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>> Hello Tuesday and the last day of August.
>> Today's Word Count: 886
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"The Athletic Directors of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference have adopted the following protocol for handling COVID concerns or complications that cause game cancellations during the 2021-2022 athletic year.
It has been approved that SLIAC athletic contests that are cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns or complications by a team will result in a forfeit by that team that caused the cancellation and will not be rescheduled. The cancelling team will receive a loss in the conference standings and their opponent will be awarded a win.Those contests that are forfeited due to COVID concerns or complications will be considered to be a "no contest" when reporting to the NCAA and thus, will not impact a team's overall record.
The SLIAC forfeiture policy will only apply to league standings, conference seedings and potential participation within the conference tournament. A SLIAC forfeiture will have no effect on selections for the NCAA championships, player statistics or coaching records."
>> Be Smart: Is this the first of a wave of "forfeit" decisions that conferences will be forced to make due to COVID-19?
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2. The 100 MPH Substitute Teacher
by Matt Monagan, MLB.com
"We've all had substitute teachers.
Maybe it was your friend's mom filling in for your second grade English class. Perhaps it was some recent, floundering alum of the school, trying out the trade in a familiar setting. But have you ever had a sub who was a professional baseball player? One who has a 100 mph fastball?
Stephen Ridings burst onto the MLB scene at Yankee Stadium this August, firing triple-digit fastballs and striking out the side in his big league debut. He seemingly arrived out of nowhere."
>> Inside Baseball: "A Minor Leaguer for the (Kansas City) Royals in 2019, Ridings took on a role as a part-time teacher, or, as he said, "proctor," after COVID prevented the 2020 season from happening. Hailing from Haverford -- the tiny D-III school that has a robust fraternity of baseball execs (the Dodgers' Josh Byrnes, the Twins' Thad Levine) -- Ridings subbed at (Palm Beach) Maritime (Academy) from October 2020 to early March 2021. He downplayed his role -- saying he mostly just took attendance, distributed lesson plans and kept the kids in line (probably not too hard when you're 6-foot-8, 220 pounds)."
>> Quotable: "He was a nice guy, humble, didn't talk too much about baseball, but eventually we found out he was playing in the Minor Leagues," head of human resources Anthony Andrepont said.
>> Quotable II: "The whole year has been absolutely wild," Ridings, who's been sent down to Triple-A recently but will likely be back up Sept. 1 for the Yanks' stretch run, said. "It feels like just yesterday I was excited to have made the Double-A roster. ... It's crazy to see where I came from at the beginning of this year, thinking I hopefully even get a chance to play baseball and then being on the mound at Yankee Stadium."
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MILWAUKEE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING - Kevin Hurd named head women's golf and assistant men's basketball coach. Deren Wilder named head women's track and field and assistant cross country coach
"Yes, you're seeing that correctly: two Paralympians without arms competing in the 100m freestyle. If that doesn't inspire you, check your pulse. Humans are incredible."
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>> Good Monday morning. The magic number is down to two.
>> Today's Word Count: 1,331. Starting the week with an easy read.
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by Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt, Chronicle of Higher Education
"After campuses closed, in the spring of 2020, we spoke with college presidents, the heads of higher-education associations, policy makers, and accreditors about Covid-19 and their post-pandemic plans. There were few surprises. Anxiety was sky high, and everyone expected the financial toll and enrollment losses to be extraordinarily high (how high remained a guessing game).
Most viewed the pandemic as a natural disaster. They wanted to get back to business as soon as possible, clean up the damage, and restore what had been lost. In this sense, most misunderstood the nature of the pandemic, viewing it as an interruption of business as usual rather than an accelerator of changes already underway. They expected to turn back the clock to 2019 and recreate their pre-Covid colleges. They wanted to recapture the past.
That urge is understandable, and yet misguided. The pre-pandemic state of higher education was in flux, with five profound and jarring new realities — none of higher education’s making — already beginning to shape its future. The pandemic has accelerated those changes, and it’s imperative that academic leaders grasp the import of this shifting landscape.
Institutional control will decrease, and the power of consumers will increase.
With near universal access to digital devices and the internet, students will seek from higher education the same things they are getting from the music, movie, and newspaper industries.
New postsecondary entities will enter the marketplace, driving up competition and driving down prices.
The industrial-era model of higher education, focusing on time, process, and teaching, will be eclipsed by a knowledge-economy successor rooted in outcomes.
The dominance of degrees and “just in case” education will diminish; nondegree certifications and “just in time” education will increase in status and value.
>> Why It Matters: "Those five new realities will transform our sector. Competency-based education will become the norm. Carnegie units and credit hours will give way. Certification will broaden: It will be granted both for mastering a single competency (such as a foreign language) and for achieving a set of related outcomes (such as the Google IT grouping of skills)."
>> Reality Check: "To look forward rather than backward is no easy feat. Colleges must confront their tendency toward magical thinking — their belief that institutional challenges will somehow vanish."
>> The Final Word: "The future of every institution depends on overcoming those barriers. It’s the responsibility of presidents and boards to lead their institutions into the future and to educate their communities about the challenges and opportunities ahead. The pandemic provides the teaching moment to do it."
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2. Fighting Defenses ... and Fires
by Cap Carey, Watertown Daily Times / photo: Christopher Lenney
"The newest volunteer firefighter in the village of Canton also happens to be one of the best quarterbacks in NCAA Division III football.
St. Lawrence University quarterback Tyler Grochot, who already holds several school records as he heads into his junior year, plans to be a firefighter when his college days end. He recently interviewed to be one of Canton's volunteers.
"I've always wanted to be a firefighter ever since I was little," Grochot said. "My cousin is a firefighter. Last spring, with my semester off of school, I actually enrolled in a firefighter academy and got my certification. I did take one step closer to fulfilling that, which I'm actually excited about."
>> Quotable: "I think being a quarterback, and being on a football team, really gave me a sense of calmness," Grochot said. "Wearing the firefighting (mask) really just gave me a sense like I was wearing a football mask and helmet. I was able to see through it, not noticing it was around me. A lot of guys get claustrophobic with that. Football is that mentality, work, work, work, work, work. That's kind of what it is in the fire business, especially at the academy."
Bowdoin College is raising its minimum wage for benefits-eligible hourly workers from $15.50 to $17 an hour at the end of August — 10 months ahead of schedule of a planned increase.
The Maine liberal arts college says it's hoping the change will help combat worker shortages on campus and reward employees who have stayed with the institution throughout the pandemic.
>> What They're Saying: "This accelerated timetable for increasing Bowdoin's minimum hiring rate to $17 reflects the rapidly changing labor conditions in Maine and Bowdoin's commitment to remaining a leader in wages and benefits," Matt Orlando, the college's senior vice president for finance and administration, said in a statement.
>> Court Awareness: "The years-long progressive campaign to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has been gaining attention against this backdrop. Johns Hopkins University also recently raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour in a move that impacted nearly 5,000 workers."
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The 2021 Division III field hockey season gets underway Wednesday. Here is a list of the winningest programs as we were able to discover from school websites.
500 Victories
Ursinus, 774-372-70 (began 1921)
TCNJ, 763-145-24 (1972)
Salisbury, 728-225-37 (1954)
Messiah, 698-259-34 (1963)
Elizabethtown, 648-343-52 (1952)
Cortland, 645-226-24 (1971)
Lebanon Valley, 639-396-67 (1933)
Lynchburg, 604-232-11 (1979)
Rowan, 590-297-35 (1964)
William Smith, 588-273-8 (1972)
Wooster, 588-341-41 (1965)
Keene State, 580-285-30 (1974)
Springfield, 579-363-50 (1970)
Denison, 547-282-23 (1974)
Middlebury, 545-169-23 (1968)
Mary Washington, 530-313-27 (1961)
Gettysburg, 517-392-62 (1948)
Hartwick, 512-385-12 (1965)
Bowdoin, 510-189-17 (1972)
Montclair State, 507-351-38 (1961)
Plymouth State, 505-294-40 (1968)
>> Strive for Five (Hundred): Ithaca 499, Franklin & Marshall 489, Eastern Mennonite 487
"While the college experience is rarely recognized for the caliber of its cuisine, some institutions have been awarded an A+ for their food quality.
College comparison site Niche has analyzed which colleges go to the top of the class in its 2022 Best Food ranking, after combining meal plan costs, as self-reported by the colleges, and student reviews.
Top Division III Colleges and Universities in the top 25
4. St. Norbert
One item of feedback states: "The food is amazing, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it was one of the deciding factors for me when choosing colleges."
6. St. John Fisher 9. Bates 10. Washington (Mo.) 11. Hendrix
One 5-star rating left on Niche.com reads: "Don't go for the food, but the food is really good."
14. Muhlenberg 15. Wesleyan (Conn.) 22. Bowdoin 23. Roger Williams
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>> It's Friday! A shout-out to our new friends from Muskingum. Imagine my surprise to see all the new subscriptions! Thank you and I hope you enjoy.
>> Today's Word Count: 1.224
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"While their litigation remains a long way from victory, six current and former athletes from a handful of colleges—Villanova, Fordham, Sacred Heart, Cornell and Lafayette—received encouraging news Wednesday from Pennsylvania federal judge John Padova, who denied those schools’ motion to dismiss Ralph “Trey” Johnson et al. v. NCAA.
The case centers on the claim that college athletes are employees under both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state labor laws and are owed minimum wage. A motion to dismiss raised by fellow defendants NCAA and others has not yet been decided.
Johnson v. NCAA draws on a different federal law than the one cited by Kain Colter and other Northwestern football players in their effort seven years ago to be declared employees. The players in Johnson invoke the FLSA, which governs minimum wage and overtime pay, whereas Kolter’s petition to the National Labor Relations Board relied on the National Labor Relations Act, which protects the right of employees to unionize.
The Johnson v. NCAA players—three women and three men—have petitioned Judge Padova to certify their case as a class action. The judge’s denial of the motion to dismiss will likely enable the players’ attorneys to gain access to emails and sworn testimony from school officials."
>> Point: "Judge Padova detailed how college athletes “must schedule classes around their required NCAA athletic activities” and that many “have reported that participation in NCAA [Division I] sports have prevented them from taking classes that they wanted to take.” Likewise, he noted that athletic programs and coaches, much like employers and bosses, “exercise significant control over their student athletes” regarding how they spend their time and potential disciplinary matters."
>> Counterpoint: "The schools assert that players are enrolled as students, not employees. They also cite precedent from other cases where similar lawsuits were rejected. They draw attention to Berger v. NCAA, a 2016 case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in which the court reasoned that college athletes are amateurs and thus can’t be employees."
>> Be Smart: "For now, the law is one step closer to recognizing college athletes as employees."
The Empire 8 Conference is pleased to announce the addition of Medaille College effective with the 2022-23 academic year.
Medaille currently sponsors 19 Division III sports, with 17 set to compete in the Empire 8. With the addition of Medaille, the E8 will be comprised of 10 members all located in New York State. The conference currently sponsors 23 NCAA Division III sports.
>> What They're Saying: “Medaille College is a natural fit for the Empire 8,” said Empire 8 Commissioner Chuck Mitrano. “They are a competitive academic institution with great leadership at all levels and outstanding facilities that fits into our geographic footprint. Moreover, like Empire 8, Medaille is committed to the critical educational role that intercollegiate athletics plays in higher education as we shape tomorrow’s leaders.”
>> What's Next: “The Empire 8 has an outstanding record of being one of the top Division III conferences with their success of student-athletes in the classroom and on the playing fields. We look forward to building new relationships and rivalries within the conference.” - Medaille College Director of Athletics Susan Roarke
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FINANCIAL AID
3. Competing With Flagships
by Michael T. Neitzel, Forbes
"Cornell College, a small private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, announced on Tuesday that it will provide an annual $30,000 scholarship to students from five surrounding states. Dubbed the “Freeway Scholarship,” it will be available to first-year students from the neighboring states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, and Nebraska who apply for admission for the 2022-23 school year.
The scholarship is renewable for four years for students from the five Midwest states, plus Kansas City, Kansas. One of the basic ideas behind it was to lower the cost of attendance at Cornell to a price that was comparable to the flagship public universities in those states. With this aid, Cornell claims it will be within $3,250 of the average of those five colleges.
Small colleges, which are generally heavily dependent on tuition to fund their ongoing operations, have experimented with a number of pricing strategies to attract new students and maintain enrollment. The most frequent approach is what’s called “tuition discounting,” usually through institutional aid that is delivered in the form of so-called merit scholarships."
>> Quotable: “We researched five different flagship state institutions in our neighboring states, and we know that with this scholarship we are within reach of the same price of their attendance, and at Cornell students get a high-quality private education,” said Vice President for Enrollment Management Wendy Beckemeyer. (Cornell’s published tuition for this year is $47,100.)"
>> Of Note: "Cornell may have hit something of a sweet spot with its targeted approach. It’s not making a wholesale tuition reset. And, according to Beckemeyer, the school’s overall discount rate was unchanged as a result of this year’s Iowa Promise Scholarship."
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FOOTBALL
4. Winningest Teams
The 2021 Division III football season gets underway next weekend. Here is a list of the winningest programs courtesy of the NCAA.
Photo: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images
"Motivated," "innovative" and "trustworthy" are three overused buzzwords that make hiring managers' eyes glaze over, according to a survey of 1,000 of them by the H.R. software maker Zenefits, Jennifer A. Kingson writes.
Why it matters: A lot of people are looking for jobs — or to change jobs — and many of us (ahem) have rusty interview skills.
Details: Zenefits found that "the most common mistakes during video interviews include criticizing previous employers, consuming takeaway coffees and not explaining employment gaps."
10% of hiring managers "reported their candidate did not show up on time to their Zoom interview or had trouble with the technology."
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