Collective failure: University Experiences and Progress

The two authors of the book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses" who found that college students do not learn much from their 4-year college experiences. In other words, there was little improvement in students' critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills.

Here is their challenge to university faculty and administrators in their recent New York Times OpEd:

"Most of all, we hope that during this commencement season, our faculty colleagues will pause to consider the state of undergraduate learning and our collective responsibility to increase academic rigor on our campuses."

Very critical question indeed.

Evidence-based health vs. Evidence-based medicine

The article in the Times on the quest to find appropriate medical care to achieve quality patient care is fascinating. Here is the link to the article.

• Chen, a medical doctor, who wrote the article suggests that the evidence-based medicine that focuses on patient care at the clinical premise only is not good enough to promote quality health care. We need a more integrated approach that takes a special care of a patient's life as a whole (at home, at office, etc.).
• It refers to an article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that espouses the concept of evidence-based health.
  
• So, what is evidence-based health? It is an idea that "primary care providers and community and public health workers would no longer work alone but together in a coordinated efforts that would extend from the exam room to the home."
  
• The journal article discusses the initiative in Vermont called "the Blueprint for Health" that has successfully coordinated the care of 60,000 patients.
• Here are some excerpts of how this initiative works and some proof of success: "Community health teams that include nurses, social workers and behavioral health counselors spend time both within doctors' practices and out in the community, tackling care-related obstacles like transportation, insurance applications and even housing and unemployment. While the program is still relatively young, hospital admissions and emergency department visits have dropped, resulting in lower monthly costs per person."
• This holistic perspective towards health care looks very promising. It will be interesting to see if it can be scalable and achievable in other locations.
  

Organizational development and quality of work life

What are important elements needed for organizational development and high quality of work life for employees?

• Strong leadership. Here is a link to a thought provoking article in the American Scholar on solitude and leadership.
  
• Shared collective purpose and goals
• Good management of "assholes" ( a term used by Dr. Sutton from Stanford)
  
• Prevention of "organizational silence"
  

Conditions

Freedom is a basic condition of happiness.

The Buddha

Vision of the American future

President Obama's 2011 state of the union address emphasized three key elements: innovation, education, and infrastructure investment.

Here is a part of his speech on digital infrastructure:

"Within the next five years, we'll make it possible for businesses to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans. This isn't just about -- (applause) -- this isn't about faster Internet or fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age. It's about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers and small business owners will be able to sell their products all over the world. It's about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device; a student who can take classes with a digital textbook; or a patient who can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor.

All these investments -- in innovation, education, and infrastructure -- will make America a better place to do business and create jobs. But to help our companies compete, we also have to knock down barriers that stand in the way of their success."

Ranking greatness

I am reading a top-1o ranking of classical music composers by the New York Times columnist, Anthony Tommasini. This part is about how he breaks the tie between "Verdi" and Wagner".

"They may be tied as composers but not as people. Though Verdi had an ornery side, he was a decent man, an Italian patriot and the founder of a retirement home for musicians still in operation in Milan. Wagner was an anti-Semitic, egomaniacal jerk who transcended himself in his art. So Verdi is No. 8 and Wagner No. 9."

Second story from Ted Slavin

In the 1970s, Ted Slavin who was born a hemophiliac was exposed to the hepatitis B virus from donor blood many times over. However, he never knew it until much later that he has extremely high concentrations of hepatitis B antibodies.

Here is where Slavin's story departs from Moore's story. Slavin's doctor "told him that his body is producing something extremely valuable (Skloot, 2010, p .202)." This is because pharmaceutical companies were willing to pay high amount of money for a supply of antibodies to produce a vaccine for Hepatitis B.

Slavin contacted laboratories and pharmaceutical companies and several of them are interested in buying his antibodies. His intention is for someone to cure Hepatitis B.

He wrote a letter to Nobel-prize winning virologist, Baruch Blumberg, and offered him unlimited free use of his blood for research. This is a critical event. Slavin and Blumberg had a years-long partnership. Eventually, Blumberg found the link between Hepatitis B and liver cancer. He succeeded at creating the first hepatitis B.

Later, Slavin recruited other people and started a company, Essential Biologicals.

There are many critical events in Slavin's story that make the turns of the events very different from Moore's story. Part of it is because his doctor is truthful and honest with him.

Rahm Emanuel from David Brooks' perspective

Rahm Emanuel is a departing chief of staff for President Obama. He left the white house to pursue a campaign for a mayor of the city of Chicago.

Here is what David Brooks summarizes Rahm Emanuel as the person he knows:

"Any smart pat of butter would spot him at 100 yards and flee. That’s because Rahm is completely in touch with his affections and aversions. He knows who and what he loves — Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the city of Chicago — and there is nothing hedged about his devotion to those things. He may be a professional tactician, but he speaks the language of loyalty and commitment, not the language of calculations and self-interest. "

"I’m writing this appreciation of Rahm because success has a way of depersonalizing its beneficiaries. From the moment kids are asked to subdue their passions in order to get straight As to the time they arrive at a company and are asked to work 70 hours a week climbing the ladder, people have an incentive to suppress their passions and prune their souls. "

"That’s especially true in Washington, a town with more than its fair share of former hall monitors, a place where politicians engage in these pantomime gestures of faux friendship and become promotable, hollowed-out caricatures of themselves. "