Finally Putting the College into Community � The Quick and the Ed

Finally Putting the College into Community � The Quick and the Ed

Finally Putting the College into Community

by Ben Miller

After Parks and Recreation, the funniest show on TV right now is Community, the Thursday night NBC sitcom about a community college study group. But for most of the season, the writers have treated the show’s community college setting as an excuse to high school style plots with a plausible explanation for why adults are involved. Hence the school hosts dances, the characters take classes in pottery and P.E., the cafeteria appears to be a popular hangout, and no one appears to have a specific goal in mind besides earning a degree.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that—the show is a comedy after all that intentionally does lengthy setups involving pop culture references.
But thankfully, the college part of Community has started popping up a bit more lately, starting with last week’s action movie spoof and yesterday’s outing involving the dreaded Spanish final.
Last week’s episode, “Modern Warfare,” used a paintball game with a winning prize of priority registration as a

News from EWA

by Kris Amundson

I am at the Education Writers conference in San Francisco. Here are some of the notable quotes from the sessions:
“We [colleges and universities] celebrate waste as a hallmark of quality.” Mo Qayoumi, President, California State University East Bay
“Of every 10,000 students in the lowest income quartile, just 741 will earn a college degree. And only 23 of those will be in STEM fields.” – Mo Qayoumi
“We are funding Medicaid out of higher education funding and letting college tuitions go up to make up the difference.” – Terry Hartle, ACE vice president
“Everybody thinks productivity increases are easy–in someone else’s industry.” – Terry Hartle
“Sarah Palin and Barack Obama have very little in common. But according to the Federal government, they are