Harvard Was Shocked and Appalled that Emails Weren't Private: Now Comes the Aftershock

In an earlier post, we noted a brouhaha at Harvard in which a dean authorized a search of other deans' emails to determine if any of them had leaked some information about a cheating scandal. Faculty at Harvard were shocked and appalled that such a search could occur. We noted that at public universities, emails you may think of as private really aren't.  Apparently even at private institutions, the same cautionary note applies, although for other reasons.

Even if you use a private email account such as gmail to send messages to recipients at UCLA or any public university, the messages become part of the public record.  Our earlier post on the Harvard affair is at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/03/harvard-is-shocked-and-appalled-that.html

Why mention this episode again? Inside Higher Ed today carries a note that the administrator who authorized the search is stepping down and returning to teaching, an event some see as related to the search.  See http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/29/harvard-deans-departure-spurs-talk-e-mail-dispute.

At Harvard, Apparently, Many Faculty Feel that the Oversight of Online Courses Was Overlooked

From the Harvard Crimson:

Fifty-eight professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences requested in a letter Thursday to FAS Dean Michael D. Smith that he appoint a faculty committee to draft “ethical and educational principles” that would provide a framework for FAS engagement with HarvardX, the University’s curricular contributions to edX. The letter, shared with The Crimson by one of its signatories, asks that those principles be brought to a faculty vote in the 2013-2014 academic year. "It is our responsibility to ensure that HarvardX is consistent with our commitment to our students on campus, and with our academic mission,” the letter reads. “Given the rapid pace of development of HarvardX, we believe it is essential to have a formal, sustained, and structured faculty discussion on these issues as soon as possible.”...

The faculty first extensively discussed HarvardX as a body at its monthly meeting last December, and a number of professors have voiced concern about the project in recent months. Most recently, at the May faculty meeting, a number of professors have questioned what they described as Harvard’s rapid advance into online education. That debate, which was part of a larger conversation about the faculty’s relationship with administrators, centered around what several professors called a lack of meaningful consultation on the development of HarvardX...

Full story at http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/23/professors-edx-oversight-fas/

The letter from the 58 faculty members (with a listing of their names) is at:
http://www.thecrimson.com/flash-graphic/2013/5/23/edx-faculty-letter-smith/

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story about the letter which includes this information:

...(T)he 58 signatories of the letter, out of the hundreds of professors in the FAS, might not get their way. In a written statement to The Chronicle, a spokesman for the dean suggested that a new committee, consisting solely of FAS professors, was not in the cards...

Full story at http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/harvard-professors-call-for-greater-oversight-of-moocs/43953

UPDATE: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/28/harvard-professors-demand-greater-role-oversight-edx

Verily, verily, Harvard seems to be in the news these days

First there was the Ferguson apology: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-be-really-famous-at-harvard.html. And now there is the Richwine PhD.  From Inside Higher Ed today:

Veritas: Goddess of Truth

Debate over a new Heritage Foundation report critical of proposed change in immigration laws has set off scrutiny and criticism of Harvard University for approving a dissertation in 2009 by one of the report's authors.

Some critics say that the dissertation's suggestion of a long-term gap in the IQs of Hispanic immigrants and their descendants and the IQs of other groups is based on discredited theories that have been used to justify many forms of discrimination over the years. And they question how Harvard could award a Ph.D. based on such a dissertation. Jason Richwine, the Harvard Ph.D. in question, resigned from Heritage on Friday.
Twenty-three student organizations at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, which awarded the Ph.D., issued a joint letter Friday questioning the legitimacy of the dissertation that was awarded to Richwine... Harvard is standing by the process under which the dissertation was awarded -- while leaving to others to debate its findings...

Full story at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/13/debate-report-immigration-leads-scrutiny-harvard-dissertation

Well, it is Harvard.  Maybe they can work things out:

How to be really famous at Harvard

If you are wondering what he said, it had to do with Prof. Ferguson's recent "contribution" to the advance of macroeconomic analysis:

Well-known Harvard professor Niall Ferguson apologized Saturday for what he called “stupid and tactless remarks” suggesting sexual orientation influenced the polices of famed economist John Maynard Keynes.On Thursday, Ferguson suggested that the British economist lacked foresight about future generations because he was childless, and that he was childless because he was gay.
Ferguson made the comments during a conference in Carlsbad, Calif., during a discussion on Keynes’ famous line, “The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.”
Keynes, who died in 1946, is considered one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. During the recent Great Recession, economists recalled Keynes’ idea that in an economic downturn, the government should borrow and spend where the private sector could not...

Full article at http://latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-niall-ferguson-apologizes-keynes-20130504,0,7916949.story

[And the two screenshots above were just the first page of Google.]

Did I say that?

Harvard is Shocked and Appalled that Emails Aren't Private

We have noted that at public universities such as UC, emails you may consider private might be demanded as part of a public documents request.  At private universities, of course, those external rights of the public to see such material doesn't exist.  However, in this day and age, nothing online can be assumed to be private.  Recently, Harvard faculty and deans were shocked and appalled to find out that the powers-that-be in the administration were snooping in deans' emails to find a leak: 

From the Boston Globe: Harvard College issued a partial apology and a lengthy statement this morning offering its explanation to the search of resident deans’ e-mails as part of a leak investigation. In its statement, Harvard said the e-mail search was prompted by an investigation into a leaked e-mail and other information that described an Administrative Board case involving the university’s cheating scandal that became public last fall...

“I was shocked and dismayed,” said the law professor Charles J. Ogletree... “I hope that it means the faculty will now have something to say about the fact that these things like this can happen.” ...

Full story at
http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/harvard/2013/03/harvard_issues_apology_and_explanation_of_its_search_of_resident_deans_emails.html

ee more at: http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/harvard/2013/03/harvard_issues_apology_and_explanation_of_its_search_of_resident_deans_emails.html#sthash.t6Ah2k8O.dpuf

For whatever it means...

Above are the world rankings of universities from the British Times Higher Education magazine based on "academic reputation." [Click on the image to make it clearer.] The full list and info on the survey methodology is at:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013/reputation-ranking

Harvard Cooking

For those who, on the day after Thanksgiving, still have their minds into food - and for those interested in online education - we note the existence of the Harvard cooking class which seems to be a collaboration of cuisine and research.  One episode is below: