Category: Uncategorized

We have had several discussions in the Grad 5104 class regarding the pressure of publications on professors whether for tenure process or for promotion. Professors are under constant pressure to perform. The pressure is not always healthy and may lead to harmful impacts. There are cases of research misconduct. Sometimes, the mistakes are found in the review itself while sometimes the data is published and retracted several years later when someone analyzes it properly. There have been cases reported in publishing where authors have drawn the line on the graph using Paint. What could be leading the authors to go to such extent when they have to falsify and fabricate data.

We, as a scientific community, need to ask ourselves: are we doing too much research? The professors, in order to get that tenure, that funding, that grant, publishes more to prove their worth. But is the research that is conducted and published worth consideration? How is the quality check done? Is the impact factor the only criteria we should be looking to grade the work of the professor? Does the quantity matter that much? PubMed indexed 1.2 million scientific articles in 2011 which was four times from 1980. Are we really doing enough breakthrough innovation to publish four times?

No doubt, we have better facilities and capacities to conduct research. But it is important to understand the difference between new genuine research and repetition with minute manipulation and some different data. If we continue to go through this space, we won’t sustain long before we will have a plethora of same unwanted information available from different sources. The first step towards maintaining a sensible scientific record is to reduce the pressure from professors’ shoulders. Once we achieve that we need to move forward with redefining the meaning of scientific publications and their use. In this step itself, we can focus on bringing a change with making the knowledge as accessible to everyone as possible (Open). Lastly, research from the tax paid by the public should be focused on the public good which is critical. Sure, we would like to have a driverless car and drone to deliver our food but even without them we are surviving and can survive for another few decades without much trouble. However, issues like terminal diseases such as cancer and global warming should have focus as they are posing a threat to our survival and the survival of all the species on the planet.

Human beings are the smartest species on the earth. We need to get our act together and behave like the smartest. If we understand the problems and still don’t act on them then we are no better than those species who don’t have a developed communication system and knowledge of the world and the universe. We need to set the priorities on things and work to achieve them.

American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications is a collection of over 60 scientific journals related to chemistry, chemicals, and related sciences. The Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) is one of ACS Publications most influential journals, with an impact factor of 13.858. The cost to “purchase” a single JACS article is $40.00 for 48 hours of access, an unreasonable value, especially for small businesses who are trying to do innovative science but can’t afford to access valuable journal articles to guide their research.

The ACS Publications website has an “Open Access” tab. When I navigated to it, I was confused by what I found. The website had a flavorful list of five open access journals and a price list. It turns out, you can pay a hefty some if you want your research to be open access:

For instance, if you like watermelon you can pay up to $5000 for your manuscript to appear in ACS AuthorChoice, $4000 for the putting it in the journal and up to $1000 for the license. If you’re a pear and your manuscript is selected by the editors as an editors’ choice for open access, you still have to pay the $500+ license fee.

I decided to take a deeper look at one of the open access journals, ACS Central Science. According to the description, ACS Central Science is a highly selective, multidisciplinary journal that publishes articles “of interest to the broad chemistry and scientific community.” The editors publish no more than 200 articles per year and the journal has an impact factor of 7.939. Looking over the latest issue, I found that about half of the articles are full research articles, while the other half are labeled “outlooks” or “first reactions.” I don’t really know what that means but after skimming through two of the articles, it appears that a first reaction article is a two-page glimpse into results and future work. These articles have no abstract and appear to contain quite a bit of background information.

Needless to say, I am less than impressed by ACS publications consortium of open access journal. I hope they will have more open access and at lower cost to the researchers in the near future.

This blog is to reflect on what I learnt in this class, not only as a graduate student but as a future academician. I took this course as a requirement class for the Future Professoriate certificate. But this class provided me much more. The best part of the class was discussion sessions, engagement with people from various parts of the world. Although, I belong to School of Public and International Affairs and my department is quite diverse in this regard. But interactions are related to mostly subject specific than subjects like this.

Discussions varied from topics of terms used in higher education to Academic Bullying. Some other interesting topics which we talked about included diversity in education, academic tenure, international education systems, open education, etc. Discussions and engagement with my other colleagues helped in shaping a much different perspective towards people coming from different parts of the world. There were a number of bias and which exist still. However, I have different approach to look at people which may help me to better interact with them.

Publicly supported educational institutions are charged with responding to the fact of diversity and with advancing a shared vision of civic political membership (Ben-Porath, 2013). Affirmative action programs encompass more than outreach and recruitment, however, and include efforts to prevent discrimination by eliminating barriers to equal employment opportunity. Some of the guidelines which universities can consider while designing and managing affirmative action (Affirmative action itself has been defined as “any measure, beyond simple termination of a discriminatory practice, adopted to correct or compensate for past or present discrimination or to prevent discrimination from recurring in the future” by U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Statement on Affirmative Action, October 1977.) and culture diversity are:

• Enhance a supportive environment for diversity including the scholarly dialogue on diversity.
• Monitor the recruitment of women and minority faculty at the senior levels and faculty at all levels, consistent with the available pool.
• Continue to recruit, retain and graduate greater numbers of ethnic minority students.
• Continue to work with the central state community to promote understanding and effectiveness of diversity, and engage communities throughout the state in the dialogue.
• Involve all levels of administration, most notably the chairs to increase the level of accountability.

Affirmative action therefore means taking positive steps to end discrimination, to prevent its recurrence, and to create new opportunities that were previously denied to minorities and women. It will also assist in higher diversity in terms of culture, races and income groups and therefore provide a wider perspective to the university’s population. This will also be beneficial to inclusively plan strategies for all campus residents. Though affirmative action has been criticized as constituting reverse discrimination, preferential  treatment, stigmatizing to beneficiaries and contravening principles of merit (Maranto, et al. 2009). Provision of equal opportunities to them post their recruitment is equally important and should be given priority.

The introductory session for students, faculty and staff at all levels should be held. This is an important session as the new members can be introduced to various policies and important guidelines as well as assistance measures, they should be aware of. What are the services they are entitled to use and what steps may cause trouble for them.

Most of the international students face linguistic difficulties and the university can arrange for classes which may help in improving their linguistic skills. For example, writing Center at Virginia Tech provides an excellent source for international as well as all others to improvise their writing skills. Another provision can be made by giving freedom and facilities to the faculty, staff and students of various religions (cultures) to carry forward their religious / cultural practices without much hassles.

Sports and international festivals are yet again ways which can increase interaction between various groups on campus. These may also help in better understanding each other’s culture and their by establishing respect for each other.

References

Ben-Porath, S. (2013). Education Justice and Democracy. Editors D.Allen and R. Reich. University of Chicago Press.

Maranto, R., Redding, R. E. and Hess, F. E. (2009). The Politically Correct University – Problem, Scopes, and Reform. Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute.

Originally established in the late 1700s to protect academic freedom at religious schools (which are less than a fifth of the 4,703 U.S. colleges today), tenure has morphed into a guaranteed “job for life,” a benefit no longer enjoyed by any other segment of the U.S. workforce. Even the United Kingdom did away with tenure in the late 1980s when then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher implored the nation’s colleges to become more productive. While not all of academia’s problems can be laid at tenure’s doorstep, tenure has hamstrung colleges’ ability to fulfill their two fundamental missions of advancing knowledge and disseminating it. Also, tenure does gives the freedom to the instructor from having to use technology to revamp the way he/she teaches.(Wetherbe, 2013). I defend the tradition on the account of no other suitable/ pragmatic approach to safeguarding academic freedom.

Tenure offers both procedural and substantive protections. Procedurally, tenure means that a faculty member has continuing employment unless the university initiates an action against the faculty member and succeeds in proving “cause” for termination. It is the university that must begin the proceedings to terminate a tenured faculty member and that must bear the significant burden of proving the justification for its proposed action. Substantively, tenure means that the only specific, narrowly defined circumstances will constitute “cause” sufficient for termination or other adverse employment actions. Although the definition of “cause” varies by university, in general, there must be serious violations of the law or of principles of academic honesty to meet the standard (Chemerinsky, 1997) .

No alternative yet described is likely to succeed in providing both the procedural and the substantive protections accorded by tenure. Those who seek alternatives to tenure do so because of a desire to weaken the current protections accorded to faculty members. Although the motivation behind these reforms is the laudable desire to increase accountability for faculty members, by definition this entails a lessening of the safeguards embodied in the concept of tenure. Thus any alternative to tenure is likely to mean a substantial decrease in the protection afforded faculty members and consequently of academic freedom (O’Neil, 2008). The better approach is to devise ways to improve performance and accountability within the tenure system.

References

Chemerinsky, E. (1997). Is Tenure Necessary to Protect Academic Freedom? American Behavioral Scientist

O’Neil, R. (2008). Academic Freedom in the Wired World: Political Extremism, Corporate Power, and the University. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.

Wetherbe, J.C. (2013). It’s time for Tenure to lose Tenure. Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2013/03/its-time-for-tenure-to-lose-te

Why does it take some students a long time to graduate? In the United States, some people really want to know. Some people also believe that higher education institutions should be held accountable for slow graduation rates.

A recent article in Inside Higher Ed suggests that high-impact educational practices (HIPs) may be part of the problem. The article Maybe Not So ‘High Impact’?, describes the findings of a study by Harvard Business School and NYU that, according to the researchers, suggests HIPs are not as beneficial as their authors make them out to be and do not improve graduation rates. Let’s take a closer look at HIPs.

HIPs are recommendations from the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) to institutions designed to help in student learning, engagement, and retention. According to the AAC&U, each recommendation has been widely tested and is beneficial to college students.

Here is the complete list of High-Impact Educational Practices:

1. First-year seminars and experiences – small groups of students and faculty where students experience critical inquiry, writing, collaborative learning, and other skills development
2. Common intellectual experiences – broader themes related to “core” curriculum
3. Learning communities – linked courses taken as a group with close interaction with the professors
4. Writing-intensive courses
5. Collaborative assignments and projects
6. Undergraduate research
7. Diversity/global learning – experimental learning in the community and/or study abroad
8. Service learning, community-based learning – field based learning with community partners
9. Internships
10. Capstone courses and projects

Based on the list, it appears that HIPs are designed to develop students’ process skills (e.g. oral/written communication, teamwork, problem solving, etc.) and expose students to future careers in their field (e.g. internships, service learning). I experienced many of these recommendations in my undergraduate education.

For traditional students, only two items on the list stand out to me as having the potential to directly impact graduation time, No. 8 – diversity/global learning and No. 9 – internships. Obviously, study abroad could delay graduation, however these experiences are not typically included in graduation requirements. At my undergraduate institution, I was required to complete an internship, for credit, over the summer between my third year and fourth year. My internship experience was amazing but it was unpaid and it cost me over $3000 to take the three-credit “course”. For non-traditional students and students of low economic status, giving up a summer to complete an unpaid internship would be challenging. Needless to say, based on the HIPs recommendations, HIPs probably isn’t the reason why students take a long time to graduate.

Now let’s consider some other reasons for slow graduation rates.

1. Student self-motivation – some students are lazy and don’t work hard in classes, don’t attend classes, or withdraw from several classes.
2. Lack of engagement in the field of study – hopefully this isn’t the case but it could very well be for some students. Maybe the student is not really interested in the field but feels stuck because they’ve put 2+ years into it. Or, maybe they chose the field for the wrong reasons (e.g. money, etc.) and are not really engaged in the classes.
3. No prospective job offers – would you want to graduate if you didn’t have a job lined up?
4. Engagement in other areas within the field – students may be engaged in research, outreach, or other extracurricular activities that may distract them from graduating and postpone graduation.
5. Family – now we’re getting to the obvious reasons but taking care of a family may take priority over classwork and may limit the number of credits a student can take in a semester.
6. Money –some students can’t afford to go to school full-time because they need to work and make money.

I’m sure this list could go on but I’m going to stop there and end by saying that in opposition to what the Inside Higher Ed article suggests, HIPs do not appear to directly impact graduation time. Slow graduation rates are a problem, however there is not one cause and not one solution.

This is going to be a fun blog (I am bored of being serious). It is full of assumptions and personal thinking and may have very less scientific proof (sometimes we should just hang the science for a bit). If you are not interested in fiction, I warn you not to go further, you may be disappointed. For the rest of you, let’s go and have some good time (hopefully).

So, the earth has made it to the year 2810. Yes, it is still surviving. The global warming and the melting of that ice have consumed few hundreds of our cities. But finally, we have controlled the temperature. We here mean a mix of human and robotic species. Robots have taken all the mundane and repetitive jobs from the humans. Humans don’t construct, humans don’t manufacture, humans don’t drive (wait there are no cars, just pods running on renewable energy but yes, buses are still here), humans don’t bank and humans don’t fight (oh no, no, I take this back, humans still fight).

If we don’t do any of these then what do we do? Humans are smart (always were). We didn’t give everything to robots. Pure human emotions are still with humans. No, it is not that it was not tried but robots just can’t get that, definitely not all of them. Humans still love, humans still cheat. Humans are teachers, scientists, doctors (and nurses), lawyers, social workers, comedians, painters, musicians, actors, adventurers, and all other arts professionals. Humans still form the root of the society (yes, robots have their own, but it is way too boring for humans). Robots will be creative but only as much necessary. Humans won’t be working for money but for satisfaction. Humans won’t have ‘a job’ but multiple talents and contributing to the economy.

Virginia Tech is still there (you see, why they put it in Blacksburg, middle of nowhere) and ranks first in both humanities and sciences (No, seriously, also MIT is gone, so is Harvard). They realized in 2018 itself that opening a drone park means automation and hence added enhanced focused on humanities (I hope someone with important administrative position reads this block, I am just trying to help). They opened the drone park and tested driverless cars, so they were not going back on sciences. The downtown is still one block long but hey, everyone is having lunch and dinner at the drill field with the food delivered by drones (from any food joint that can be named).  There is nothing called as tenure for professors (they finally realized in 2108 that it is a useless system). Knowledge is given without restriction. There is no division of students into undergraduate and graduate. There are just knowledge seekers.

There are so many more things to add but I will just stop here for now (I have to write a couple of more blogs). If you want to add anything, feel free to comment. I also invite all the disappointed souls to vent off their anger and frustration here (hey, I warned you this may be disappointing, you decided to continue). Happy 2810!

Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata L.) is an African tree from the Bombacaceae Family traditionally used for many different purposes. In my village of Mbadatte, Fatick Region in Senegal, Baobab trees are among the main trees found in houses and surroundings; four in our compound alone!  I remember, when I was a child, I used to stay under the youngest one with my toys or climb on top of it for fun or to get some leaves for my aunt. Sometimes, the bees would sting and I would yell, scratch myself and resume my chores or play time. Ooooh! Just some awesome childhood souvenirs.

I saw people in the village using all parts of baobab tree (leaves, bark, roots, seeds) for different purposes: food, traditional medicine, construction, etc.  My aunt would dry the leaves and store them. Each evening she will ask me to grind a portion for her to put in our favored millet couscous that we would eat with cow’s milk or other kinds of sauces in the evening and in the morning. Like the baobab fruit, the leaves are rich in nutrients. Maybe that is why I was so strong and winning long distance races at school. The fruits, or bouye as we call them in Senegal, are used to make juices, Galax (refreshing mixture of Baobab fruit powder with peanut butter, water sugar, flavors (vanilla, nutmeg…) that we drink with thiakry (steamed millet flour granules) or Moroccan couscous, but also in millet porridge, among other delicious meals and delicacies. I also used to hear old women advising young pregnant women to “drink bouye juice more frequently”. I had no idea why they were saying that, but I found out later while taking a nutrition course in Senegal. Our professor was explaining the importance for pregnant women to take calcium-rich food, milk and fruits, etc. I asked her, why pregnant women are advised to take bouye? She said because it is highly rich in calcium, vitamin C, carbohydrates, dietary fibers, iron, potassium, magnesium, etc. This is confirmed by this affirmation: “The consumption of 40 g of pulp by a pregnant woman (19–30 years old) will cover 84% to 141% of her Recommended Daily Intakes (RDI) of vitamin C”. (F. J. Chadare et al., 2009). Furthermore, “baobab fruit pulp contains six times more ascorbic acid than orange fruit” (Silvia Vertuani et al, 2002).

Unknown in the world market some decades ago, now, baobab fruits also called Super Foods raise significant interest as a nutraceutical product because of their scientifically proven high content in nutrient and polyphenols that help our body stay in good health and younger. Due to the amount of profit that people can make by selling these products, it is not rare while shopping online, to find claims such as “natural baobab fruit power”, “organic baobab powder”, “organic baobab product”, etc. All these sounds good in the ears of consumers who care about healthy products while spending their hard earned money. I think that all these is due to the fact that organic products are considered safer in regards to the way cropping and food processing is done in developed countries these days. Fertilizers, pesticides and food additives are being used very abusively to address the growing world population food supply and also for certain farmers and industrial producers to make more money.

But do we (in Africa) really need to label our baobab powder as organic to better sell them?

Who is gaining, and who is losing if we get into those claims and specifications?

Let`s first remind what organic means and how baobab powder that are being sold is obtained.

I have recently (Fall 2016), taken the course FST 5044 entitled Global Food Laws and Regulations here at Virginia Tech in the department Food Technology and we covered a chapter on organic labeling. We were told that “All agricultural products sold, labeled, or represented as organic in the United States fall under USDA jurisdiction”.

According to USDA regulations, to claim raw or processed agricultural products as “100 percent organic, all ingredients must be certified organic and any processing aids must be organic”. And for raw or processed agricultural products in the “organic” category, “all agricultural ingredients must be certified organic, except where specified on National List.  Non-organic ingredients allowed per National List may be used, up to a combined total of 5% of non-organic content (excluding salt and water).” “The product labels must state the name of the certifying agent on the information panel”. Furthermore, “organic crop production standards require that: land must have had no prohibited substances applied to it for at least 3 years before the harvest of an organic crop”.

Baobab fruits are not grown in agronomically. Fruits are produced when the tree reaches maturity many decades after the tree starts growing;  hundreds of years as stated by Heike Pander “Optimum conditions to appear for germination and growth of baobab offspring can take up to 100 years and more, depending on the region”, (http://baobabstories.com/en/baobab-reproduction-of-a-giant/). These means the baobab products that are being sold currently came from trees that have been around well before food processing and organic labeling. Jitin Rahul et al. said that “African baobab is a very long-lived tree. It is said that some trees are over 1000 years old.” (Jitin Rahul et al, 2015).  Even the oldest persons have found those trees in their concessions and farms inherited from their ancestors. There is no specific area (farms where are planted baobab trees) where you can say is just for baobab tree fruits production. However, presently, there are organized planting campaigns in Senegal but we can expect their fruits to be in the market in more than a hundred years later.  Regarding pesticides and other chemicals, to my knowledge, there is no specific insects that attacks baobab tree fruits that would require the use of such products. They are different for examples from mango tree fruits on which you need to spray pesticides to limit the damages that can be caused by the mango fruit flies. Insect pests may attack the tree at flowering, causing shedding and abortion of the fruit prior to maturation but I have never seen people caring about that. Furthermore, the shell which covers the fruit pulp after flowering is so hard that I believe that no insect can harm. Once the shell got dried, the fruits will fall down on its own or when being hooked while using a long bamboo or hit with a stick. Another option, the most common one, is that young people (mostly boys) will climb the tree to get them. After that, the shell will be broken by using hard tools because it is too resistant. Inside the shell, are some white rows enveloping the seeds); they represent the pulp which when separated from the seed constitute the baobab fruit powder. That is the way people get baobab powder is obtained.

I think the consumers are losing because they might spend more money while buying the Baobab powder claimed as organic or 100% organic in specialized stores, while they could get the same product at a lower price somewhere else. In addition, other businesses are losing because either they do not know the way to get authorization from certifying agencies to claim organic or because they know that their product does not need certification in order to be sold. Furthermore, maybe they do not want to abuse consumers’ trust.

By the way, certifying agencies are perfectly right by certifying Baobab fruits powder as organic because it is a 100% Organic.

I love organic products and people who know me will not tell you the contrary. My adviser loves telling people “I have a student who love to buy organic products”. Yes, I like organic produces and products because they remind the taste of freshness I used to have home. Utmost, I love my country and I appreciate everybody who is trying to make our local products to reach the world market as this can be beneficial to our local economy. However, I am also a big supporter of fair trade. I want then to make consumers understand that all baobab powders out there in the market that are not adulterated with other product (which is a possibility like in all kinds of products in the world market) are just all natural and fine and should be worth what those claimed as organic are worthy of the claim. Therefore, claimed as “100% Organic” or just “Organic” or no, baobab original powder, leaves and oil naturally pressed (cold-pressed) have the same nutritional values and health attribute because all of them are obtained through the same natural production process. For me, business people carrying out activities surrounding this super fruit, are helping the world to be healthy and should be supported. That is what I am trying to do based on what I have learned regarding organic labeling but also my own experience as a someone who has grown having fun playing around baobab and enjoying its fruit every day. Till now even though far from home, baobab fruit, (bouye) is among the products always present in my daily diet.

We spent 3 weeks on learning about the education system around the world. Every country’s system is different and caters to the needs of their citizens. One thing which was common in most of the systems is the amount of money spent on education. Most countries have none or minimal cost of tuition (public schools and universities). However, the US, on the other hand, has amongst the most expensive education on this planet. So the question naturally arises: why higher education is so expensive in the US?

The tuition, in 1971, for Harvard, one of the most prestigious university in the US and the world, was $2600. If there was the similar support to the universities from the government and if the annual increase in the tuition was tracking the inflation, the tuition would have been about $16,000 this year. However, the present tuition is about $46,000. The cost of education has seen as much as 250% increase in some of the universities in the US. What could have been paid by 13 weeks of median household income, now can consume almost a year worth’ of income. The total student’s debt for education outstands $1.2 trillion.

There are many reasons for the sharp increase in the price of higher education. One of the most important reasons is the budget cut. Both the federal government and state government have reduced the budget for higher education. The federal government spends about 9 times more on the military than education. Education is considered a private pursuit than a public good.

Compared to the US, other countries of the world spend much less on the military. To give a context with respect to the world, next two images show the amount spend on military and the percentage of the military spending with respect to the GDP and the population.

There are several other reasons as well to the increase in the cost. The universities provide more amenities to the students than ever. There are climbing walls’ and lazy river on the campuses. To attract the prospective student, they have to show how they are better than the rival college and the tours can best showcase the amenities present on the campus. Another important factor that increases the cost is the number of administrators and staff. Sure, it is helpful to have a staff for everything, it adds up a lot to the cost to the university which is recovered from the students. There are many other factors but these are amongst the major factors that I could find.

So, the bottom line is it all depends on how long the citizens can tolerate and afford to pay for the higher cost. There are sure ways of reducing the cost. The questions we need to ask are: how is our tax money spent and how do we want it to be spent, what kind of education we want from an educational institution and what we would like to do about it.

Past one year has been the year of speaking against the harassment. It is sad to know the levels and roots of harassment imbibed in the society. At the same time, it is empowering that people of all race, age and gender are coming out against it. The major form of harassment that came to light is sexual harassment.  Some allegations came as a surprise while some were just pending for a long time. The list of accused is long and includes Hollywood producers, filmmakers, artists, actors, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, nominees for the election to Senate, legislators, judges, businessmen, publishers, journalists, editors, writers, photographers, coaches and comedians. I could have just stopped at a first few positions but I wanted to continue. We see a huge list of positions here comprising almost all the fields, however, one of the fields is definitely missing. In the popular media, the cases of sexual misconduct and power misuse by academics don’t come to light. It is not a high-profile case for them to get increased ratings. But if they are not reported enough or not public enough don’t mean they are not happening on the campuses around the country. There is a culture of denial in the university environment. In case of students, they know they will get out of the campus in a few years and don’t want to create unnecessary troubles for themselves. They feel they might be seen and treated in an unfair and biased nature. No one wants to put their career in trouble even before it starts. Another misuse of power, prevalent in academia is academic bullying. This is much more common in the university and often taken as ‘this-is-how-it-works’ practice. Dean DePauw views academic bullying as, “Academic bullying manifests itself in many different ways and can include intimidation, humiliation, belittlement, embarrassment and undermining one’s authority”. Though broad in nature it encapsulates every possibility. This was discussed in one of our classes this semester. There were statements from the students that they felt it is happening only with them and there’s something wrong with them. But so many students had the same feelings. As Dean DePauw pointed out that time, if it is happening with so many of us then probably it is not something wrong with us but with our professors. She told to inform any such conduct to their head of the department, or even to herself and she will make sure that proper action is taken with as less disturbance to the student as possible. It is really difficult for the students to come out and say something against a person who is directly influencing the future of the student. It is difficult to put all your efforts and work that you did at stake, especially when you know you will be out of this misery in some time. But I hope the words of Dean DePauw give some assurance and help students seek out help and support when needed. I feel great that Virginia Tech has such a system in place which keeps students on top of their agenda. I hope all other universities will also get such systems and the notion of academic bullying is seen as a misconduct and not a norm.