School Community

This weekend is the annual PrideFest here in Des Moines. The event celebrates the importance of gay culture in the Midwest through various activities including a Pride Scavenger Hunt on Friday night, Street Party Saturday night with live music, competitions and entertainment, and concludes with a pancake breakfast and parade on Sunday morning.

Over the past couple of months, we here at DMU have opened up the dialogue of diversity as it pertains to the GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer) community here on campus. In our efforts to create a more harmonious environment for all students, staff and faculty, a training session was set up for those who wished to be involved. Safe Zone attracted over 120 participants and was a great first step in recognizing and supporting the GLBTQ community here at DMU.

In a post-session questionnaire the following was asked: What are some tangible things that the school is doing to make the school more supportive?

And here was one participants answer.

We hope to continue the discussions in the future and plan to have additional training sessions each year.  We are also in the process of updating our portal page to include more resources for Safe Zone members and with LGBT resources in general. In addition, we are looking for ways to have a more visible support system on campus so that those who are new to DMU will readily see that we are a supportive, inclusive campus.

Wednesday 6 July 2011, the Royal Statistical Society, London Following the launch of Churnalism.com, the Media Standards Trust, in partnership with the Royal Statistical Society and the BBC College of Journalism, will be holding a lively panel debate about ‘churnalism’.  The motion: This house believes news articles based on press releases should be marked ‘advertorial’. For the motion: Chris Atkins, Director of the films Starsuckers and Taking Liberties, and James Randerson, the Guardian’s Environment and Science News Editor. Against the motion: Trevor Morris, former chief executive of the Chime Communications PR Group), plus a UK journalist/consumer editor (TBC). Chaired by: Fiona Fox (Director of the Science Media Centre). When:  Wednesday 6 July 2011  7pm – 8.30pm Where: The Royal Statistical Society 12 Errol Street London EC1Y 8LX If you would like to attend, please register here.

Im a big fan of Shots, and, no, not the kind tossed back in ones you-should-know-better years its National Public Radios health blog. I was particularly amused by reporter Scott Hensleys post earlier this spring about the plan the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued for dealing with a zombie apocalypse.

The CDCs recommendations include stocking abundant emergency supplies of drinking water, nonperishable food and medicines; determining where youll take shelter; and establishing contingency plans with loved ones on where to meet up in case you get separated.

Ironically, the CDC might be ready for a zombie attack, but it wasnt ready for assault on its website that the zombie plan generated: The online traffic overwhelmed its server, causing its site to crash.

Do you think the CDCs zombie plan was a good way to achieve the agencys goal of getting Americans to prepare for more likely natural disasters? Or was it an idea that should haveumnever seen the light of day?

Education Week has a new high school graduation study that shows women significantly exceed men in finishing high school. But the gender gap grows even larger for 4 year college graduation- 58% femele versus 42% men. This college  grduation gap continues to grow , and for african american and latino males it is much worse. I cannot find any research that has a well designed basis for explaing the reasons for this gap. There are a lot of opinions supported by partial studies , but they are not experimental or include random sampling and statistical controls that are  used in high quality  medical research. There seems to be no organized research program to understand what is going on. Why is the graduation gap larger in college than high school? How can we find out more?

One Response to Women Continue To Outperform Men In School And College

1. Rob Says: June 17th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

   There is no mystery here. The US education system is geared toward women. Take for example the latest new guidelines on sexual violence. They arent aimed at keeping campuses safe but rather harassing men. The guidelines are based largely on an online study which was predicated on sexists double standards. And guess who has major influence on writing American educational guidelines the American Association of University Women.

Rome Hartman in conversation with Justin Webb

Rome Hartman, the executive producer and creator of BBC World News America, is to take part in a CoJo lunchtime seminar looking at the BBC and its future role in the US media.

Rome, who is leaving the BBC for a senior role at the US network NBC, will be speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter and former BBC North America Editor Justin Webb.

When:

Thursday 30 June 2011

12pm – 1pm

Where:

Bridge Lounge

BBC Television Centre

London W12

The event is open to all BBC staff. If you’d like to attend, please email .