Mergers in Higher Education: A Strategic Analysis

This paper looks at recent mergers in higher education from a strategic management perspective. It is based on private research undertaken for a dissertation in completion of an MBA degree in 1996. The objectives of the study included the discovery and analysis of merger input factors and process variables, and an assessment of the contribution of both towards an effective outcome. The paper considers similarities and differences between mergers in higher education and as a whole. The process included structured interviews with senior management in two universities, which helped to develop a census survey of incidents involving an HE partner between 1987 and 1994. The incidents included mergers with further education colleges, other HE institutions, and colleges of health.     

E Pluribus Unum: Mohawk Indian Students’ Views Regarding the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance

This study examined 191 high school students’ willingness to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, their reasons for participating or not participating in saying the Pledge, and their thoughts about the Pledge during this daily school ritual. The study was conducted in a rural town next to the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation. The majority of the students chose not to recite the Pledge, and Mohawk students were less likely to recite the Pledge than their classmates.     

Academic Journals Plagued by Bogus Impact Factors

The current status of academic publishing is worrying. Cybercriminals are now targeting academic audiences, making it necessary to inform both editors and authors about such issues. The latest involves bogus impact factors, which are challenging scholarly publishing. Legitimate impact factors are used by authors and editors to get a general idea of the audience, if any, for a particular piece or journal. The bogus metrics only add confusion in support of the cybercrimes of their initiators. In this paper, we discuss bogus impact factors, victim countries, and try to clarify the phenomena for both authors and editors.     

Differences among fastball,curveball, and change-up pitching biomechanics across various levels of baseball

Controversy continues whether curveballs are stressful for young baseball pitchers. Furthermore, it is unproven whether professional baseball pitchers have fewer kinematic differences between fastballs and off-speed pitches than lower level pitchers. Kinematic and kinetic data were measured for 111 healthy baseball pitchers (26 youth, 21 high school, 20 collegiate, 26 minor league, and 18 major league level) throwing fastballs, curveballs, and change-ups in an indoor biomechanics laboratory with a high-speed, automated digitising system. Differences between pitch types and between competition levels were analysed with repeated measures ANOVA. Shoulder and elbow kinetics were greater in fastballs than in change-ups, while curveball kinetics were not different from the other two types of pitches. Kinematic angles at the instant of ball release varied between pitch types, while kinematic angles at the instant of lead foot contact varied between competition levels. There were no significant interactions between pitch type and competition level, meaning that kinetic and kinematic differences between pitch types did not vary by competition level. Like previous investigations, this study did not support the theory that curveballs are relatively more stressful for young pitchers. Although pitchers desire consistent kinematics, there were differences between pitch types, independent of competition level.     

E-learning commodity or community: Disciplinary differences between online courses

Differences in curriculum and teaching styles across disciplines in higher education courses are also evident in online courses. This study used two widely available sources of data, CMS tool usage logs and course evaluations, to analyze differences between online courses in disciplinary quadrants (hard-pure, hard-applied, soft-pure, soft-applied) at a large metropolitan university, over five years (2002 and 2007). For 2007, results revealed significant differences in tool usage between disciplines, particularly for assessment tools. Hard-pure courses used Tests and Pool tools more often than did soft-pure courses. The Document tool was used most extensively in applied courses. Data from course evaluations, for spring 2007 online courses, suggested that applied disciplines had a shorter learner–instructor transactional distance than did pure disciplines. Results suggest that over five years, e-learning in pure disciplines has become more commoditized, while e-learning in applied disciplines has become more diversified and more oriented to community practice.     

Building by benchmarking: A method of creating and evaluating an Asian American Studies collection

This article examines the methodology undertaken while investigating whether existing materials pertaining to Asian American Studies at The Pennsylvania State University Libraries could support a new academic program. Presently active academic subareas in the field of Asian American Studies were determined. Then existing collections of thirteen “benchmark” universities were examined according to these subareas and compared to the holdings of Pennsylvania State University Libraries. This method can evaluate the fitness of existing collections to new academic demands and serve as a tool for collection development by identifying present and future areas of academic study.