Why I'm Pleasantly Surprised With Obama's Immigration Plan

I had expected — or feared — that President Obama would once again let Silicon Valley down with his executive order on immigration. But he hasn’t. The president has done practically everything in his power to address the needs of the technology community. The larger problem is that this is a only band-aid. What is worse is that this will likely be the only immigration reform we see in the near future. It will take many years for the wounds to heal from the battles that will now start.

There are more than one million immigrant doctors, scientists, engineers, and teachers who entered the country legally and are stuck in limbo while they wait for permanent resident visas, which are in short supply. It can take decades for people of some nationalities to get a green card, and once the application process has started, they cannot change jobs without getting to the back of the queue. Employers know that these workers won’t be leaving them, so they often take advantage of the situation by offering lower salary increases and lesser roles. The president’s executive order provides “portable work authorization,” which means that they will be able to change jobs. This is a big deal because it will fix one of the issues that opponents of skilled immigration have complained the most about: The salary differential between people on H-1B visas and American workers. No longer can skilled immigrants be considered “cheap labor.”

As well, this fixes another major problem: the purgatory that spouses of H-1B workers have been placed in. Highly skilled professionals — mostly women — have seen their careers stagnate and been confined to their homes because they were not allowed to work. The administrative order authorizes work visas for the spouses of immigrants who have filed for permanent resident visas. This is a huge step forward.

The president also announced administrative changes to improve the processing of visas, expanded immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs, and extensions to training visas for foreign students. These are all good, but the devil is in the details. It really depends on how the immigration bureaucracy interprets these orders and what additional hurdles are placed in the way of skilled immigrants.

What the president didn’t announce was an increase in the numbers of temporary and permanent resident visas and a proper Start-up Visa. This is a big concern — because these are the core needs of Silicon Valley. It needs more highly skilled workers and tens of thousands of new start-ups.

The extreme wing of the Republican Party is now likely to go on the warpath because the president used his executive privileges and cut them out of the decision process. They will likely spread more misinformation about immigration and poison the waters even more. They will accuse Obama of providing amnesty to the undocumented, say that foreigners are taking American jobs away, and spread false rumors. The truth will be a casualty of these battles and large segments of the American population will rally against all immigration. So this executive order may be the last progress we see on immigration for many years — until the anger has subdued.

The tragedy is that millions of undocumented workers were left out of the executive order and hundreds of thousands of skilled immigrants will still remain in limbo. The tens of thousands of entrepreneurs who would have come to the United States to start their companies will not be able to do so and the brain drain will continue. The only hope now is that sanity does prevail — and that level-headed Republicans work with the Democrats to craft legislation to do what is right for America.

Obama Makes Statement On Ferguson Grand Jury Decision

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama urged calm across the nation on Monday in response to the decision by a grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August.

In brief remarks at the White House, the president acknowledged that anger is “an understandable reaction” to the news that Wilson was let go without being indicted. Still, he said, the jury’s decision carries “the rule of law” and people must accept it.

“I join Michael’s parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully,” Obama said. “Let me repeat Michael’s father’s words: ‘Hurting others or destroying property is not the answer. No matter what the grand jury decides, I do not want my son’s death to be in vain.'”

The president’s plea for nonviolence came just after St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced that members of the jury reached their decision after meeting for 25 days and hearing more than 70 hours of testimony from more than 60 witnesses.

Brown’s Aug. 9 death sparked protests in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, and sparked a national debate on the relationship between law enforcement and young black men. On Monday night, police in Ferguson and in cities around the country braced for more protests and possible violence in response to the grand jury’s decision.

Obama acknowledged the deeper issues underlying the situation, namely the feeling that laws are often applied in a discriminatory fashion against people of color.

“What is also true is that there are still problems, and communities of color aren’t just making these problems up,” he said.

The president added that the nation has made “enormous progress” when it comes to dealing with race relations — something he personally can attest to.

“I have witnessed that in my own life,” he said. “To deny that progress, I think, is to deny America’s capacity for change.”

Size May Not Matter As Much As You Think For College Students

When it comes to penis size, the conventional wisdom is that bigger is always better, but according to a panel of college sex columnists, that’s not the case.

Katherine Marrone, a sex columnist at the University of Oregon explained to HuffPost Live’s Caitlyn Becker that a well-endowed man is not always a good thing, particularly when it causes the woman pain.

“It’s not that bigger penis size equals better pleasure, necessarily,”Marrone said. “Now, if one finds a bigger penis more arousing mentally, then that’s totally fine. But it’s not necessary, and it’s important to not put those standards on people and make people feel bad about their bodies if they don’t have an 8-inch penis.”

Boni Mata, a sex columnist for The Daily Californian at the University of California-Berkeley, weighed in saying men think about penis size more than women.

“I don’t judge a man when he drops his pants, and I see that his penis is not as big as other partners I’ve had,” Mata said.

Wesleyan University sex columnist Talia Bauer pointed out a few circumstances in which smaller may actually be preferable.

“A small penis can actually be much better for anal sex or oral sex,” Bauer said.

Mata summed up the discussion this way: “Penis size needs to take a back seat.”

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation about how sexting compares to real-life sex here.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

Photos Of Darren Wilson's Injuries Released

New photos of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson were released Monday after St. Louis County Prosector Robert McCulloch announced a grand jury had chosen not to indict the officer for the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The photos show injuries Wilson sustained in the exchange he had with Brown before he shot and killed the teenager. The photos were presented as evidence to the grand jury.

sd

1asdf

a

a

All photos from the St. Louis County Prosecutor Office.

(h/t CBS News)

See below for more updates on what’s happening in Ferguson:

Theater: Not Enough "Tristan & Yseult;" Never Enough Lypsinka!

TRISTAN & YSEULT ** out of ****
LYPSKINA! THE BOXED SET **** out of ****

TRISTAN & YSEULT ** out of ****
ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE

I had a great first date with the Kneehigh theatre company. It was their wildly popular adaptation of that veddy British romance Brief Encounter. Kneehigh’s spin on it was immersive and fun from the start. That was followed by a second date called The Wild Bride, a show not nearly as good but you remember how much fun you had on the first date and would regret not giving it another go.

Well, here’s the all important third date and Tristan & Yseult is a disappointment. It’s a pleasant enough evening out if you aren’t looking for a commitment. But I want to fall in love with a theater company the way I fell in love with Cheek By Jowl or ERS and Kneehigh is making that very difficult. Maybe we should just be friends?

How else to feel about a troupe that is too clever by half? They clearly spent so much time working on theatrical flourishes and little bits of business and “what if’s” (as in “what if we did this?” or “what if we tried that?”) that they lost track of the fabled romance at its heart. Tristan & Yseult is of course a classic tale, an earlier spin on the King Arthur, Lancelot and Guinever love triangle. A French knight wins the affection and trust of a king, is sent off to bring home a bride and in doing so falls madly in love with her (and she with him). Tragedy ensues.

The story has many variations: sometimes the king sends the lovers away with his resigned blessing; other times he has them killed. But tears will flow, whether you’re reading a medieval poem’s version or watching Wagner’s opera, which includes some of the most romantic and stirring music in history. Kneehigh — no fools they — wisely include snippets of Wagner from the start and go all in for the finale. You can’t help feeling a little stirred though it’s all reflected glory.

It certainly helps to have a sense of the story going in because adapter and director Emma Rice along with writers Carl Grose and Anna Maria Murphy spent most of the time filling the show with bits of business. For example, they stage it at a Club for the Unloved and a band performs covers of pop songs before the show begins and during the interval. It’s enjoyable but a retread of what they did more charmingly on Brief Encounter.

A troupe of sad fools — all of them not so proud members of the Unloved — wear anoraks and dorky head gear, watching the story unfold, offering a hand with the set or simply gobbling up popcorn during key emotional moments. They are consistently amusing but it’s a bit like admiring the frame around an old painting rather than the painting itself.

I’ll remember a fair amount of this T&Y: the maid (Niall Ashdown) who substitutes for Yseult in the marriage bed and pines for romance of her own, the amusingly naff covers, the king’s once favored knight Frocin (the handsome and casually magnetic Damon Daunno) and his toast at the wedding and so on. But Tristan? Yseult? The lovers at the heart of this story? They barely register, mostly because they’re given so little to do. I wasn’t surprised to see Hannah Vassallo has many credits as a dancer; she moves well but is less confident with the text. Dominic Marsh is a straightforward, unremarkable Tristan and the journey they go on isn’t terribly clear. (Does the love potion merely accentuate their passion or make them think what was just lust was in fact something more? We don’t really care.)

And let’s not go overboard praising the details in this overly illuminated manuscript. Many bits of business don’t in fact work. The scene on the ship with Yseult and the maid is labored and drawn out. The circus-like scene where our lovers fly in the air with their passion doesn’t take one’s breath away. The comedy where Frocin perches in the air (again with those high-wire ropes the show is enamored of) just to spy on the lovers is also drawn out and not terribly funny. And so on, I fear, until like any date gone off the rails you are furtively checking your watch, wondering when it won’t be rude to say you have to work in the morning.

The cast is generally too enthusiastic and too talented to make the night a genuine drag. It just doesn’t add up to much. Of course, the finale is moving but that’s Wagner for you: play highlights from his masterworks and almost any fool will begin to tear up. Bugs Bunny had a field day playing around with opera, but I can remember every silly detail of What’s Opera, Doc? and the emotions gleefully at play. Tristan & Yseult faded from memory as soon as I exited the theater and cued up a dating app to see if anyone else was feeling unsatisfied and looking for true love. Or at least another first date that would leave you with hope.

LYPSKINA! THE BOXED SET **** out of ****
TWEED THEATER WORKS AT THE CONNELLY THEATER

Speaking of relationships, where has Lypsinka been all my life? She aka John Epperson has turned one of the most uncreative acts imaginable — lip syncing along to a prerecorded song — into high art. It’s happened before. Creator Dennis Potter used lip syncing to remarkable effect in his TV musicals Pennies From Heaven and The Singing Detective. And of course drag queens have lip synced for generations. But no matter how well coiffed they are, no matter how precise their pronunciation and dead-on their mannerisms, that’s just imitation, which is why the most talented go on to create their own personas. Imitation is the lowest form of stand-up though some people have made a career out of it (Rich Little) or more often used it as a springboard to something better.

But Lypsinka — as aficionados have known for a long time — is on an entirely different level. First, she creates a sound collage akin to the most brilliant sampling to be found in hip-hop music. Most of those artists find a particular bit of percussion or maybe a five second bit of music they slice up and loop over and over. Lypsinka has created a 70 minute collage that combines audio pulled from every possible source into an evening’s entertainment. You’ll hear clips from movies and tv shows and interviews and pop songs and live concerts, especially the between-song chatter that can be wonderfully cheesy. (“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. You know songs come and go but I love the classics….”)

That sounds simple enough, but keep in mind: almost none of the songs are played in full and bits of dialogue are strung together in an artful manner that creates comedy and drama and bizarre juxtapositions and it stretches out for 70 minutes. I say stretches and that’s what ou fear when the show begins. How can he keep this up? And yet he does: with extended bravura passages like a series of phone calls that interrupt certain numbers or the lip-syncing to a jokingly drunken version of “The 12 Days Of Christmas” that would be a show-stopper all on its own.”

Doing it for five or ten minutes would be daunting and even then most people would play out an entire song just to fill up the time. Doing this for 70 minutes is a high-wire act of assembly. I would gladly listen to just the audio collage Epperson has created and have a grand old time. Heck, I would gladly strap a tape recorder to my chest and sneak it into the theater just so I could tape the “soundtrack” and break down exactly what Lypsinka is doing here. (Rather, I would if I didn’t fear Lypsinka’s wrath when she discovered my act of adoring but unacceptable piracy.)

But that’s just the start of what Lypsinka accomplishes. She performs live onstage this entire sound collage. Every snatch of dialogue, every bit of music, every off-hand stage patter, every grunt and sigh and scream is recreated by Lypsinka. The level of artifice, the meta-ness of it all becomes deliciously dizzying. Sometimes Epperson as Lypsinka is doing it all to a “t,” every hand gesture pure theater, every eye roll completely in character. Other times he’s undercutting the obviously insincere chatter. During a particularly manic song his hands might take on a life of their own and you can see him performing — that is, lip syncing — along with the song while his eyes warily stay focused on hands that seem to have mischief in mind.

He flirts and jokes with the audience. He wears a dazzling number of gowns. He laughs and struts and pleads and sashays without pause, all of course in a highly choreographed and precise manner that feels both fluid and in-the-moment yet must be as tightly timed as any farce where one door slammed too soon could throw the whole night off. Surely there are moments where he can “catch up” that we don’t spot, pauses where he can vamp or play off the crowd. But I didn’t spot them.

It’s silly, it’s funny, it’s beautifully performed and it is entirely unique. Has anyone ever filmed it? To hell with the seemingly impossible clearances that would make it daunting to ever release the show on film, even if it is all fair use. He really should be captured in concert for posterity. And what exactly does Lypsinka pull from to create these collages? Oh I spotted some classics like of course Mommie Dearest. You get Joan Crawford and Bette Davis and countless others. But the vast majority of clips remained a mystery to me and the desire to “spot the source” remained but was never the point. You’re not patting yourself on the shoulder for recognizing this or that old movie clip or classic cabaret number; you’re just marveling at a one of a kind talent.

Epperson could seemingly pull this off for many years to come. But why take that chance? Neophytes should surely begin with his greatest hits show Boxed Set. It’s the centerpiece in this trilogy of plays he’s mounted. But now I’m intrigued by the absinthe-like delirium of The Passion Of The Crawford (in which he recreates an entire interview with that icon) and the life in this biz we call show dubbed John Epperson: Show Trash, the story of this rare flower and how he came to be. The technical credits are flawless and the team behind him (led by director Kevin Malony on Boxed Set) deserve high praise. But is there any question that Lypsinka is in charge? No, there is not.

THEATER OF 2014

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***
Rodney King ***
Hard Times ** 1/2
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead **
I Could Say More *
The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner **
Machinal ***
Outside Mullingar ***
A Man’s A Man * 1/2
The Tribute Artist ** 1/2
Transport **
Prince Igor at the Met **
The Bridges Of Madison County ** 1/2
Kung Fu (at Signature) **
Stage Kiss ***
Satchmo At The Waldorf ***
Antony and Cleopatra at the Public **
All The Way ** 1/2
The Open House (Will Eno at Signature) ** 1/2
Wozzeck (at Met w Deborah Voigt and Thomas Hampson and Simon O’Neill)
Hand To God ***
Tales From Red Vienna **
Appropriate (at Signature) *
Rocky * 1/2
Aladdin ***
Mothers And Sons **
Les Miserables *** 1/2
Breathing Time * 1/2
Cirque Du Soleil’s Amaluna * 1/2
Heathers The Musical * 1/2
Red Velvet, at St. Ann’s Warehouse ***
Broadway By The Year 1940-1964 *** 1/2
A Second Chance **
Guys And Dolls *** 1/2
If/Then * 1/2
The Threepenny Opera * 1/2
A Raisin In The Sun *** 1/2
The Heir Apparent *** 1/2
The Realistic Joneses ***
Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill ***
The Library **
South Pacific ** 1/2
Violet ***
Bullets Over Broadway **
Of Mice And Men **
The World Is Round ***
Your Mother’s Copy Of The Kama Sutra **
Hedwig and the Angry Inch ***
The Cripple Of Inishmaan ***
The Great Immensity * 1/2
Casa Valentina ** 1/2
Act One **
Inventing Mary Martin **
Cabaret ***
An Octoroon *** 1/2
Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging ***
Here Lies Love *** 1/2
6th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition
Sea Marks * 1/2
A Time-Traveler’s Trip To Niagara * 1/2
Selected Shorts: Neil Gaiman ***
Too Much Sun * 1/2
Broadway By The Year 1965-1989 ***
In The Park **
The Essential Straight & Narrow ** 1/2
Much Ado About Nothing ***
When We Were Young And Unafraid
Savion Glover’s Om **
Broadway By The Year 1990-2014 ***
The Lion ***
Holler If Ya Hear Me * 1/2
The Ambassador Revue ** 1/2
Dubliners: A Quartet ***
The National High School Musical Theater Awards *** 1/2
Wayra — Fuerza Bruta * 1/2
Strictly Dishonorable *** 1/2 out of ****
Between Riverside And Crazy ***
The Wayside Motor Inn ***
Bootycandy ***
Mighty Real ***
This Is Our Youth ***
Rock Bottom * 1/2
Almost Home * 1/2
Rococo Rouge **
Love Letters ** 1/2
The Money Shot ** 1/2
The Old Man and the Old Moon *** 1/2
You Can’t Take It With You * 1/2 out of ****
Can-Can at Papermill ** 1/2
The Country House ** 1/2
Cinderella ** 1/2
Shakespeare’s Sonnets at BAM (Rufus Wainwright, Robert Wilson) ***
When January Feels Like Summer ** 1/2
It’s Only A Play ***
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time *** 1/2
Found **
Generations ** 1/2
On The Town **
The Belle Of Amherst **
The Fortress Of Solitude *** 1/2
When Father Comes Home From The Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3 *** 1/2
Disgraced **
The Real Thing ** 1/2
The Last Ship ***
Ghost Quartet *** 1/2
Show Boat ***
Sticks and Bones **
The Seagull by Bedlam ***
Sense and Sensibility by Bedlam *** 1/2
Saturday Night/Musicals In Mufti ***
Lost Lake **
Grand Concourse **
Side Show **
Tamburlaine Parts 1 and 2 ** 1/2′
Straight White Men **
The Erlkings * 1/2
A Delicate Balance **
Allegro *** 1/2
Our Lady Of Kibeho ***
Tristan & Yseult **
Lypsinka! The Boxed Set ****

_____________
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder and CEO of the forthcoming website BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. It’s like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide — but every week in every category. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free tickets to shows with the understanding that he will be writing a review. All productions are in New York City unless otherwise indicated.

Notable Black Figures React After Darren Wilson Not Indicted In Michael Brown Shooting

After days of deliberating, a grand jury declined Monday night to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the fatal Aug. 9 shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The decision followed weeks of protests across the country that called for justice after Brown was killed. Now, many are once again calling for justice and are speaking out about their dissatisfaction with the decision. Below, check out our round-up of reactions from public figures on social media. For up-to-the-minute Ferguson coverage, click here.

Is Nicholas Ferroni Really America's Sexiest Teacher?

People, in a move designed to broaden their appeal, decided that this year they would expand the Sexiest Man title to include men who did things for a living other than work at being sexy. It’s a noble effort, and in the sexy teacher department, it brought us this guy.

2014-11-24-johnarsenault_8617.jpg
Photo credit: John Arsenault

Meet Nicholas Ferroni. Actually, you may already know him. He has over 22,000 twitter followers, no doubt influenced by the Rays of Hunkness that he is able to transmit over the internet. Ferroni has also done some acting and has won some other notables (one of the Most Influential People and Fittest Men in the World). He has a degree from Rutgers, and he also writes. In fact HuffPost, which carries his stuff from time to time, invited him to ruminate of the State of Being Most Sexy, but he’s too self-effacing to do it. He invited me to write about the honor for him, which tells you that on top of everything else, he has a sense of humor.

You can watch him charm all the ladies here with Meredith Viera

But now that you’ve seen that, let me invite you to watch this

Is it cringeworthy that Viera’s audience applauds Ferroni as if he’s a big sexy object? Maybe, but he’s a big boy and says that as a performer, he’s been there, done that: “It is always surreal, and, to be honest, once they heard ‘sexiest,’ they would have cheered for anyone who walked out that door.”

No, I find it much more cringeworthy that in his brave and direct challenge to major sports figures, he says, more than once, that he is “just a teacher.” But I get it. All too often teachers feel the urge to softpeddle our work. And the culture reinforces that reluctance to speak out. Particularly in these days of big-time teacher blaming, we aren’t supposed to act like we’re anything special.

Ferroni knows better. I asked him for his ‘How I Became a Teacher’ story:

“As a child, I wanted to be an adventurer, superhero, actor, comedian, philanthropist, philosopher and psychologist… So I became a teacher.”

He teaches high school history, and if you work in a high school you know that there almost nothing that students like less. To be able to sell history to teenagers is a huge gift. But he does more than that. Ferroni is a voice for healthy lifestyles. He is an active voice for the rights of LGBT students, believing that it’s important their teachers, particularly their straight teachers, stand up for them. He’s been in front of the camera many times to speak out for these issues, and he has been in his classroom day after day trying to bridge history and modern media to educate his students (I want to see his lesson on the Declaration of Independence as one of history’s great breakup letters.)

And what gets him national attention? Being freakishly well-built and handsome.

I’ve only had a couple of exchanges with him on this subject and he seems, well, a little embarrassed. This is not uncommon in teachers who have been given some sort of award, and I’m pretty sure that’s because as a teacher you know many other teachers who are working just as hard (if not harder) and teaching just as well (if not better) as you are. It’s reverse survivor’s guilt. It could have happened to anyone — why me?

But what can you do? If you believe (as most of us do) that teachers ought to get to be famous and recognized and nationally known as least as well as guys who chase bags of air across fields of plastic grass, and if it turns out you’re being given the chance to be a Famous Teacher, even for fifteen minutes, then for all the rest of us, you have to say yes.

And then, while you have the spotlight, you use it. Ferroni’s done that, saying repeatedly that “a thousand other educators are far more deserving” and using his small soapbox to advocate for the arts in education and to speak out against toxic testing.

It’s a sad commentary on the culture that because Nicholas Ferroni has washboard abs and smoldering soap opera eyes, he gets the audience that some deserving schlubby middle-aged teacher does not. It’s a further irony that if Ferroni were that schlubby guy, he would still deserve an audience, and he wouldn’t get one. It is frankly frustrating that in the ongoing debate over the future of public education, teacher voices are so rarely allowed to join. In the last ten months, cable news booked 185 guests to talk about education– only 17 of them were teachers.

But we live in a country where fame is one odd roll of the dice away, and if you win the jackpot you need to spend it wisely. If you’re famous you can try to fix world hunger or you can bare your shiny butt.

So God bless you, Nicholas Ferroni, and your impossibly bright smile and your sculpted abs and your just-messy-enough hair. If you are willing to use the national platform to talk about things that actually matter in the teaching world, then I’m not that concerned about how you got there. America needs more famous teachers. I wish they could be famous for being good teachers, but if a good teacher can become famous for being America’s sexiest, I guess that will have to be a start.

Cross-posted at Curmudgucation.

Altanta's Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran Suspended After Self-Publishing An Anti-Gay Book

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s fire chief has been suspended after city officials say he violated policy by self-publishing a book that describes homosexuality as a “perversion.”

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says in a statement Monday that Kelvin Cochran will be suspended for a month without pay and will be required to complete sensitivity training. Reed says he was “deeply disturbed” after learning about the book on Friday and will not tolerate discrimination within his administration.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the book titled “Who Told You That You Are Naked?” identifies Cochran as a devout Christian and as the city’s fire chief (http:// bit.ly/1y6v1mf). City councilmember Alex Wan, who is openly gay, says Reed should investigate whether Cochran’s views have affected LGBT employees.

Reed’s office says Cochran was not made available for comment.

It Takes a Community to Educate a Student

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, it is a good opportunity to reflect upon our careers in higher education. We can’t think of a single other profession that provides the opportunity to learn something new every day while at the same time impacting the future of so many. As we reflect upon our work, we consider the importance of always keeping the student in the center of our conversation and as the focus of our efforts. Changes are happening across higher education. Experiences outside of the classroom are often as meaningful as those inside the classroom. The academic professionals on your campuses are integral to the success and well-being of your students.

We are academic professionals. We take our jobs seriously. Along with our faculty colleagues, we value teaching and learning. The work we do is not just a job, it’s a vocation. Like other academics, we went to graduate school. We conduct research. We publish papers in academic journals. We attend professional development programs and conferences, and yes, we work with students. Higher education is a collaborative effort; it truly takes a ‘village’ to wholly educate a student.

Recently on the Puget Sound campus there have been many conversations about helping students find their voice, about examining our current culture, and about asking the difficult question — how can we as a university do better in building a campus climate where everyone feels valued? All across this nation, universities are responsible for the environment created both inside and outside of the physical classroom; this prompts us to think about our colleagues in libraries and all throughout campus who contribute to the quality of the higher education community. Information technology professionals manage complex computer and technical systems that make our virtual classrooms possible. Librarians spend hours working closely with students to help identify and evaluate research materials. There are staff members who are experts in the current pedagogy associated with teaching and learning. There are professionals who assist students with complex personal issues associated with all aspects of mental health, who coach and mentor students through career planning, and who ensure that the resources students need in the classroom are accessible.

Academic professionals take their jobs seriously, and you should take THEM seriously. We salute all those academic professionals who devote their time, energy, and passion to enhancing the student experience, and to making it a safe and productive experience.

Stations Reassure Viewers As Ferguson Coverage Interrupts 'Dancing With The Stars'

The primetime announcement of the grand jury decision in the Ferguson shooting case had some TV stations and viewers on edge — but not only about the decision, in which officer Darren Wilson was not indicted, or the aftermath.

No, some appeared more concerned with the impact the coverage would have on their evening television as sweeps episodes of “Dancing With The Stars” and “The Voice” were interrupted by special reports.

WTVC NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga sought to reassure its viewers on Twitter:

dancing with the stars

That sparked an immediate backlash of replies and retweets, which led the station to delete the message and apologize:

Other stations also tweeted about the programming disruption:

Depending on time zone and location, some viewers saw full coverage of the announcement while others saw abbreviated coverage, according to Deadline. That led to some viewers seeing images such as this as the story unfolded:

For those wondering, November sweeps ends on Wednesday.