Online colleges reap GI bonanza

“We cannot think first and act afterwards. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.” – Alfred North Whitehead

The purpose for the post today is the concern – we march on – taking and creating messes whereever we go. We want immediate gratification and do not think of sustainability of the resources in present time or the future. Have we not had enough of this greed recently? I guess not…and it makes me sad that we waste so much when we have systemic issues in our Education system that need to be addressed.

The largest issue we will continue to face is in our demographics over the next 2, 5, and 10+ years is the continual chasm between the have and the have nots… (In my opinion, the focus is truly not going to be on racism worldwide) yet on the discrimination that occurs in the different levels within classes of people between the have and have-nots. One example of this is how this selection process manifests in the workplace between the A, B, C players – one could hypothesize that it begins in the classrooms with the A, B, C players. You can see how arbitrarily these children are being cast in these levels and how these ‘levels’ and pay scales can follow these people the rest of their lives. (See the movie, Waiting for Superman). http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/ Waiting for Supernam is a documentary of our school systems in the U.S. and how we are failing our children and why we cannot compete worldwide. There was a mention of the children in the movie in this past Sunday’s N&O Parade (12/12/10). There is also a book available.

BY ERIC LIPTON – New York Times
December 10, 2010

WASHINGTON — When Congress moved in 2008 to sweeten tuition payments for veterans, it was celebrated as a way to ensure that military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could go to college at no cost and to replicate the historic benefits society gained from the GI Bill after World War II.

Now, a year after payouts on the Post-9-11 GI Bill started, the
huge program has turned into a bonanza of another kind for the many commercial colleges in the U.S. that have seen military revenues surge.

More than 36 percent of the tuition payments made in the first
year of the program – a total of $640 million in tuition and fees – went to for-profit colleges, like the University of Phoenix, according to data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though these colleges serve only about 9 percent of the overall population at higher education institutions.

The money flows to the for-profit university industry,questions are being raised in Congress and elsewhere about their recruitment
practices, and whether they really deliver on their education promises.

Some members say they want to place tighter limits on how much
these colleges can collect in military benefits, a move certain federal
officials say they would welcome.

These questions come as the for-profit education industry is under
increased scrutiny, with the Department of Education proposing regulations that would cut off federal aid to colleges whose graduates have extremely low loan repayment rates.

Amid this debate, the industry’s powerful lobbying forces are
pushing for even more, including a change in the law that would allow veterans who sign up exclusively for online classes to also get government housing subsidies, even if they live at home, which could make online education even more attractive.

With their multimillion-dollar advertising and recruitment
campaigns, these colleges have pitched themselves as a natural choice for veterans and active-duty personnel, given their extensive online class offerings, accelerated degree programs and campuses spread across the nation, including near many military bases.

“We offer the flexibility and career focus they want,”
said Bob Larned, the executive director of military education at ECPI College of Technology, a Virginia institution with a major online program and campuses in Raleigh, Charlotte and elsewhere in the Carolinas that collected $16 million in GI Bill benefits in the first year.

Active-duty personnel are eligible for free tuition, which
explains why the for-profit colleges have received about $200 million in Department of Defense tuition reimbursement benefits and fees in the past year, mostly for online classes, in addition to money collected from the GI Bill.

But high dropout rates at some of these colleges, difficulty in
transferring credits, higher tuition bills than at public colleges and
skepticism from some employers about the value of the degrees are all creating unease among some in Congress.

Robert Songer, a retired Marine colonel who is the lead education
adviser at Camp Lejeune, said some of the for-profit colleges hounded active-duty personnel there.

“They are very easy targets, especially because many of them
have never had anyone in their families go to college,” Songer said.
“All they hear from these schools is, ‘This won’t cost you a thing.’”

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/12/09/852125/online-colleges-reap-gi-bonanza.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz180DW5VcF

Gainful Employment Regulations – updated – Oct 28 2010

October 28, 2010
New federal regulations target for-profit colleges
By ERIC GORSKI
AP Education Writer

The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday will release finalized regulations targeting for-profit colleges that give the government a stronger hand overseeing the fast-growing sector — including new rules reining in how recruiters are paid and a controversial attempt to define credit hours.
Still to come early next year is the most fought-over proposal: a rule that would cut off federal aid to college vocational programs with high student-debt levels and poor loan repayment rates.
The department put off finalizing those “gainful employment” regulations until early next year, although Thursday’s package of rules includes one scaled-down gainful employment provision that has eased industry worries.
A full review will not be possible until the final regulations are published online Thursday and in print Friday in the Federal Register. But department officials are portraying themselves as good listeners, saying they made 82 changes in response to comments and criticisms of 13 new “program integrity” rules that will go into effect in July 2011.
“These new rules will help ensure that students are getting from schools what they pay for: solid preparation for a good job,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.
On recruiter pay, admissions officers at for-profit colleges have been barred since 1992 from receiving incentive pay based on securing enrollments. But since then, a dozen loopholes have been put in place allowing the practice, with limits.
The regulations to be released Thursday will eliminate such “safe harbors.”
“It closes the loopholes that led to boiler room-style sales tactics at some colleges, with recruiters doing and saying whatever it took,” said Pauline Abernathy, vice president of the Institute for College Access & Success, an advocacy group for tighter regulations.
Other new regulations strengthen the department’s authority to take action against schools engaging in deceptive advertising, marketing and sales practice. Those are common complaints against for-profit colleges, which are facing intense scrutiny this year for their huge reliance on federal aid and high student-loan default rates, among other things.
Industry officials are eager to see specifics on the department’s attempts to define a credit hour, the metric used to determine a student’s eligibility to receive federal aid. The education department said a standard definition is necessary because some schools are gaming the system, inflating student credits to get more federal money.
The regulations define a credit hour and establish procedures for accrediting agencies to determine whether an institution’s assignment of credit is acceptable, the department said.
Although the department said it is not intruding into academics, others say they are not so sure.
“It’s quite likely they’ve federalized the definition of credit hour,” said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the American Council on Education, an umbrella group that represents higher education. “Our position is that no successful and diverse industry is improved by federalizing important aspects of it.”
The education department significantly scaled back one part of the gainful employment rule, doing away with a proposal that would have required schools wanting to start aid-eligible occupational programs to provide five years of enrollment projections and get documentation from employers showing the curriculum aligns with job needs.
Under the final regulations, schools instead will be required to notify the department 90 days in advance of starting a new program. If the department has concerns, schools will be asked to apply for new program approval, a scenario department officials said would be rare.
The department said it was important to get that on the books by next summer, because the full gainful employment regulations are not scheduled to go into effect until summer 2012.
Otherwise, institutions could quickly start new programs or restructure existing ones, eliminating a data trail and skirting the new rules, the department said.
Harris Miller, CEO of the for-profit college industry’s main lobbyist, Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, called the change “a much more reasonable and pragmatic approach.”
Lanny Davis, a lobbyist for a group for several large privately held for-profit colleges, called it a step in the right direction.
Earlier Wednesday, Davis held a conference call criticized the original proposal, saying it would block career college students from learning about new technologies and getting training for green jobs.
(This version CORRECTS the effective date of the recruiter compensation law.)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FOR_PROFIT_COLLEGES?SITE=CALAK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Accessed October 29, 2010

The CEOs Top 5 Priorities: WSJ – November 22, 2010

Below are the five priorities from the full article posted (see URL link below) from the WSJ’s CEO conference on Monday. If you are so inclined, send off a letter in response to the five priorities: email, fax and address are included.

Fax: 609.520.7767
Email:reports@wsj.com

Your Address

November 22, 2010

Lawrence Rout
The Wall Street Journal
4300 1 North
South Brunswick N.J. 08852
Re: The CEOs Top Responsibilities
The Wall Street Journal – CEO Council

Dear Mr. Rout,

Below are the five priorities from the council meeting that was held by the CEO’s who attended the conference and who were assigned to be on the task force. This information is in the printed version of the Journal Report of the CEO Council on Monday, November 22, 2010. The online version is at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620041293867262.html?KEYWORDS=The+CEOs+Top+priorities

1. FOSTER GLOBAL TRADE
Aggressively promote a global marketplace that benefits U.S. businesses and consumers. Emphasize free-trade agreements, equalize corporate taxes and launch a joint public-private effort to promote trade. Remain open to imports that provide lower-priced goods to U.S. consumers, fueling job-creating spending.

2. PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP
The president must advocate for a competitive business environment to create healthy companies, jobs and rising standards of living. He must be an advocate for business in general.

3. TORT REFORM
In addition to addressing malpractice, attack larger problem of defensive medicine, the overuse of care solely due to fear of lawsuits. Rather than focusing only on award caps, overhaul liability laws to create a safe harbor for physicians who follow evidence-based practice guidelines. Explore alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms and venues.

4. INVEST IN AMERICA NOW
Winning public confidence is all about job creation. Business and government should stimulate long-term investment in the U.S. and make U.S. companies more competitive globally. Should include: cut of 10 percentage points in corporate tax rate; 100% depreciation on capital equipment through 2012; permanent R&D tax credit; cut in taxes on repatriated earnings, provided earnings are reinvested.

5. REDUCE DEBT, FORTIFY DOLLAR
U.S. should reduce its budget deficit to stabilize its debt-to-GDP ratio and should sustain recent increases in private savings. Deficit reduction should include spending cuts, tax increases and credible budget rules. Tax policy should encourage private savings. U.S. should recognize the value of the dollar’s reserve-currency role by avoiding policies that depress its value or undermine the credit-worthiness of the U.S.

What is it going to take to motivate our leadership to invest in enriching the lives of those in our workplace environments?

What is it going to take to motivate our leadership to invest in enriching the lives of those in our workplace environments?

How will our leaders begin to earn the trust of their workers again? How will our leaders truly thank the workers for staying the course? How will our leaders start doing what they say they will do?

How will their voice be heard by the five generations in the work force today? How will the leadership begin to reach the over-extended and average performer? And what programs are designed for the high potential workers? Are there actually under-performing workers left in the workplace today? Will we address the elephant in the room that all business is personal and yes that it is emotional?

What are the concerns these employees have? How can our leadership address their concerns? What are the leaders concerns? Will the status quo kick in and remain?

As the economy improves how will the leadership and management enable their workers to rejuvenate and to work on personal and business skills that may have been put on the back burner over the past few years? What truly is at the heart of enabling the American worker to truly begin to cross the chasm?

The personal and social aspects are that the multigenerational talent in the workplace today is very challenging (September 3, 2009 – Pewsocialtrends.org). “Older adults are staying in the labor force longer, and younger adults are staying out of it longer…. According to one government estimate, 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older.”

“A new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project finds that a majority of workers ages 65 and older say the main reason they work is they want to.” (September 3, 2009 – Pewsocialtrends.org). Additional data on leadership skill development assessments from Myers-Briggs, Emotional-Intelligence (EI) and other assessment vehicles are available, and are they are still valid today? Have there been updates and different assessments to address the differences in new technologies and the different learning needs of the younger generations?

What will it take for our leadership, our management, and our workers to truly embrace the next wave of change as we move into the 21^st century?

Taylor, P. Editor. Recession turns a graying office grayer: america’s changing work force. (2009) Pew Research Survey (pp.1-6) Available from HBR, The Daily Stat: Accessed October 27, 2009. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1330/american-work-force-is-graying.

Will the student loan debt become our next mortgage crisis?

Will the student loan debt become our next mortgage crisis?

Program Integrity; “Gainful Employment” proposed rule

AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes to amend the Student Assistance General

Provisions to establish measures for determining whether certain postsecondary educational programs lead to gainful employment in recognized occupations, and the conditions under which these educational programs remain eligible for the student financial assistance programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).

http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/proprule/2010-3/072610a.html

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#home

In the Wall Street Journal the week of September 20, 2010 Corinthian Colleges, Inc. | www.cci.edu has taken out full page advertisements daily regarding the proposed rule for “Gainful Employment” which provides provisions to establish measures on postsecondary educational programs. Go to: http://www.mycareercounts.org/issue.shtml to learn more.

Please take action and call the House Representatives and the Senators in your States – the ads say “We don’t Count” which is distorted – As these students do count! Again, the people featured in the advertisements DO Count! (There is a box for you to click on ‘my career counts’ website)

What is a bigger issue is the For Profit and Non Profit high education schools offering people money to go to school, lowering the grade expectations so that they can pass (called grade inflation) and passing people that are ill-equipped with the needed skills to do the work and upon graduation are saddled with huge government backed school loans that they still have to pay regardless if they learned anything or not. [Or not pay] Employers are hiring these folks who have 70% of the skill sets required to do the job and then the employer pays to re-train these folks. Is it a positive/negative thing for our society and our local communities that these costs are passed on to the employer?

What are the solutions to these issues? Require that the person taking out the postsecondary loan and entering a program can pass basic assessment tests in reading, comprehension, writing, (grammar) and math tests. Require that grade inflation is not in affect at these schools and the same rule for passing courses applies to everyone regardless of their status including those on the GI bill. That an ‘A’ is a true ‘A’ and has not been lowered to pass someone so they can take the next class or get their education for free. Raise the bar for learning so that when people graduate from a university with a postsecondary degree that the degree actually is worth the money that they are paying for the degree and the people graduating actually increase their competency and skill levels so they can compete in the workforce.

Prevent university administration departments from squeezing the professors to push folks through the program. Make it tough so these people learn how to get better at learning so we can compete as a nation with our skills and competency levels in our jobs world-wide. We are not helping people by taking their money and not providing them with the skills required to compete in the workforce and a degree that is actually not worth the paper it is written on.

Radical, A Portrait of Saul Alinsky by Nicholas Von Hoffman

There has been mention of Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals (1971) recently in the Press these days, partly due to Nicholas Von Hoffman’s release of his new book, Radical, A Portrait of Saul Alinsky (2010). Mostly Von Hoffman’s book pays homage to the man he admired, yet there has been much ado about Alinsky and urban community service projects linked to current political figures.

The view point of Saul Alinsky could be viewed as a mind-set described in the management article by Gosling and Mintzberg, The Five Minds of a Manager (2003). Saul Alinsky was a tough guy on the outside yet reflective in his leadership style for the common good.

Based on Mintzberg’s research and reflecting on Goslings and Mintzberg’s, The Five Minds of a Manager article (2003) one might see that the flaw of reflection is tossed to the wayside in order for action to prevail in “business as usual” and let’s get on with it approach.

The point that is made in their article is that it is significant yes, things are changing rapidly, yet there are some constants that don’t change and haven’t changed for years.

In another Mintzberg’s article The Last Word Rebuilding Companies as Communities. (2009) Mintzberg states, “Companies must remake themselves into places of engagement, where people are committed to one another and their enterprise. Beneath the current economic crisis lies another crisis of far greater proportions: the depreciations in companies of communities – people’s sense of belonging to and caring for something larger than themselves. Decades of short-term management, in the United States especially, have inflated the importance of CEOs and reduced others in the corporation to fungible commodities – human resources to be “downsized” at the drop of a share price. The result: mindless, reckless behavior that has brought the global economy to its knees.” (p. 140)

Alinsky (1971) from his chapter on Tactics in Rules for Radicals, he starts off with a quote from Hannibal and then continues with a definition of tactics.

“We will either find a way or make one”. – Hannibal

Tactics means doing what you can with what you have. Tactics are those consciously deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them. In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves. (p. 126)

Alinsky (1971) from his chapter on ‘Of Means and Ends’ begins with a quote from Whitehead. He then goes on to discuss Of Means and Ends…

“We cannot think first and act afterwards. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.” – Alfred North Whitehead

Alinsky asks …That perennial question, “Does the end justify the means? Is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, “Does this particular end justify this particular means?” (p. 24)

In thinking about Mintzberg and the worldly-mindset and the context of where the two thoughts actually intersect in the minds of an individual within an organization, community or society at large. Isn’t this about the polarity of the means and ends? Who and how will people be impacted by the changes and choices we as the people have been presented or lack thereof?

Alinsky (1971) Rule number one: first, that one’s concern with the ethics of means and ends: first, that one’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue. Accompanying this rule is the parallel one that one’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s distance from the scene of conflict. (p. 24)

In summary the action mindset integrates with the topics described above yes and without careful review of each step in the process, managing self and using the reflective mind-set, managing via the analytic mind-set, looking at the world through the context and the worldly mind-set, managing relationships via the collaborative mind-set in the new borderless world and lastly remembering before action is taken to stop and weigh the other mind-sets of the other views before taking an action. Perhaps this is what Saul was writing about in his book, Rules for Radicals?

Alinsky, S.D. (1971). Rules for radicals. a pragmatic primer for realistic radicals. NY, New York: Vintage Books.

Gosling, J. & Mintzberg, H. (2003). The five minds of a manager. Harvard Business Review, 81 (11), 54-64.

Mintzberg. H. (2009). The Last Word: Rebuilding Companies as Communities. Harvard Business Review. 87 (78), 140-143.

Von Hoffman, N. (2010) Radical. a portrait of saul alinsky. Philadelphia, PA: Nation Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group.

What, Me Study? The Five-Year Party

What, Me Study? The Five-Year Party (2010)

By Craig Brandon

In the Wall Street Journal, Bookshelf review by Melanie Kirkpatrick, August 08, 2010, Melanie reviews the book What, Me Study? The Five-Year Party. By Craig Brandon. Thank you Craig for writing this book! Thank you Melanie for great review.

Without a question of a doubt, obtaining any type of degree program at a community college, or an undergraduate university in the U.S., could be considered a ‘party’. It is very true in the early years, going away to college and leaving home for the first time was a social experience and was part of the learning process and rites of passage in obtaining your degree. Unfortunately as the book review goes on to discuss, parties, socialization are the focus with learning being the least of the priorities. Kirkpatrick says, “The book’s title refers to the fact that only 30% of students enrolled in liberal arts colleges graduate in four years. Roughly 60% take at least six years to get their degrees. That may be fine with many schools, whose administrators see dollar signs in those extra semesters…. Mr. Brandon focuses his attention on the 10% of America’s liberal art colleges as he categorizes as the party schools yet he applies many of his criticism more widely even to the nation’s top tier universities (p1).”

The review provided by Ms. Kirkpatrick goes on to say that “the chief villains are a new breed of college administrators, who Mr. Brandon says have more in common with Gordon gecko than Aristotle. No one who has been following the deterioration of higher education in recent years will be surprised by the portrait of campus life in the five-year party (p1).”

What I find most sad about this commentary is the dummying down of America! We cannot compete in the world’s workforce when our skill sets are not equal to or greater than other countries worldwide. We have a huge talent and skill gap in the multi-generations in the workplace. There are five generations in the workplace today; all generations have some skill gap that needs to be addressed.

When a young person leaves high school (provided they graduated, or got a GED) and were able to go on to a community college and graduated their educational needs truly didn’t stop. Some of those people proceeded to update their skills and continued to get into an undergraduate degree. What these people do not need is a curriculum that does not set a high standard of learning and performance. When a student goes to a technical school, or a community school, or an undergraduate school there needs to be a level of curriculum that makes people think. Grade inflation is a serious problem, it allows people to pass through classes obtain grades and do shoddy work in the name of receiving a certificate or a degree program.

What then happens, these people go out to the work force, and they do not have the skills for the jobs they are applying for because they truly were not taught how to learn or have any context for critical thinking skills. Training has now been shifted to business, and business now picks up the torch for having to train these people coming into the workplace and retraining people to update their skills so that they can stay employed. Businesses pick up this additional responsibility so that those businesses can operate and compete in the business environment today.

This book should be a wake-up call, not only to parents paying for education that their kids aren’t getting, yes and it should be a wake-up call to the universities and higher education institutes that are cranking out the curriculums that are responsible for dummying down America!

In a book by John Hope Bryant entitled, “Love Leadership” (2009) he talks about making” Smart Sexy” again! What are we waiting for?

Before forking over money for these continual education programs, I would suggest having your children pay for their own education. Then they truly would earn their degree! When something is freely given, sometimes there is a perception it holds little value. There is value in learning and having a quality education. When students can see what they are not learning and what is being provided is preventing them to improve their skills and ability to be successful in life and in a possible career, then they would be the first ones screaming in the provost office demanding better curriculums. Grade inflation needs to go! It is not helping our students; it is a hand-out, not a hand-up and is teaching poor lessons to the way the world works. It is enabling the gap to grow between the have and have-nots to become wider and wider.

Brandon, C. (2010). What, me study? The five-year party. Dallas, TX: Ben Bella Books, Inc.

Digital Gaming and Education Bill Passed in NC in July

News Release
State Legislators pass economic development bill for the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Design & Development Industry in North Carolina
Contact:
Linda Savanauskas
lsavan@earthlink.net
(919) 522-6106

July 2010, Raleigh NC – State legislators worked into the early morning July 10 to pass an economic development bill providing a tax credit for Interactive Digital Media (IDM) that hire programmers within North Carolina. Industries likely to benefit most from this bill are education, military, government, and corporate training.
“The RTP area is a hub for development of entertainment games and advanced learning technologies, and this bill will help keep it that way,” said Linda Savanauskas, a Raleigh digital education specialist and owner of Savvan Consulting.
Savanauskas said that the entertainment industry generates revenue in RTP/NC, with 5 of the 10 leading global game engine companies located here. She added, “North Carolina is also a leader in the education industry’s immersive technologies, known variously as advanced learning technologies (ALTs), 3Di (i standing for “immersive”), and serious games.
Savanauskas helped build early support for this effort by educating key legislators. In early spring, she arranged meetings with key ALT business leaders and government officials to discuss the monetary and training value of the local entertainment game industry and educational games.
“Alex Macris, President of Triangle Game Initiative, and Richard Kristof, President of American Research Institute, and I met with NC State Rep from District 41, Chris Heagarty,” Savanauskas explained. “Later, Charles Hayes of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership and I met with Lt. Governor Walter Dalton to address the competition for our gaming developers. Florida, Texas, Ontario, and Toronto are all huge in the digital game space. We don’t want to lose this vital economic engine and highly trained work force to them – or anyone.”
RTP’s socio-economic environment is an ideal incubator for the digital entertainment business, due to its numerous colleges and universities that graduate specialists in physics, science, art and technology. NC Universities promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Additionally, curriculum design in (STEM) education for kindergarten through bachelor’s degree programs is one of the State’s initiatives. Income for the typical technical developer with a two-year degree typically starts at $45K – $95K, rising with a bachelor’s degree and specialized experience.
For further information about the NC IDM bill or digital gaming and serious games, contact:

• Alexander Macris, Triangle Game Initiative and Themis-Group. http://www.trianglegameconference.com/
• Richard Kristof, American Research Institute, and NC ALTA. http://www.ncalta.org/
• Linda Savanauskas, Savvan Associates. http://www.savvan.com
• The NC Technology Association. http://www.nctechnology.org
• Chris Heagarty, Chris.Chrisheagarty@ncleg.net, 13200 Strickland Road, Suite 114, #299, Raleigh, NC 27613, 919.733.5602

2009-2010 Session
Interactive Digital Media Credits (IDM)
House Bill 2000
Senate Bill 1394
House Filed: May 25, 2010
May 26, 2010 – House Passed first reading
May 26, 2010 – House referred to: Commerce, Small Business, Entrepreneurship, and Finance if favorable
May 26, 2010 – Senate Filed
May 26, 2010 – Senate referred to committee of Finance
Sponsors: House Representatives Gibson, Martin, Heagarty, Owens, (Primary Sponsors); Wray
Senator Floyd B. McKissick, Jr. Introduced the bill in the Senate
Referred to: Commerce, Small Business, Entrepreneurship, and Finance if favorable
An act to enact tax incentives for gaming companies
July 10, 2010 – IDM – Bill Passes in the House, as the economic development bill and now it goes to the Governor for her signature. The House was able to secure the headquarters credit and provide an across the board 15% credit. If a company does collaborate with a participating community college or university, then up to 20% of expenses may be eligible for the credit.

The table above lists critical legislators and dates for the IDM Credits bill.

- END -

Why does illegal discrimination persist nearly 50 years after the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act?

Two Federal laws:
(1) Equal Opportunity in Employment
(2) Hire the most qualified

A critical component of the strategic management of human resources involves attracting, developing and retaining the highest quality workforce. Decisions regarding staffing, compensation, and other HR programs and policies are mitigated by laws regulating employment as noted in Chapter 4. There is a significant cost to organizations for noncompliance and penalties. Protected classes… (p 298)

The Dual Loyalty Dilemma for HR Managers Under Title VII Compliance, Reading 7.2 (p 325)

“To ensure that any employee allegations of unlawful discrimination were not met with any kind of employer retaliation, the Act expressly prohibits employers from engaging in any such behavior. A problem has arisen, however, because judicial interpretations of this retaliation provision have excluded managerial personnel, particularly human resource and equal employment opportunity (HR/EEO) managers, from its protection.

By excluding these managers from protection, the courts have favored management prerogatives to terminate employees perceived to be disloyal to the employer over the rights provided to employees under Title VII. Consequently, the protection Congress intended to afforded employees under Title VII has been severely undermined (p 325).”

I think life is tough enough daily without having to counter these additional hardships, yet it happens regularly based on our current legal system and knowing how to get around the laws.

I say this as the journey is to understand it is all about politics. Being able to truly ascertain the messages and be political savvy in your responses will assure a more steady employment with quality projects and promotions. In some cases, understanding these unspoken rules are often quite painful. Being able to learn from our mistakes and apply them will help us become better leaders and managers of our own destinations.

Also see some of the issues being addressed in a 2005 released book entitled, Angry Black White Boy, by Adam Mansbach. Watch the: YouTube video URL below (example is rather interesting) and Micro-inequities that happen daily. http://www.adammansbach.com/videos.html

Mansbach, A. (2005). Angry black white boy. New York: Crown Publishing Group a division of Random House, Inc.

Retrieved July 9, 2010

Micro-Inequities – What are they?

http://www.insighteducationsystems.com/faqs.htm

Retrieved July 9, 2010

www1.va.gov/…/docs/UnderstandingthePowerofMicroInequities.ppt

Retrieved July 9, 2010

Understanding the powers of Micro-inequities
http://www.stemequitypipeline.org/_documents/Small%20Slights%20Article.pdf

Retrieved July 9, 2010

Mello, J. (2006) Strategic Human Resource Management. Employment Law (pp 297-315) Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

In Open Leadership – Charlene Li

“Be open, be transparent, be authentic are the current leadership mantras – but companies often push back. Traditionally, business is premised on the concept of control and yet the new world order demands openness”. (p1)

Ms. Li provides why open leadership is so very important as the social technologies are spurning the transparency within organizations.

I truly believe after the last several years of complete disregard for law and order and regulations of greed would be helpful if our organizational leadership took the ideology of letting go of the command and control style of management and were more transparent in their communications with their staffs. This situation could be our next tipping point to open leadership and be the commencement of a new beginning.

It truly is a tall task, asking leadership to let go of a style of management that feels natural to a commander and chief. The transformation may have been brought on by the social technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace and enhanced with search capabilities with Google and Yahoo. Yet the true concern is letting go of the command and control style of management and truly embracing transparency in management.

Organizational structures don’t tend to operate that way even though there is a great deal of desire to be open. It took Knowledge Management and the ability to transfer bits of tacit knowledge within our workforce years before it was embraced.

There are four open-driver objectives to support the open strategy, they are:

• Learn (harkens back to the learning organization – Peter Senge) – leadership must stay open and continually learn from their employees, customers and partners
• Dialog – Communicate – internal and external – the value of our technology.
• Support – Customer-Centric support internal and external
• Innovate – Fostering the ability to be creative (p 53-54)

As we become more immersive in our social technologies to collaborate with others in the world there is hope that our leadership will become transparent and customer-centric with the messaging to help the transition to the ideology of open leadership. I support the effort that our leadership is making in this area.

Ms. Li’s book provides several assessments for our leadership as a beginning step to reflect on their mind-set and what traits it will take them to either learn or unlearn skills and behaviors to take this genuine step forward to openness.

If we can use this current time to assist our elected governmental officials to use some of this open leadership style to begin a new era of diplomacy and civility in our leadership it surely would be a tipping point in history. Our new man and woman of the year would be that of open leadership and showing honor and respect to the role of leadership on the cover of the Rolling Stone Magazine.

Thank you Ms. Li for kicking off a positive effort!

Li., C. (2010) Open leadership: how social technology can transform the way you lead. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass.

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