Wednesday, May 4, 2011

American Universities Group Votes to Expel Nebraska

Tamar Lewin
"American Universities Group Votes to Expel Nebraska"
The New York Times
May 2, 2011
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/education/03aau.html?ref=education

Summary: For the first time in its 111-year history, an organization made up of the nation’s leading research universities has voted to oust one of its members, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. According to association rules, it takes a two-thirds majority — 42 votes — to remove a member; 44 voted against Nebraska. The university, the state’s flagship, had several factors working against it. Its medical school is under a separate administrative structure, so the research dollars it brings in are not counted by the association. And as a land-grant institution, Nebraska has about a quarter of its faculty involved in agriculture and extension work, and most financing for agricultural research is noncompetitive and so does not count heavily in the group’s ranking.
Intended audience: Educators
Key points: 1. The ouster by the prestigious and prominent group, the Association of American Universities, was particularly painful to Nebraska since the university was one of its earliest members, admitted in 1909.
2. Nebraska’s ouster was reported Monday by The Chronicle of Higher Education, along with a decision by Syracuse University to leave the organization voluntarily.
3. Last year, the association invited Georgia Institute of Technology to join, its first new member in nine years.
Relevance: As far as a university is in an association, it should follow the rules.

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