TAIL TRACK. Barring signal troubles, links to any posts of substance ought to work.

ON THURSDAY CAN EXAM WEEK BE PRAISED. The final final examinations for the spring semester are being graded. It appears as if we will make it to graduation day. This evening, I served as master of ceremonies for the DeKalb County Challenge Stock Market Game^(TM) awards. Once again, the winning team demonstrated that you can see a lot just by looking, although simply picking the businesses along Sycamore Road with full parking lots is not as successful a strategy during a market correction. One cluster of students was preparing to write an examination in the Sandburg auditorium, perhaps the last of the classes that had to move to other quarters at midsemester. We end the semester, however, noting two Fulbright fellowships.

While Northern Illinois University student Matt Konfirst is analyzing Antarctic core samples in Germany, fellow NIU student Shari Meggs will be teaching the English language to students in Hong Kong.

Good going.

WHO DO I TIME-SLIP? Consider this Easily Distracted vision of the next-generation small liberal arts college of about 2,000 students.

Regular faculty would not hold permanent tenure. The standard term of employment would be eight years, which would be divided into two cycles of three teaching years with a fourth fully compensated sabbatical year for all members of the regular faculty. Contract renewal would be the normal expectation following the eighth year, but faculty might not be retained either for reasons of performance or because of significant changes in the needed competencies within the core curriculum. For this reason, all faculty would be urged to remain professionally viable as practicioners outside the college’s environment, whether as academics or in some other context, and this would be the major purpose of the generous sabbatical support.

The college will commit substantial resources, including travel funds and subsidy of professional memberships, to encouraging core faculty to maintain their professional identities outside the college’s purview.

Assessment of faculty performance at contract renewal would focus on both teaching and evidence of continued interest in intellectual exporation and general activities as “public intellectuals” . It would not center on scholarly productivity as it is traditionally understood (though certainly scholarly publication would be regarded as a meaningful contribution to the public and communicative responsibilities of the faculty).

Normal faculty load would be 2/3, with the fifth course being a variable number of fourth-year supervisions, usually 2 or 3.

I have tenure, but I'm only eligible for sabbatical at seven year intervals. I earned a good evaluation for research last year, but aspire to land further work in journals economists read. And today I turned in marks for three fourth-year supervisions and a master's thesis supervision. I still owe marks for 80 examinations, which will be ready in the next day or two.

The dean at Anonymous Community has observations about what goes on elsewhere in the academic food chain.

And thus concludes Wednesday, with exams again taking place as scheduled.

SHE'S FINISHED. David Letterman just cracked a joke about Senator Clinton shopping for discount pantsuits.

WHERE THE EXCESS CAPACITY IS. Norfolk State University attempts to temper tough love with retention, with the expected results.

Because so many students come from disadvantaged backgrounds and never received a good high school education, they are already behind, he said, and attendance is essential. Norfolk State would appear to endorse this point of view, and official university policy states that a student who doesn’t attend at least 80 percent of class sessions may be failed.

But biologist Steven Aird failed to make tenure, and the article suggests his willingness to fail students was the reason.

The problem, Aird said, is that very few Norfolk State students meet even that standard. In the classes for which he was criticized by the dean for his grading — classes in which he awarded D’s or F’s to about 90 percent of students — Aird has attendance records indicating that the average student attended class only 66 percent of the time. Based on such a figure, he said, “the expected mean grade would have been an F,” and yet he was denied tenure for giving such grades.

Other professors at Norfolk State, generally requesting anonymity, confirmed that following the 80 percent attendance rule would result frequently in failing a substantial share — in many cases a majority — of their students.

Professors said attendance rates are considerably lower than at many institutions — although most institutions serve students with better preparation.

One reason that this does not happen (outside Aird’s classes) is that many professors at Norfolk State say that there is a clear expectation from administrators — in particular from Dean Sandra J. DeLoatch, the dean whose recommendation turned the tide against Aird’s tenure bid — that 70 percent of students should pass.

The article has provoked a wide-ranging discussion in the comments section, including a differing perspective on the Atlantic print article noted here.

The column has been Instalanched. George Leef at Phi Beta Cons summarizes.

American colleges and universities want to keep the classrooms full of paying customers, and many of them reach far down into the barrel of high-school graduates to do that. Lots of those students are very ill-prepared and unmotivated. They're used to a K-12 environment that isn't demanding and excuses weak performance as a matter of course.

When in college, if they run into someone like Professor Aird, most of them continue with their old habits and find themselves earning D and F grades. How do they react? Most of them do what the political Left encourages: instead of adjusting to the world, expect the world to adjust to you. Complain that the professor is too hard, unfair, unreasonable, out of touch, etc. Anything except improving your performance to meet the standards for a good grade.

Professor Aird offered a similar perspective to his students in January.

"You can only develop skills and self-confidence when your professors maintain appropriately rigorous standards in the classroom and insist that you attain appropriate competencies. You cannot genuinely succeed if your professors pander to you. You will simply fail at the next stage in life, where the cost of failure is much greater.”

What is Norfolk State's job and graduate school placement record? This article notes that Norfolk State's enrollment has been falling, this despite the echo baby-boom and the universal college bubble. Careful readers will note that it is also despite heavy doses of access-assessment-remediation-retention.

TOE THE PARTY LINE, OR ELSE. At the University of Toledo, one form of identity politics cannot be held superior to another. A columnist in the Toledo Free Press, writing, she thought, as a private citizen, observed,

As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are "civil rights victims." Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle ...

Leave the psychology aside and focus on the identity politics. She continues,

The normative statistics for a homosexual in the USA include a Bachelor's degree: For gay men, the median household income is $83,000/yr. (Gay singles $62,000; gay couples living together $130,000), almost 80% above the median U.S. household income of $46,326, per census data. For lesbians, the median household income is $80,000/yr. (Lesbian singles $52,000; Lesbian couples living together $96,000); 36% of lesbians reported household incomes in excess of $100,000/yr. Compare that to the median income of the non-college educated Black male of $30,539. The data speaks for itself.

Leave the social science aside: this is a culture war theme I've seen elsewhere.

Focus, rather, on the reaction of the University of Toledo.

The University of Toledo has suspended with pay one of its administrators for writing a newspaper op-ed that questions whether homosexuality is a civil rights issue. The school said the administrator was suspended precisely because her views on homosexuality do not comport with those of the university, a state institution.

Crystal Dixon, associate vice president of human resources at the Ohio-based university, sparked controversy Apr. 18 when she wrote in the Toledo Free Press that she did not agree with comments by the newspaper's editor that portrayed homosexuals as civil rights victims.

This is the same University of Toledo that takes strategic planning beyond parody.

John Lott asks,

If she had written a piece say the opposite, what would have happened to her? Even if she had listed her affiliation at the university, nothing would have happened.

I'm not sure what he means by "opposite?" Privileging the claims of homosexuals over those of people of color? Or suggesting that the oppressions are equivalent?

Robert VerBruggen at Phi Beta Cons notes this:

I'd add that this is not a school publication but a local paper — one could argue that advancing such views on campus could conflict with her human-resources job.

On a side note, why is a public university "on record" supporting controversial legislation?

Perhaps more to the point, someone in headquarters could ask whether an associate vice-president's public reservations about a university policy might make her less effective at implementing that policy.

As far as "supporting controversial legislation," what's new? Student Affairs and Human Resources and more than a few curriculum committees treat the provisions of civil rights laws as indecently minimal requirements, and seek to have their more aggressive practices codified as law. Thus do professors have to retrain as special education teachers.

THEY SAVED LIVES. Northern Illinois University invited first-responders and community members who pitched in with everything from cookies to ribbons to a reception this afternoon. At the end of the formalities, university and community announced the debut of Huskies on Parade, where $1000 leases you two fiberglass Huskies to decorate in time for the resumption of classes in the fall.

Tuesday's examinations appear to have gone off as scheduled.

ON SATURDAY CAN EXAM WEEK BE PRAISED. I'm returning to grading jail for much of this week. Monday's exams took place with only the usual anxieties. I won't consider the semester done until I see that graduation procession on Saturday.

DON'T KNOW MUCH TRIGONOMETRY. Don't know much about algebra, despite a state mandate.

In a pattern that has area math professors scratching their heads, some community colleges are seeing an increase in the numbers and proportions of entering students who can't do algebra, or even basic arithmetic.

These skills require practice, they're different from riding a bicycle.

One of the biggest reasons for the large wave of college students behind in algebra is timing. If a student takes algebra as an eighth- or ninth-grader, it often means arriving at a community college or state college with several years separating their last encounter with x and y.

"You have to keep practicing your skills or they diminish," said Michael Kane, interim dean of sciences and mathematics at Sierra College. "The pipeline from secondary education to college can have such big gaps."

Even students who have worked through several years of higher math in high school can find themselves back at the algebra drawing board. Too often, high school standards do not run as high as college standards, professors said. [California's] high school exit exam, required to graduate from public school, tests basic math and pre-algebra skills, but doesn't go deeply into algebra, they said.

In addition, if students earn C's or lower in high school math courses, or if teachers grade too softly, it can lead to wider gaps.

"If you get a C in a math class and you try to go on and build, you're going to have holes," said Cosumnes [River College] math professor Lora Stewart.

As Joanne Jacobs notes, universal testing can have perverse effects.

Teachers feel pressured to lower standards so unprepared students — the kids who didn’t learn arithmetic in elementary school — will move on. The math section of the state graduation exam can be passed with a 55 percent; random guessing would yield a 25 percent.

The comments to her post suggest demoralization in the trenches. Wonderful world indeed.

WHERE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND BEGAN. Via Charlie Sykes, a Dallas television station's discovery of the state of college readiness.

This month 7,500 Dallas ISD seniors are expected to walk across the stage and make their families proud.

But what if we told you that 75 percent of the seniors headed to Dallas community colleges can't read above an 8th grade level, and others can't add or subtract?

Graduation is a time for feeling proud, but that might quickly change to frustration for thousands of DISD students like Gia Hollis come fall, when reality hits.

News 8 requested and received documents from the Dallas County Community College District that show, over the last three years, an average of 75 percent of the DISD students enrolled in classes took at least one developmental education course.

“My reading levels are so low, and I’m really not comprehending, and it’s really holding me back," Hollis said. "It’s taking me longer."

Hollis is in a developmental reading course at El Centro College. Developmental courses prepare students to take college classes. In the Fall of 2007, out of the 1,110 DISD students enrolled in Dallas community colleges, 810 had to take one of these courses.

“This percentage is much too high," said Dr. Joan Rodriguez, who teaches developmental reading at El Centro. In her upper level course, where we met Hollis, most students read at an 8th to 10th grade level, struggling to comprehend what’s in some newspaper articles.

“I get so frustrated," Hollis said. "Don't know why I wasn't taught those skills before coming here and having to be at this point in my life and start all over. It’s been very challenging."

”It's very frustrating ... for the students who come in here who say: ‘Wait a minute, you're asking me to do all this? I don't know how to do this. I don't have enough time to do this. I'm not used to doing this. I don't want to do it,'" Dr. Rodriguez said.

Dr. Rodriguez believes high school tests reward students for minimal knowledge, which won’t work in college where professors expect you to know how to read and comprehend complex sentences. She says college professors don’t grade you on whether you try, but what’s right.

The article notes the continued tension between teaching to the test and having the right kind of test, as well as the deleterious effects of calculators on math skills.

QUOTE OF THE DAY. University Diaries Extension, on the fruits of access-assessment-remediation-retention.

“No one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to [university] classes they cannot possibly pass,” writes an anonymous adjunct English professor in the June 2008 Atlantic magazine (far as I know, it’s not available online). He teaches in two “colleges of last resort,” where local, often older, students, go to rack up credits so they can move along a career track.

But they can’t pass the anonymous professor’s required course, because it’s not about memorizing practical vocational information. It’s about thinking and writing coherently, and having a point of view of your own. Many of his students don’t know how to analyze anything, let alone take a polemical position relative to it. They can’t use prose coherently, and they don’t know what it means to set out a grounded, rational argument. Worse, the professor’s other course asks them to write a formal paper about a work of literature. They’ve read almost nothing.

The essay concludes,

Note what the author isolates as the key intellectual trait of authentic college students: They have already learned something by the time they get to college, and the most important thing they’ve learned is a sort of rough intellectual history, an early but functional sense of the categories by which we organize and understand various human expressive acts — this is literature and these are its traits; this is the legal tradition and these its salient features. The serious college curriculum builds upon this foundation by adding not merely more information to it, but more complexity to its categories. The best-educated college graduates move easily among categories to make important intellectual connections — they put science and theology into play in order to think at a high level about empirical and non-empirical truth claims. They read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Mimesis in order to ask not merely what a particular theory or novel means, but what the fact of our having evolved particular standards of scientific legitimacy, and a particular ethos for fiction, means.

This is what university education is about — the disciplined assimilation of information into historically established categories which allow us to regulate and embellish thought about the world. This professor’s English comp and Intro Lit courses are primitive stages in this education: they ask students to convey only the most basic sense of categorical awareness, the shakiest intimation that there are contexts that connect what would otherwise be arbitrary bits of information, random creative eruptions. A few of this professor’s students will be able to do this, but most will not, and it is a cruel and expensive hoax to fail them repeatedly on their efforts.

I'm not sure which hoax the article has in mind: college lite, or social promotion in elementary school, or some mix of both.

LATE TRAINS GET LATER. Rockford Register-Star editor Chuck Sweeney takes stock of regional and inter-city developments along the Dairy Route.

Now we discover that the trains are still three to five years away. We are making progress, nonetheless, thanks to federal planning grants secured by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan. Last week, consultants released their route and ridership study that picked the Union Pacific line from Rockford through Belvidere, Huntley and Marengo to Elgin as the preferred route for commuter trains.

A lot of people are confused about where Amtrak fits into this picture. It doesn’t. Durbin proposed the reinstatement of Amtrak service from Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa, along the Canadian National line through Elmhurst, Genoa, Rockford, Freeport and Galena.

That’s the former route of Amtrak’s “Black Hawk,” a train promised by the late Bob McGaw when he ran for mayor of Rockford in 1973. McGaw delivered the train in just 10 months. McGaw, a Democrat, was a mayor who had clout in Springfield and knew how to use it.

The “Black Hawk” operated from February 1974 through McGaw’s two terms, but it ended in late summer 1981. The train was nifty in concept, but it was operated by a freight railroad (Illinois Central) that saw it as a nuisance and wasn’t particularly interested in running it on time. I know because I often took that train to Chicago.

Commuter trains and Amtrak trains do different things. The former make many station stops, the latter do not. While we need both, Amtrak service is the quickest to begin, because Amtrak owns the trains and the tracks on the CN line are in good shape. An Amtrak study of 2007 said the CN line would need $31.6 million worth of upgrades from Chicago to Iowa.

That would take state funding. Commuter service on the UP line hasn’t seen passenger trains since about 1950 and the tracks west of Belvidere will need a major, multimillion dollar overhaul. The commuter service also will require voters to approve a tax, most likely a quarter-cent sales tax. Capital cost, according to the TranSystems study released last week, is $247 million.

The guardians of the public purse, however, would rather waive the federal gas tax for the summer, ensuring that the roads will suffer even more from deferred maintenance and corporate welfare for truckers, while Congress will look less fiscally responsible than it does when it masks deficits in other accounts with surpluses in the highway trust fund.

As far as the train service is concerned, CNR, the operator in due course of Illinois Central, are not particularly passenger train friendly, and Union Pacific are likely to demand that the line between Gilberts and Rockford be doubled in order to accommodate the commuter train.

YOU CAN ONLY WORK THE PROBLEM. The Daily Chronicle interviews Northern Illinois president John Peters.

A BILL OF ATTAINDER? Perhaps it should not surprise that onetime Puritan colony Massachusetts writes a variation on the sumptuary law.

A record 76 colleges and universities have endowments valued at more than $1 billion, according to the latest tally by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Such wealth has led Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, to propose mandating that the largest college endowments make the same 5% minimum annual payouts as private foundations are required to do. In many years, many colleges have spent much less, provoking criticism that they are hoarding their wealth instead of spending it on educating students. In this hostile environment, some of the wealthiest colleges, including Harvard, have recently sweetened financial-aid packages.

State Rep. Paul Kujawski, a Democrat from Webster, Mass., who is a main proponent of the tax on big endowments, calls the size of the biggest endowments "exorbitant," raising questions of whether they are truly nonprofits.

Kevin Casey, a spokesman for Harvard, said the proposal would hurt Massachusetts and colleges because it would damage "stable bedrock institutions" that have helped shield the region from the worst of the economic slowdown.

Perhaps, perhaps not. It is no accident that the three states home to the most famous private universities are the "cuckoo state" (New Jersey, whose higher education policy is to take advantage of low state-university tuitions elsewhere), accompanied by the homes of ZooConn, best known for basketball, and ZooMass, best known for campus brawls.

On one hand, perhaps an admissions and financial aid policy at Harvard or Princeton or Yale that did away with legacy admissions in order to appropriate five percent of the endowments might compel well-off people in the Northeast to take more of an interest in their local land-grants (if they don't turn their kids into Coasties) than as a conversation-starter in the office pool.

On the other hand, perhaps Harvard could relocate.

I have often wondered what the efficient scale of a university is and, in particular, whether it would be better to create a second Harvard with the university's wealth than to expand the first one. Maybe the Massachusetts state legislature will give the powers-that-be at Harvard an incentive to consider more radical expansion plans.

The generalization (a merger, or a hostile takeover of Davidson?) is left to the reader as an exercise.

QUOTE OF THE DAY. William Polley, on the election-year gas-tax-holiday vote buying. "Good public policy should be well outside of the neighborhood of 'pointless'." Indeed. There's an open letter from economists of all political stripes that succinctly notes what's wrong with the proposal.

A TIME TO REBUILD. Cole Hall will remain in service, partially as lecture hall. Here is the statement from Northern Illinois president John Peters.

For nearly two months, we have sought your opinions and ideas through a variety of mechanisms: a confidential email box, open forums, small-group meetings, an online survey and many one-on-one conversations with students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and families of those most affected by the events of February 14.

Two major themes emerged from this study, and those themes were consistent across all groups: First, you said you did not want to see Cole Hall demolished.

Many of you invoked the memories of those whom we lost, and asked that any renovation include a link to whatever permanent memorial is established nearby.

Second, a substantial number of you said you did not want to teach, work or attend classes in the auditorium where the shooting took place, and that efforts to make the building look different – both inside and out – would be much appreciated.

With those two themes firmly established, we probed further with an online survey that presented three possible options. More than 5,000 of you responded to that survey, with the majority favoring option #2, in which Cole Hall room 101 would be converted into non-classroom space. Option #2 also calls for Cole Hall room 100 to be updated in function and appearance, and for other interior areas to likewise be given a different look and feel. Finally, the preferred option includes plans to change the building façade to update and substantially change the exterior appearance of the building.

Taking one 500-seat auditorium out of service requires us to replace that classroom space elsewhere on campus. More than 12,000 students had classes in Cole Hall this academic year, so the need to replace lost instructional space is very real.

Option #2 includes plans to construct a new 400-seat auditorium in the center campus area, either connected to an existing building or as a freestanding structure. Preliminary cost estimates for both the remodeling and renovation of Cole Hall and the construction of a new 7,800-square-foot auditorium/lecture hall to replace Cole Hall room 101 total about $7.7 million – substantially less than what we were anticipating with the complete demolition of Cole Hall and construction of a new classroom facility.

Our representatives support this option.

State Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hinckley, said he expects to introduce
legislation in the next week that would provide state funding for the proposal.

“It's obviously a very reasonable approach that has taken a lot of input from the university and the community,” Pritchard said during a phone interview Wednesday night. “It meets a lot of the concerns people have about tearing down a building every time there is some violence, yet is respectful toward students, faculty and families.”

Peters praised Blagojevich and other state officials for the support in the days following the shooting, but noted in his e-mail that lawmakers are grappling with how to pay for numerous priorities during tough fiscal times.

“That our request represents a strong consensus opinion from our campus community will be an important factor in legislative deliberations,” he wrote.

The NIU group was met “very graciously” by members of the governor's staff and legislative leaders, Pritchard said, but he noted that “no one is making firm commitments” right now.

“They were sympathetic, and we, as well as they, acknowledged that the budget process in Springfield is difficult and that they understand the emergency essence of our request,” Ken Zehnder, associate director of external affairs at NIU, said during a phone interview Wednesday night. “They are considering it.”

The university expects it to take at least two years to get the plans finalized and work completed, he added.

The Northern Star offered a semester-end interview with President Peters.

In spite of all this - we had a flood, we had a graffiti incident, we had the tragic day of February 14 – we’re having 2,500 undergraduates [and 1,000 graduate students] receiving their degree next week. That’s what we’re about and that’s a celebration. That’s the celebration of a lot of hard work, those people will have a quality collegiate degree and they're going to go out and do great things.

The balance of the interview is worth your attention.

ROLLING ROADBLOCKS. Although the Law of Demand induces substitutions and conservations, drivers understand trade-offs.

Drivers have known for years that throttling back is a sure way to improve gas mileage, and the Papins are among those who are consciously slowing down to save. Several airlines have adopted the same tactic, adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.

But most drivers still appear to be winking at posted speed limits because they say their time is worth more than the gas they'd save by slowing down.

Kelley Goodman, an upstate New York therapist, says gas prices haven't yet gone high enough to justify slowing down.

The article goes on to note responses by truckers, some of whom have no incentive to slow down, and some compelled by their employer to do so. One such employer, Schneider National, is resetting the governors on its trucks. The story bundles that development with some special pleading by the truckers' welfare-rights organization.

The trucking industry's largest lobbying group today called for a nationwide 65 mph speed limit, longer trailers and other steps in an effort to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and save billions of gallons of fuel.

Meanwhile, Green Bay-based Schneider National Inc., one of the country's biggest trucking firms, went still further: The company will voluntarily cut the top cruising speed on its 10,600 tractors to 60 mph, President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Lofgren said during a press conference announcing the industry initiative.

Schneider's slowdown - the firm currently caps cruising speeds at 63 mph - will be equivalent to taking more than 7,200 cars off the highways, Lofgren said, and will save 3.75 million gallons of fuel a year.

"We encourage others in the industry to make this commitment with us," Lofgren said.

What intrigues about this proposal is that it's couched in the language of "sustainability", but somewhat differently from the language of, for instance, the University of Delaware's residential reeducation program (of which more next week).

Limiting cars and trucks to 65 mph could conserve more than 11 billion gallons of diesel and gasoline over 10 years, the American Trucking Associations said in announcing its sustainability proposals.

A longer article offers additional details.

The trucking association said its initiative is primarily an environmental effort, but acknowledged that soaring diesel prices - they currently average $4.15 a gallon - would help boost acceptance among the industry.

Likely to draw the most public attention are the call for a national speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles and the proposal to allow longer or heavier trucks.

Since Congress repealed the national maximum speed limit in 1995, 32 states have set limits at 70 mph or more on some highways, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Thirteen western states allow speeds up to 75 mph.

Trucking has been deregulated for nearly thirty years, yet there are still people who think like public utility managers. Because an agreement to restrict output by slowing down trucks has the prisoners' dilemma property of any restraint of trade, one sells the restriction of output as "in the public interest."

In the short term, what Schneider proposes will simply add to the snarl on the interstates. It's annoying enough when an elephant galumphing along at 70 shoulders into the passing lane to go around a triple maintaining 69. Now imagine the same process, but galumphing along at 63. Never mind: the welfare-rights organization has the chutzpah to ask for longer trucks as well, when anything over 28 feet is a menace in a thickly settled area? Perhaps in the quest of insurers for their own corporate welfare comes countervailing power.

But permitting wider use of double and triple trailers and allowing trucks to carry heavier loads is almost certain to spark opposition.

"A truck that's heavier is less safe, and I think there's already a huge mismatch between a heavy truck and a passenger vehicle, even the biggest passenger vehicle," said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the insurance institute.

Perhaps it's time, however, to ask the truckers to raise funds for their own rights-of-way.

To reduce fuel-eating congestion, the federal government should first clear traffic bottlenecks in such metropolitan areas as Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Phoenix, followed by road building to address capacity problems, the association said.

"In certain areas of the country we need to build new, truck-only corridors," said Tommy Hodges, head of the trucking group's sustainability task force and chairman of Titan Transfer Inc. of Shelbyville, Tenn.

Mr Hodges, may I introduce the controllers of BNSF Railroad and Union Pacific, who seem to be meeting a need for new freight-only corridors without raiding the public purse.

THE WRONG KIND OF EXCESS CAPACITY. The drug bust at San Diego State prompts alum Matt Welch to quip, "Funny, I thought that cheap access to frat-boy drugs were the whole point of SDSU.... " Now Trending opens its coverage with "With its reputation as being the biggest party school in Southern California, nearly 100 students were arrested Tuesday in a sting operation at San Diego State University." I Need to Calm Down motivates a comment on press coverage of the vice squad with "This is apparently big news because, as everyone knows, college students don’t do drugs. (I can’t even keep a straight face typing that. Is the pervasiveness of drug culture on college campuses really news? Really?)" Taken together, the posts say more about what universal college would look like than all the mission statements and strategic plans can.