Nine Shift

AAC&U celebrates gender inequity

Males have been a minority of undergraduates for almost 30 years now, since 1980.

But the American Association of Colleges and Universities is still trying to boost the percentage of female undergraduates.  This week I got a press release announcing that it was  "significant progress" that women are now 60% of all undergraduates.

You can find all sorts of activities on AAC&U web site promoting education for women. But nothing on gender equity for males. I emailed the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of AAC&U and asked him what he thought the ideal ratio of male and female graduates would be. "I have no idea" replied Daniel F. Sullivan, President of Saint Lawrence College. 

We have a good idea:  50-50.  Since females and males are equally intelligent, why wouldn't you want your most talented students to have a college education? Very troubling that the national association leading America's colleges and universities has absolutely no commitment to gender equity. 

Importing boys

Last week Julie and I solved "the scientist shortage" ! !

There's a scientist shortage in the U.S. and England (maybe a few other post industrial countries, not sure).

Last week we finally got the data to prove the cause of the problem.
The data came from the U.S. Government Department of Homeland Security.  It concerned H-1B visa entries. H-1B visas are only for skilled workers, like scientists.  Big tech firms like Microsoft and National Semiconductor want to import more scientists because there are not enough in the U.S.

We got the data.  And the skilled workers coming into this country are 1) 98% college educated; and 2) 73% male (probably higher percentage if you don't count nurses, which are heavily female).

So companies are importing college educated boys. Because colleges are not producing enough college educated males.  We did it!  Another Nine Shift discovery!  We'll have a web site up with all the data soon. You get to be the first to know.

Endowment hoarding

Fascinating work by Lynne Munson on "endowment hoarding." 

While tuition for college continues to skyrocket, rising twice as fast as inflation, colleges are not investing their money - - they are hoarding it.

Tuition tuition, as compared to 1980, would be like charging $9 a gallon for gas or $15 a gallon for milk, according to a USA Today story last week. 

And billion plus endowed colleges like Grinnell could probably eliminate tuition for their students, says Munson.  Here's what she says: "Last year endowments increased 17.7% on average—those larger than a billion increased 18.4%. Yet, despite double-digit increases stretching back a decade or more —endowment spending is at a nearly all-time low of 4.2%--down from 5.1% in 1994, 6.5% in 1982, and 5.2% in 1975."

Check out her blog at: Center for College Affordability

Key here is colleges, like business, are not investing. Fascinating study. Your thoughts?

Agriculture subsidies part of the problem

One of the questions we get asked is what about the future of poor countries in Africa and Asia.

The answer is that advanced nations have to give up domestic subsidies and allow these countries to import food and other agricultural products.  The U.S., for example, spends more money keeping African cotton out of the US than it spends in foreign aid to Africa.

So here's a victory of sorts.  The US lost its argument with the World Trade Organization and faces penalties (now or later). Here's the story. It's good news for impoverished farmers in the undeveloped world.

Bill tries ZoomCall technology in Russia speech

This week I am doing a speech for a couple hundred people at Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia. It is the first time using ZoomCall technology. 
1. They can see me by webcam.
2. They can also see my PowerPoint slides at the same time as they see me.
3. Really cool, I can see them too.

In this test, Dr. Sergey Kibalnikov is shown. If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see me in the lower right hand corner taking the picture of the screen.  On the right hand side of the screen is the PowerPoint slide show that I am controlling.  This could change how we do seminars. What do you think?

The room has nothing, and everything

The sleeping rooms are "customized" to your needs.

There's nothing in them. And yet they have everything. 
Need an iron? An extra blanket?  A tooth brush?  More soap? Different soap?
The hotel has them. Just ask. 
Room we stayed in was $225 a night, more expensive than the Hilton.
Room prices start at $95 if you want to share a bath down the hall.
Half the patrons were Gen Y, the other half Boomers (parents like us?).
Ace Hotel, Portland, Oregon.
Julie said it was like being in another country, and it was an amazing experience and journey into GenYland.  Awesome.

Streamlined retro look

The sleeping rooms are minimal, retro, and techie.

Huge plasma television set. Nothing on the walls. Half of the furniture is made out of Army surplus materials. Here's what I loved:  turntable!    Yes, a vinyl record player in your room, and a few sample records in the drawer, with more at the front desk if you want. 

We got your tech needs covered

Technology is pretty amazing too in the GenYland hotel we stayed in in PDX celebrating Willie's 21st birthday.

1. They don't tell you the room is wireless.
There's no sign, no bragging, and unlike Marriott, no charge.  I went down to the front desk to ask about connecting to the Internet.  No proud reply, no condescension either, just a matter-of-fact statement like I was asking about running water or towels in the room.  And the connections were great.

2. Laptops in the mezzanine.
The mezzanine had a nice big table with laptops locked down so anyone in the hotel could use one. Irony/retro was the big index card file cabinet against the wall.

3. Cell phone rechargers!
This blew me away.  Forgot your cell phone recharger?  No problem. Go to the front desk. They open up a fishing tackle box and have just about any recharger for any cell phone there for you to borrow!

Bring your bike into the room

Bring your bike into your room.  We expect you to.  We want you to.

Everyone is in a big group

It doesn't matter whether you know the next person or not, you sit and interact with the next person.
This post part of our series on Julie and Bill visiting GenYland in PDX.

The hotel restaurant has 3 tables = each one seating about 20-25 people.  Willie took us out to dinner at another Gen Y restaurant. Again, everyone seated at big long tables.  We had a great conversation with the Gen Yers seated next to us.

And in the hotel lobby, there's one huge round coffee table with cushioned seats all around it.