Notes in the Margins: Mansions, training subsidies and conservative law profs

Private Sector Gets Job Skills; Public Gets Bill Critics suggest that state worker-training programs for new companies may not be in the best interest of workers if the resulting jobs pay low wages or simply disappear after a few years, leaving employees with narrow skills that do not help them land new positions. (The New York Times)

University of Maryland plans $7.2 million president’s house amid budget cuts Some question why the school would build such an elaborate house at a time when the flagship university is asking donors to support students who might drop out because they can’t afford tuition. And construction will begin just weeks after President Wallace D. Loh announced that he will cut eight varsity sports teams in June to save an estimated $29 million over the next eight years. (The Washington Post)

Lawsuit Pits Political Activism Against Campus Diversity Teresa R. Wagner is a conservative Republican who wants to teach law. Her politics may have hurt her career. (The New York Times)

The role of peer review journals cannot be replaced by Twitter, blogs While Twitter, blogs and other social media should be part of academic life, we must not lose the slow, deliberative process that emphasizes thoughtful scholarship behind traditional publication in journals. (LSE / Impact of Social Sciences)

College for today’s newborns could cost as much as $422K If college costs keep rising as they have for the last three decades, the inflation-adjusted price of four years of tuition alone will more than double at private colleges and nearly triple at public universities by the time a baby born this year is ready to enroll. (The Daily via University Business)

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