Defending the Humanities Through...Philosophy of Mind?

Basically an article about how studies in philosophy of mind show that 'science' or hard facts about the world do not give us a complete set of knowledge. Thus humanities programs should be encourage. Braced partially on the work of  David Chalmers. 

Found on "In Socrates' Wake" a blog about teaching philosophy

See full article HERE.

Philosophy Publications and Hiring Practices ( Pedigree?)

This is a questions sent to Lieter. Professionals comment on the state of the profession.

Two questions:
 1: Does philosophy, as a profession, have a route for philosophers to dig themselves out of their professional qualification? That is, if one did not go to a top 10 school, does philosophy, as a profession, have a way for exceptional philosophers to distinguish themselves?
 2. What do we do about this lack?

Using Visual Logic Models for Evaluating/Presenting Programs

By using logic modeling, philosophy programs can present in an easily acceptable visual format how their program prepares students. I use logic maps all the time when I evaluate arguments, why not use them to explain why your department is best. There have been great leaps forward in psychology of infographics, perhaps we could apply this to philosophy programs?

SURVEY: Ethics of Grading

Found on: http://philosophy-teacher.blogspot.com/2011/03/survey-ethics-of-grading.html

SURVEY: Ethics of Grading
Dear philosophy professors: If you could do me a HUGE favor and fill this out, it just takes a couple minutes, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!!!! :) Karla 

"I am doing educational research on the ethics of grading practices and am especially interested in philosophers' views. Part of this research includes a survey that asks participants their views on a number of hypothetical scenarios involving grading practices."

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JQ6FFMK

Badly Rejecting Applicants For Jobs

The following rejection letter for a job was found on http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/. I believe that this is a good example of the negligence which can be found in over-supplied markets.

Book: Academically Adrift

If the purpose of a college education is for students to learn, academia is failing, according toAcademically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, a book being released today by University of Chicago Press. Review and summery from Inside Higher Ed.

The UNIVERSITY SYSTEM as a failing BUSINESS

Many people have been outraged by the merciless cutting of departments recently. It seems to me that this is going about the problem in the wrong way. If we think about the college system as a business, which is partially how investors see it, I think I can show us several interesting aspects of it's decline. 

Public Philosophy

This seems interesting, I have noticed that quite a few schools are doing something along these lines. It seems that this is a great way to give back to the community. It also forces our ivory tower to be able to relate to the "folk" which seems like a good thing.  Information on the public philosophy network in this post.

Feel free to comment

Department Chair: Roles, Jobs, and Recomendations

A very interesting article about the responsibilities and problems of being the chair of a department. The article takes information from many studies and interviews. Posted here are the roles/ jobs of a department chair and implications and recommendations for departments on how to make the position of chair more effective.

Philosophy in the Community

The University of Saskatchewan Philosophy department offers free lectures to the surrounding community available to anyone interested. Firstly a brilliant marketing idea. Secondly, if we think this stuff is so important it seems like we should offer to share it. 

How Philosophy Professors Receive Raises

It seems there are two ways. 1). Get offers from other departments and ask your current department to match the offer. 2). Merit raises based on productivity.

Philosophy and Medicine - Pre-med

It seems what a department wants, is to have a flourishing local community of philosophers as well as interactions with philosophers at other universities. So, more philosophy students means more funding/positions, creating a more flourishing community. Developing "tracks" which utilized the tools we have in philosophy, but lead out side of philosophy, would be beneficial to the profession on many levels, while not making it more competitive than it already is.
Check out this pre-med track flyer.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/120887/Philosophy%20Handouts/Philosophy%20Major/Philosophy%20and%20Medicine.pdf

Recruiting Undergraduate Philosophy Majors

This is a great post with tons of ideas about recruitment into philosophy departments. I'm working on another post right now about the same topic, more specifically how philosophy "tracks" (like pre-law, or bio-ethics) are the best option for the profession in general. Keeps student levels up, decreases new PhDs, and creates new jobs. Anyway.... There are some really insightful comments on this post about how to recruit quality undergrad candidates to your department.
http://peasoup.typepad.com/peasoup/2009/09/recruiting-philosophy-majors.html#more