a mission to promote the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and since then has retained a reputation for excellence in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.

But they also have established themselves as an anchor institution, and they demonstrate the ways in which their success is inextricably linked to the success of those in the communities that they seek to serve — and so they do have partnerships with business and industry with K through 12 in the Hartford region. And I think that makes all the difference at a time when we are trying to establish new pipelines for a diverse populations in liberal arts colleges.

VOA: What are some of the reasons colleges are closing, or being taken over by other academic institutions?

Pasquerella: There are a variety of reasons why small liberal arts colleges are closing.

There has been a disinvestment in higher education.

And there’s also been this rhetoric that I mentioned where liberal arts colleges are being called into question.

There has been a shift away from the notion of higher education as a public good, to viewing it as a private commodity. So tuition in exchange for jobs, and as tuition-driven institutions have needed to increase their tuition and fees, there’s been some skepticism about the value added of that type of education.

And so many students are going to community college, to public institutions, as a way of dealing with the cost.

They may transfer into four-year independent … colleges but that’s had some impact.

And the fact that we have so many options. One of the great strengths of American higher education is the diversity of the types of institutions. We know that you can get an education that is a quality education at a two-year Community College, a four year public research-1 institution, a whole range of institutions, and so these options have created some challenges and risks for small liberal arts colleges.

VOA: Some experts say some of these liberal arts colleges have had financial difficulty and therefore closing because funds are being allocated to nonacademic initiatives like sports, sports facilities, things like that. What is your opinion about that?

Pasquerella: These are issues that we need to address; the issues of cost and allocation of scarce resources. When we’re talking about places like Trinity, or other small liberal arts colleges, they are most likely Division-3 schools so they’re not spending enormous amount of money on athletics, they don’t have athletic scholarships, but they recognize the importance of making sure that students have curricular and co-curricular experiences — that they are learning, not only in the classroom, but issues of leadership outside of the classroom as well.

VOA: What are some of the ways these problems can be mitigated?

Pasquerella: Leaders of small liberal arts colleges need to tell their story in a more compelling way, not only to those inside of the academy, but to those outside of the academy as well, who may be skeptical about the value of a liberal education at a time when rapidly changing technology means rapid obsolescence.

And in a world that is globally interdependent, the best preparation that we can offer students is one that teaches them to write, speak and think with precision, coherence and clarity, to anticipate and respond to objections, to engage in moral imagination, imagining what it’s like to be in the shoes of another different from oneself, and to be adaptable and flexible in the face of that rapid change.

That’s exactly what a liberal education does for students. The narrow technical training that has been promoted by many individuals today, places students at risk because once those resources are outsourced or replaced by new technologies, the students lose the capacity to become innovators in their own lives without a liberal arts background.

We don’t think at AAC&U that there is an inconsistency between a liberal education and technical or pre-professional education. We think a liberal education can be applied to students at all types of institutions, and that’s what we are championing at our organization.

VOA: We have a very vibrant body of international students who come to the U.S. to attend all kinds of colleges. Many — especially people coming from Asia and the Middle East — like to attend STEM schools. What do you say about that when it comes to liberal arts colleges?

Pasquerella: Liberal education is a distinctively American tradition, and yet what we’re seeing is that institutions in China, in Korea, in the Middle East, are asking for our help in developing a liberal arts curriculum for their students, because they are concerned about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the ways that technology will be brought to bear on the lives and livelihood of people there.

I was just serving on a commission for the National Academy of Arts and Sciences looking at the integration of arts and humanities, with science, technology, engineering, math and medicine, and the conclusion of that report is that this integration is more important than ever, as we help students deal with the unscripted challenges of the future, and prepare for jobs that haven’t yet been invented.

And so there is a recognition worldwide that this education is critical to the success of our students — not only upon graduation, but throughout their lives. At a time when life spans are growing, how do we help people engage in lifelong learning, and to live lives that will enable them to flourish fully as human beings, as individuals and in their communities?

VOA: Let’s talk a little bit about the state of co-education across college campuses. Trinity College is celebrating 50 years of going co-ed. And you were head of a small liberal arts women’s college. So when did co-education really start to pick up steam in this country and what would you say about the impact that has had on higher education?

Pasquerella: Well Mount Holyoke College where I was the president was the first women’s college in the country established in 1837. And there was a need because colleges and universities were not by enlarge open to women. And so it was seen as the equivalent to the Ivy League. And opportunities for women and the seven sister institutions that were formed after 1837, focused on equal opportunity to educational access for women.

In the ‘70s, there was a move toward co-education, in part because there was a recognition that women had the right to go to some of the Ivy League schools where they had been denied access, and some of the so-called ‘Little Ivys.’

At that moment in time, places like Vassar College went coed, and there were a number of other women’s colleges that made a decision to admit men as women were being admitted to places like Dartmouth and a whole range of other institutions that were being challenged legally and ethically to have a more diverse student population.

VOA: What do you think are the benefits and challenges of schools being coed?

Pasquerella: I certainly think there’s value in single sex education. At Mount Holyoke, all of the leadership roles were played by women. And we know in co-educational institutions that women are less likely to play leadership roles, because as some have said — and there was a study at Princeton that showed this — they didn’t think that it was ‘worth the risk.’

And so when we look at the kinds of risks that have been detailed, they’re talking about reputational risks, risks to a sense of wellbeing and purpose that are posed when women take on leadership roles.

And we know that women are judged differently than men in terms of their appearance, the fact that they are judged based on a proven track record, as opposed to potential, whereas men are given leadership positions based on their potential and not necessarily on what they’ve accomplished already.

And so just the different ways in which society judges men and women, has led, I think, to a recommitment to women’s education, recognizing that there are still gender gaps in higher education. 25% of the leaders are women. And that has not changed since 1985.

The numbers have increased slightly to 33%, if we take into account leadership of community colleges, but of course those are the institutions that we devalue in our society.

But if you look at Research-1 institutions, the places that are valued most highly, very few women are leading those institutions, and so we need to look at the barriers to leadership in the academy and how we can address those given that more than 50% of college students are female. What are the persistent barriers, hidden biases that mitigate against women’s leadership in the academy?

VOA: Let’s talk briefly about members of the LGBT community. Where do they fit into all this and how does that factor into the equation?

Pasquerella: It’s a great question. At Mount Holyoke we made a decision under my presidency in 2014 to admit any student who identified as a woman, or who was biologically female at birth.

So this allowed for students — all students — to come to Mount Holyoke except those who identified as male. And for many people, this was a concern, others celebrated it and thought that it was about time that we recognized that the category of woman is not static.

And at times of gender fluidity and a recognition that identity is so grounded in cultural norms, we wanted to be as inclusive as possible while recognizing our commitment to being a women’s college and to serving women.

VOA: Any last comments about the status of liberal arts colleges and the U.S?

Pasquerella: Liberal education is more critical than ever if we take into account our nation’s historic mission of educating for democracy. And at a time when we are existing in what seems to be a post-truth era, when facts are being questioned, when evidence is being challenged, helping students to discern the truth and the power of a liberal education is crucial.

Academic leaders must take up the charge to ensure that all of our citizens have the right to a liberal education.

VOA: Thank you so much for your time.

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Prosecutors in New York have charged a former Moroccan ambassador to the United Nations and others with visa fraud, accusing them of bringing workers to the United States using fake employment contracts and then exploiting them. 

Abdeslam Jaidi, his ex-wife Maria Luisa Estrella and her brother Ramon Singson brought in more than 10 workers from the Philippines and Morocco since about 2006, according to the indictment filed in federal court in New York. 

The visa applications said the workers would be employed as administrative or technical staff at the consulate or Moroccan U.N. mission, and some included fake employment contracts, it said. 

Instead, the workers were used as personal drivers, domestic helpers and farmhands, the indictment said. 

They were paid low wages — sometimes less than $500 a month — and worked long hours without time off. Some had to hand over their passports, it also said. 

“This case sends a strong message that diplomatic immunity does not equal impunity,” said Martina Vandenberg, head of the Washington-based Human Trafficking Legal Center. “Even high-ranking diplomats can be called to account if there are allegations of visa fraud and exploitation.” 

Other cases

In recent years, other foreign diplomats in the United States have been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the treatment of their employees.  

Earlier this year, the U.S. government suspended new visas for domestic employees of Malawian officials after one of the country’s diplomats failed to pay $1.1 million in damages to a woman she trafficked in the United States. 

Supporters have warned that domestic workers employed by diplomats are vulnerable to abuses and even human trafficking because their visas chain them to specific employers.  

Being tied to a specific employer means they cannot switch to a better job, and if they quit, they typically must leave the country. 

The charges, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y., were conspiracy to commit offenses and defraud and conspiracy to induce aliens to come to, enter and reside in the country. 

The crimes carry maximum sentences of five and 10 years in prison, respectively. 

Estrella, 60, was arrested in March, while Jaidi, 82, who lives in Rabat, Morocco, and Singson, 55, who lives in Manila, are at large. 
Estrella’s lawyers declined to comment. 

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China’s Foreign Ministry, when asked about the trade deal with the United States, said it is committed to resolving the issues but the deal must be mutually beneficial.

Spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comments on Friday at a daily briefing.

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US, China Near Deal That Would Suspend Planned Tariffs

The Trump administration and China are close to finalizing a modest trade agreement that would suspend tariffs set to kick in Sunday, de-escalating their 17-month trade war

The United States and China are coming up against a natural deadline on Dec. 15 when a tariff hike will come into effect.

Washington has set its terms for the first part of the so-called “phased deal”, offering to suspend some tariffs on Chinese goods and cut others in exchange for Beijing buying more American farm goods, U.S. sources have said.

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Freweini Mebrahtu remembers when she returned to her home village in northern Ethiopia and saw women squatting over holes in the ground. Without any sanitary pads to use during their menstrual period, they were stuck in this undignified position.

“How is that possible? And they were telling me that they don’t even use underwear,” she told VOA. “And that was the turning point for me. I kind of felt the nerves going from head to my toes. And that’s when I said, ‘you know, I’ve gotta do something.’ Why is this thing bothering me over and over again? So that was it.”

The more she examined the problem the bigger it appeared. Two out of every five girls have been forced to miss school during their periods with many eventually dropping out. Grown women were resorting to using old cloth or grass as pads. Women and girls, she found, were being shamed by their community during their menstrual periods.

“We’re talking about gender equality and all that stuff. But when the basic necessity of a young girl is not fulfilled, how is that possible?” she said. “ How is the country going to be developed when 50 percent of your society – women – are compromised this way?”

In 2009, Freweini founded Mariam Seba Products Factory (MSPF) in Ethiopia’s northern city of Mekelle. The factory produces reusable pads that can last up to 18 months and cost 90 percent less than disposable pads. Freweini has teamed up with a charitable organization Dignity Period and together they have distributed more than 150,000 free menstrual hygiene kits produced by the factory.

The work is having an impact. Dignity Period has recorded a 24% increase in attendance by girls in schools where they offer services.

This month Freweini was selected as the CNN Hero of the Year and will receive $100,000 to support her work. She said the award was an affirmation of a decision she made years ago to move, along with her 3-year-old daughter, from the U.S. back to Ethiopia and pursue this cause. Today her daughter is 18 and going off to college.

Congratulations to 2019 CNN Hero of the Year Freweini Mebrahtu

Learn more about her at https://t.co/MkgzSoE3Zf#CNNHeroespic.twitter.com/xTTfdWCnkn

— CNN Heroes (@CNNHeroes) December 9, 2019

“You know, it was a moment of an amazing journey. And people thought that I was crying because of the whole event. But it’s the whole timing issue,” she said. “It must have been God’s willing it to happen, the way it happened.”

But she says her work is not done. She noted that there are 30 million women of reproductive age in Ethiopia and the vast majority do not have access to affordable sanitary pads. Additionally, there is a 15 percent value-added tax on many menstrual hygiene products.

“It’s not just Ethiopia. It’s everywhere, developing countries even in the U.S. there is a tax issue. So, now that CNN has made it an issue for anybody to look at this seriously, we hope that everyone will make a sensible solution and a sensible change in making this a reality for all,” she said.

“Reach out and help your sisters. Wherever you are, together we can make this issue a thing of the past.” #CNNHero Freweini Mebrahtu is stamping out the stigma surrounding menstruation — all while paying women premium wages. https://t.co/Ae0lyQdDY0pic.twitter.com/2G7cyaUYO6

— CNN Heroes (@CNNHeroes) December 9, 2019

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has won a solid majority of seats in Britain’s Parliament — a decisive outcome to a Brexit-dominated election that should allow Johnson to fulfill his plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union next month.

With just over 600 of the 650 seats declared, the Conservatives reached the 326 mark, guaranteeing their majority.

Johnson said it looked like the Conservatives had “a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done.”

The victory will likely make Johnson the most electorally successful Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher, another politician who was loved and loathed in almost equal measure. It was a disaster for left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who faced calls for his resignation even as the results rolled in. The party looked set to gain around 200 seats.

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Britain Brexit Bound as Johnson Set for Big Parliamentary Majority

An exit poll showed Boris Johnson’s Conservatives would win a landslide of 368 seats, more than enough for a very comfortable majority in the 650-seat parliament

Corbyn called the result “very disappointing” for his party and said he would not lead Labour into another election, though he resisted calls to quit immediately,

Results poured in early Friday showing a substantial shift in support to the Conservatives from Labour. In the last election in 2017, the Conservatives won 318 seats and Labour 262.

The result this time looked set to be the biggest Tory majority since Thatcher’s 1980s’ heyday, and Labour’s lowest number of seats since 1935.

The Scottish National Party appeared set to take about 50 of Scotland’s 59 seats — a big increase — with a lackluster dozen or so for the centrist, pro-EU Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson lost her own Scottish seat.

The Conservatives took a swathe of seats in post-industrial northern England towns that were long Labour strongholds. Labour’s vote held up better in London, where the party managed to grab the Putney seat from the Conservatives.

The decisive Conservative showing vindicates Johnson’s decision to press for Thursday’s early election, which was held nearly two years ahead of schedule. He said that if the Conservatives won a majority, he would get Parliament to ratify his Brexit divorce deal and take the U.K. out of the EU by the current Jan. 31 deadline.

Speaking at the election count in his Uxbridge constituency in suburban London, Johnson said the “historic” election “gives us now, in this new government, the chance to respect the democratic will of the British people to change this country for the better and to unleash the potential of the entire people of this country.”

That message appears to have had strong appeal for Brexit-supporting voters, who turned away from Labour in the party’s traditional heartlands and embraced Johnson’s promise that the Conservatives would “get Brexit done.”

“I think Brexit has dominated, it has dominated everything by the looks of it,” said Labour economy spokesman John McDonnell. “We thought other issues could cut through and there would be a wider debate, from this evidence there clearly wasn’t.”

The prospect of Brexit finally happening more than three years after Britons narrowly voted to leave the EU marks a momentous shift for both the U.K. and the bloc. No country has ever left the union, which was created in the decades after World War II to bring unity to a shattered continent.

But a decisive Conservative victory would also provide some relief to the EU, which has grown tired of Britain’s Brexit indecision.

Britain’s departure will start a new phase of negotiations on future relations between Britain and the 27 remaining EU members.

EU Council President Charles Michel promised that EU leaders meeting Friday would send a “strong message” to the next British government and parliament about next steps.

“We are ready to negotiate,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The pound surged when an exit poll forecast the Tory win, jumping over two cents against the dollar, to $1.3445, the highest in more than a year and a half. Many Investors hope a Conservative win would speed up the Brexit process and ease, at least in the short term, some of the uncertainty that has corroded business confidence since the 2016 vote.

Many voters casting ballots on Thursday hoped the election might finally find a way out of the Brexit stalemate in this deeply divided nation. Three and a half years after the U.K. voted by 52%-48% to leave the EU, Britons remain split over whether to leave the 28-nation bloc, and lawmakers have proved incapable of agreeing on departure terms.

On a dank, gray day with outbreaks of blustery rain, voters went to polling stations in schools, community centers, pubs and town halls after a bad-tempered five-week campaign rife with mudslinging and misinformation.

Opinion polls had given the Conservatives a steady lead, but the result was considered hard to predict, because the issue of Brexit cuts across traditional party loyalties.

Johnson campaigned relentlessly on a promise to “Get Brexit done” by getting Parliament to ratify his “oven-ready” divorce deal with the EU and take Britain out of the bloc as scheduled on Jan. 31.

The Conservatives focused much of their energy on trying to win in a “red wall” of working-class towns in central and northern England that have elected Labour lawmakers for decades but also voted strongly in 2016 to leave the EU. That effort got a boost when the Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage decided at the last minute not to contest 317 Conservative-held seats to avoid splitting the pro-Brexit vote.

Labour, which is largely but ambiguously pro-EU, faced competition for anti-Brexit voters from the centrist Liberal Democrats, Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties, and the Greens.

But on the whole Labour tried to focus the campaign away from Brexit and onto its radical domestic agenda, vowing to tax the rich, nationalize industries such as railroads and water companies and give everyone in the country free internet access. It campaigned heavily on the future of the National Health Service, a deeply respected institution that has struggled to meet rising demand after nine years of austerity under Conservative-led governments.

It appears that wasn’t enough to boost Labour’s fortunes. Defeat will likely spell the end for Corbyn, a veteran socialist who moved his party sharply to the left after taking the helm in 2015, but who now looks to have led his left-of-center party to two electoral defeats since 2017. The 70-year-old left-winger was also accused of allowing anti-Semitism to spread within the party.

“It’s Corbyn,” said former Labour Cabinet minister Alan Johnson, when asked about the poor result. “We knew he was incapable of leading, we knew he was worse than useless at all the qualities you need to lead a political party.”

For many voters, the election offered an unpalatable choice. Both Johnson and Corbyn have personal approval ratings in negative territory, and both have been dogged by questions about their character.

Johnson has been confronted with past broken promises, untruths and offensive statements, from calling the children of single mothers “ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate” to comparing Muslim women who wear face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”

Yet, his energy and determination proved persuasive to many voters.

“It’s a big relief, looking at the exit polls as they are now, we’ve finally got that majority a working majority that we have not had for 3 1/2 years,” said Conservative-supporting writer Jack Rydeheard. “We’ve got the opportunity to get Brexit done and get everything else that we promised as well. That’s investment in the NHS, schools, hospitals you name it — it’s finally a chance to break that deadlock in Parliament.”

…

Time Magazine’s selection of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as its Person of the Year underscores the growing clout of youth power—pushing governments to escalate the fight against what many consider a climate crisis. That is also happening in Africa, which is especially vulnerable to climate change. At the Madrid climate conference, Lisa Bryant reports on three young Africans who are making a difference

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Rwanda this week (Dec 9) co-hosted the annual Anti-Corruption Excellence Award summit to celebrate and encourage successes against graft, including at home.  Transparency International ranks Rwanda as the fourth-least corrupt country in Africa, behind the Seychelles, Botswana, and Cabo Verde.  Eugene Uwimana reports from Kigali

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