Managing Equality in Access

How can equality of access be managed successfully and what are the informing trends that institutions should not only acknowledge but act upon? An opening up of the education market means widening access, but this cannot be done in a vacuum. The associated management of equality in access must have a place in institutions’ strategic plans linked to a system of performance indicators to ensure appropriate measurement. Approaches will differ, but senior management should be committed to allocating resources and devoting marketing energies to this important area. Commitment to CATS will be a significant part of managing equality in access as will be the management of quality in access. These are challenges that are on the further and higher education agenda but which have yet to assume a higher priority in implementation.     

Confirmed, unconfirmed, and false allegations of abuse made by adults with mental retardation who are members of a class action lawsuit

OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to explore differences in confirmed, unconfirmed, and false allegations of abuse made by consumers with mental retardation in regards to type of abuse and perpetrator. METHOD: Interviews were conducted with 1,220 people with mental retardation who were part of a class action lawsuit in North Carolina. A content analysis of abuse allegations was performed. Frequencies of responses and subgroup differences are reported for type of abuse allegation and perpetrator. RESULTS: Unconfirmed claims are the most frequent. Females made more allegations of abuse than males in general, and more allegations of rape. There are no significant differences among the subgroups (confirmed, unconfirmed, and false allegations) by type of abuse allegation. There are significant differences among the subgroups in regard to the alleged perpetrator. Other consumers with mental retardation are most frequently accused of confirmed assaults. Staff members are most frequently accused in false allegations. CONCLUSION: Ability of the alleged victim to report information and timing of the investigation are important factors in substantiating abuse. Awareness of consumer-to-consumer violence and prevalence of false accusations against staff necessitates increased safeguards for both consumers and staff.     

Temporal Hierarchy in Bergson and Whitehead

This article attempts to demonstrate the intelligibility of Bergson’s philosophy by analyzing his philosophical method and then applying it to the notions of biological time and of temporal hierarchy in biology. Bergson’s philosophical method contains three parts: the first is factual and scientific, the second intuitional and reflective, and the third consists in the formalization and application of intuitive insights. Intuition is not a single act, he insists, but a number of acts, each focussed on a particular level (breadth) of duration. Such acts, focussed on the rhythms of living organisms, can lead to researches in chronobiology like Lecomte du Noüy. Bergson’s philosophy, with its diversity of real organisms and levels of process, is more live Whitehead’s than has been believed.