Who controls the board in non-profit organizations? The case of private higher education institutions in Colombia

How should the governance system in a non-membership non-profit organization be designed? This organizational form has no shareholders; instead, donors provide funds. Thus, at the organizational level, the board of directors could have all the power. Under this legal form, who controls the board? If too powerful, boards could misuse resources or distract the organization from its foundational goals. We examine the case of private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Colombia and the balance of power in university governance systems which feature this organizational form. Most HEIs in our sample have a kind of assembly of representatives as the governance body with the highest authority and able to appoint and control the board. We specifically discuss the assemblies’ reason for being, structure, and functions in private HEIs in Colombia. We analyze a total of 204 HEI governance structures and find governance arrangements with the characteristics of an assembly of representatives in 154 (75.9%). Our analysis highlights features in some of these governance bodies that could lead to overly powerful assemblies (e.g., founder donors with tenure for life). Clearly, a proper balance of power is required to avoid rent-seeking behaviors or the pursuit of harmful private non-monetary benefits from assembly members as well as boards.     

Benefits of the Comprehensive Child Development Program as a function of AFDC receipt and SES

The benefits for children at the Pittsburgh site of the federal Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) were examined as a function of family welfare status (Aid to Families with Dependent Children; AFDC) and SES. The CCDP was the largest attempt by the federal government to provide two-generation, case-managed, comprehensive services to low-income families. Participating families could set their own goals and choose services to achieve them, but relatively few services were directed specifically at children. Results showed that more Pittsburgh families in the CCDP treatment group (N = 120) left AFDC than in the control group (N = 120), consistent with results from a national evaluation of the CCDP. Children whose families were on AFDC regardless of treatment group had lower mental test scores, even after controlling for family SES, a result suggesting that AFDC receipt over and above income level was associated with poorer child mental performance. The CCDP was associated with higher children's mental scores plus improvements over time in achievement scores only for children in families who were not on AFDC, even after controlling for SES. Such parents were more likely to choose parenting and child goals and services, which in turn were associated with higher child mental scores. In contrast, parents who were on AFDC tended to choose adult-centered goals and services, which did not benefit children. Therefore, in contrast to the national evaluation, which found no benefits of the CCDP for children, these analyses showed that the CCDP did produce benefits for children whose parents were not on AFDC, who tended to choose parenting and child services.     

Parenting Practices and Peer Group Affiliation in Adolescence

Social scientists have often assumed that parental influence is sharply curtailed at adolescence because of the rising counterinfluence of peer groups, over which parents have little control. The present study tested a conceptual model that challenged this view by arguing that parents retain a notable but indirect influence over their teenage child's peer associates. Data from a sample of 3,781 high school students (ages 15–19) indicated that specific parenting practices (monitoring, encouragement of achievement, joint decision making) were significantly associated with specific adolescent behaviors (academic achievement, drug use, self-reliance), which in turn were significantly related to membership in common adolescent crowds (jocks, druggies, etc.). Findings encourage investigators to assess more carefully parents' role in adolescents' peer group affiliations.     

EVALUATION OF THE FINAL EXAMINATION – For the professional judgement of both teacher and student performance

Examinations are used to measure student performance and to infer student ability. The design of examinations, the setting of questions, and the marking and the interpretation of marks, require professional skills for the performance of the teacher as examiner. It is vitally important that interpretation of the meaning of marks distinguishes between the quality of the question and the quality of the student responding to the question.

Consideration of the end‐of‐course or final examination is used to discuss concepts of difficulty and time, fairness and validity, as intended by the teacher/examiner and as perceived by the student/candidate. Evaluation of the final examination can take a variety of forms, for example, student questionnaire, independent assessment of student papers, and correspondence of achieved weighting with planned weighting.

These considerations are discussed with reference to the final examination experiences of two groups of students – fourth year Architecture students and graduate Education students. When marks are to be combined, standard deviations and correlations should be reported and used to ensure that the planned weighting is achieved.

It is concluded that evaluation of the examination is important for making professional judgement of both teacher and student performance. Evaluation of the final examination should be part of the course evaluation and should include student perceptions of the nature of the examination and the quality of the questions.     

Children''s Understanding of Action Lines and the Static Representation of Speed of Locomotion

Children's understanding of the static representation of speed of locomotion was explored in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, 20 7-year-olds and 20 9-year-olds drew pictures of 2 people walking and running at different speeds. Children then made judgments about pairs of unambiguous drawings of a person walking or running, as did a sample of 20 adults. The drawings varied according to whether action lines, background lines, or no lines were present. Children were asked to say which figure appeared to be moving faster. In Experiment 2, 20 7-year-olds, 20 9-year-olds, and 21 adults sorted ambiguous drawings of a person walking and running at different speeds. The pictures again contained action lines, background lines, or no lines. In the drawing task, children more frequently used page position and biomechanical information than action lines to represent fast and slow walking and running. In the judgment task, 7- and 9-year-olds offered equivalent judgments of action lines and background lines, whereas adults distinguished between these pictorial devices. In the sorting task, all subjects distinguished between action lines and background lines and judged that pictures containing action lines looked faster than pictures containing background lines and pictures without lines. Taken together, the results indicate that subjects' judgments were influenced by the form of locomotion and degree of ambiguity in the depicted events they saw. The findings are consistent with the view that different categories of pictorial devices exist, but the effectiveness of each device is contingent upon the perceiver's experience with it and the context in which it appears.     

College Radio Takeovers and Shutdowns: An Analysis of News Coverage from 2006–2016

Between 2010 and 2015, more than 30 college radio stations either went off air, transferred their licenses, or entered into programming or shared-time agreements. Among these are Vanderbilt University’s KRVU 91.1 FM, University of San Francisco’s KUSF 90.3 FM, Rice University’s KTRU 96.1 FM, and Georgia State University’s WRAS 88.5 FM. In what seems to be a shrinking presence of college radio on the FM dial, this study examines national and local news coverage of recent college radio shutdowns, transfers, and agreements to understand how these events are being presented in the news media. Findings suggest themes in news coverage includes a great deal of attention to the student, alumni, and community responses to station closures and transfers, but limited attention to reasons for the closures and transfers. University administrators were the most commonly quoted or referenced sources in the sample; students, alumni, community, faculty, and staff held significantly smaller shares of voice. Questions about the coverage of college radio closures and transfers as well as college radio’s future viability are discussed.     

Jefferson's other

This essay investigates how various representations of the public memory of Thomas Jefferson function rhetorically. Curiously, such representations depict a past for which no certain record exists. The portrayal of Jefferson's alleged affair with Sally Hemings in novels, films, and other discourses demonstrates that the rhetoric of public memory, which preserves the relevance and utility of the past for audiences in the present, is often sustained, not by a transparent or even plausible understanding of former persons and events, but by profound and potentially irresolvable confusions over the relationship between what is commemorated and those doing the commemorating. The essay scrutinizes how three different forms of rhetoric respond to such confusion by fashioning memories of Jefferson that reflect contemporary desires to explain the mysteries of his enigmatic past. Consequently, the essay argues that the contemporary public memory of Jefferson is defined by a discursive haunting of his official reputation in which various ghostly counterparts are said to represent what the official record can only suggest.