Hello Commons!

As I write this Wisconsin is going nuts.  You’re all net savvy folks so I won’t rehash the details of how the Wisconsin Republicans were able to get around the Democrats and the unions tonight, but I am curious to see where this goes next.  As goes Wisconsin… CUNY Pie sent the protesters some pizza a couple of weeks ago, what else can we do Commonsers?

There was so much going on in the blogs this week that I want to jump right in.  Tony Picciano @APicciano started things off with a much discussed article in the Times about the state of CUNY’s community colleges and the efforts to work with students requiring a lot of remedial support.  We know it’s bad in a lot of NY’s high-schools.  There’s a lot of work to be done, people know it.  If the Commons does nothing else I hope that it at least provides a platform for educators across CUNY’s community colleges to get together and discuss what can be done to help out our students who need it the most.  You don’t get a lot of say in where you go to high school, and if you’re a young New Yorker you don’t get much say in the quality of your education at all.  But the students who graduate from New York City’s public schools and choose to go to college deserve everything we can give them.  Much like the k-12 educators across the city, CUNY’s community colleges certainly do not have all the resources they need to help these students, but we do have this – let’s see what we can do with it.

Jonathan Cope @jcope1 writing at Information Literacy Thinking Group had a wonderful post about the form and function of the university.  I love seeing blogs like this pop up here on the Commons.  I was afraid this had been going on for a while and I just wasn’t paying attention, but it looks to be a fairly new blog and one I’m looking forward to keeping up with.

Kamili Posey @KPosey was advocating for a little chaos in the classroom.  She then exposed herself as a person who buys the Circus Peanuts candy.  That’s tantamount to giving your money to people who club seals.  I don’t know what wretched factory is still making those things but I can’t understand how it’s survived the Great Recession.

I’m stoked! The Commons has got it’s first philosophy blog.  Amanda Favia @AFavia over at Modal Manda managed to bring out the solipsistic in her students.  I can appreciate the desire to not mention The Matrix but how did the students not beat you to it?  Is the generation gap already far enough past The Matrix that thousands of hands across the country no longer shoot up in the air to make the comparison?  Was it that long ago?  Will the blue pill just take me back to the 90s?

To wrap things up my colleague Scott Voth @ScottVoth made a wonderful post about Queens Library helping to rebuild Cairo’s libraries.  I think this is a wonderful project and with so many librarians on the Commons maybe we can get more folks involved.

Looking forward to next week!