Draft Report from Commission on the Future of Higher Education Accuses U.S. Higher Education of Mediocrity
Preliminary findings from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education fault U.S. colleges and universities with wasteful spending and a reluctance to create innovative approaches to 21st century education. A recent document released by the commission calls for major changes in financial aid, higher education funding, K-12 outreach, and educational assessment.
Maine Issues Guide for the Creative Economy
Maine Gov. Mark Baldacci has unveiled a new handbook intended to help communities to capitalize upon their cultural resources to spur economic growth. Maine's Creative Economy Community Handbook: Maine State Government Resources for Communities offers advice for community leaders interested in building a creative and dynamic workforce. The guidelines it gives for designing a strategic plan could benefit communities across the country interested in similar initiatives.
Ohio State Commits $100M for Global R&D Impact
As the authors of the recent Swedish report, The Internationalization of Corporate R&D, pointed out, industrial R&D may increasingly be found concentrated around public and private research institutions with strong research capabilities related to the specific corporation's interests.
Useful Stats: Public High School Graduation Rates by State, 2002-03 School Year
Proponents for a higher skilled workforce may be concerned with troubling new statistics regarding high school graduation rates. A new report from the EPE (Editorial Projects in Education) Research Center and Education Week shows that more than 30 percent of the nations ninth-graders fail to go on to graduate from public high schools.
SSTI Job Corner
Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
People
Ernest Andrade, director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, announced he is stepping down as a city council member, effective Aug. 30.
Thomas Bowles was named science advisor to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, succeeding a number of fellow Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists serving the governor.
People
Ernest Andrade, director of the Charleston Digital Corridor, announced he is stepping down as a city council member, effective Aug. 30.
People
Thomas Bowles was named science advisor to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, succeeding a number of fellow Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists serving the governor.
People
Lori Clark is the new coordinator of agency relations and research park initiatives at Northern Illinois University.
People
Joey Dean was named vice president of economic development for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and as executive director of the Metro Little Rock Alliance. Dean succeeds Jay Chesshir, the chamber's newly named president and CEO, in both positions.
People
President Bush has nominated Charles McQueary to be director of operational test and evaluation at the Department of Defense. The president also has nominated Nathaniel Wienecke to be assistant secretary of commerce for legislative and intergovernmental affairs.
People
The Clovis, Calif.-based Central Valley Business Incubator selected Craig Scharton as its new chief executive, replacing outgoing chief executive Glenn Patch.
People
Donald Siegel has accepted a position as professor of entrepreneurship and associate dean with the University of California at Riverside's A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management.
Texas Governor Creates Biotech Council
Last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the formation of the Governor's Council on Science and Biotechnology Development. The Council will strive to create a seamless system of innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace in rapidly developing areas of biotechnology — such as biopharmaceutical development, bioinformatics, genomics and nanotechnology.
State and Local Tech-based ED RoundUp
Lincoln, Nebraska
Kansas, Virginia Look to Fill Key Positions
Two of SSTI's sponsoring organizations, the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp (KTEC) and Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, are looking for strong candidates to fill two critical positions. A brief description of each opportunity is provided below. More detailed information is available on SSTI's website at: http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm
MEP to be Eliminated in President's FY 2003 Budget?
Yesterday's edition of USA Today reported "the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Program [sic], funded this year at $107 million...would be eliminated [in FY 2003] because the White House says they should be financed by the private sector."
President Names Council on Bioethics
With biotechnology taking center stage on several occasions during the past year, President Bush has appointed an 18-member Council of Bioethics to address some of the more controversial aspects of the field. Policy suggestions to emerge from the council are likely to impact the activities of the significant investments many states and localities are making for biotechnology research and seed capital.
Knowledge-based Economy Requires Diversity, Group Asserts
The nation faces social and economic crisis unless America succeeds in promoting and taking advantage of racial and ethnic diversity, according to a report released last week by the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF).
Tech-talkin' Governors: State of the State and Budget Addresses
This week, the SSTI Weekly Digest continues its series on governors' State of the State addresses, highlighting those portions concerning programs, policies and issues immediately affecting the tech-based economic development community.
Index Has Maine Achieving 'Modest Progress'
Describing Maine as making "modest progress" in strengthening its capacity for innovation-driven economic growth, the Maine Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) released on Tuesday The Maine Innovation Index 2002, a report on Maine's performance in the new economy.
'Shoes' Slow Arizona's Progress, Report Says
Five Shoes Waiting to Drop on Arizona's Future, a 50-page report released by the Morrison Institute of Public Policy, details five key trends that could harm the state's future if they are not well managed.
Useful Stats: IT Worker Metro Affordability Index
Three Texas cities, Dallas, Houston and Austin, top the second annual Affordibility Index prepared by techies.com, a technology workforce placement company. The study tracks which cities offer the best combination of top salary and low cost of living for information technology professionals.
Salt Lake City, Atlanta, the DC/Baltimore corridor, Seattle and Phoenix round out the top eight metro areas.
AEA Releases CyberEducation 2002
AEA, formerly the American Electronics Association, in conjunciton with the Nasdaq stock market, has released CyberEducation 2002, a compendium and comparative analysis of several trends and educational statistics from across the country.
BMDO End-run Costs SBIR $73.8M
While 2002 marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, it also may be remembered as the first time an agency successfully finagled its way out of SBIR's requirement that 2.5 percent of extramural R&D be awarded to small technology companies.