Duke under Watch

Last week we noticed an interesting little tidbit coming from Wonderland: although buried (intentional?) in the bottom of the Chronicle story, Duke has been put on monitoring status by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

From the Story:

it [Duke] has not “demonstrated that its institutional effectiveness, with regard to student learning outcomes, have occurred broadly in undergraduate and graduate programs [emphasis added],” according to a letter written to Duke by SACS.

Though the accreditation process has been approved already, those of with noses keener than others can sniff between the lines.

While not directly, the Lacrosse Hoax is still having a subliminal effect on Duke. The revelation during the case that many of the involved faculty had little or no claim to academic prominence (of meaning, that is. Just because, for example, Michael Hardt consorts with criminals such as Antonio Negri, or Eduardo Bonna-Silva becomes well known for MEChA-nized hate speech, does not vault them into the annals of legitimate academics). This scrutiny on major institutions demonstrates a far more reaching concern on what qualifies as legitimate research, a mantra originally limited to observers of the case and education reform groups,

Interesting.

Posted by Hound No. 2