The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 14, 2006, Friday

Copyright 2006 The Chronicle of Higher Education
All Rights Reserved
The Chronicle of Higher Education

July 14, 2006 Friday

SECTION: RESEARCH; Pg. 14 Vol. 52 No. 45

HEADLINE: High-School Exit Exams Linked to Higher Dropout Rates, Researchers Find

BYLINE: DAVID GLENN

BODY:
Since 1979, a growing number of states have required high-school students to pass exit examinations before they can receive diplomas. For nearly as long, scholars and policy makers have debated whether such exams do more harm than good.
Proponents of exit exams say they improve learning and future employment by giving both students and school districts better incentives to succeed. Skeptics say the exams needlessly prevent students who have otherwise completed all their course work from receiving diplomas. They also warn that the exams could prompt some students to drop out of high school as early as the 10th or 11th grade, if they think they will fail the tests.
The latest battleground over the issue is California, where on July 25 an appeals court will consider a lawsuit that claims the introduction of the state's new exit exam should be delayed because certain low-income districts allegedly do not teach much of the material on the exam.
Now two teams of scholars have written papers that support the more-harm-than-good thesis. In a recent working paper, Thomas S. Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College, and Brian A. Jacob, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University, reported that students in states with relatively easy exit exams are roughly 4 percent more likely to drop out of high school than similar students in states with no exams. In states with relatively difficult exit exams, students are 5.5 percent more likely to drop out than their counterparts in states with no exams.
The effects are stronger among African-American men, Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob found. In states with easy exit exams, black male students are 5.2 percent more likely to drop out of high school than their counterparts in states with no exit exams. In states with more-rigorous exit exams, they are 7.3 percent more likely to drop out than are their counterparts in states with no exit exams. (On the other hand, Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob found strongly positive results for native-born Hispanic women, who are significantly more likely to complete high school and to enter college if they live in states with exit exams.)
Mr. Jacob added, however, that the jury is still out on whether exit exams have, over all, a positive effect. Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob used data from the "long form" of the 2000 Census, which allowed them to work with an extensive amount of material.They looked at the experiences of nearly three million people who turned 18 between 1980 and 1998. The census data also allowed them to look at relatively recent high-school graduates; certain other recent studies of exit exams have been criticized because they rely on the National Education Longitudinal Study, which looked at students who were scheduled to graduate from high school in 1992 -- a long time ago in terms of evaluating policy.
Diplomatic Maneuvers
The second new paper, which appears in the summer issue of the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, reports that rates of high-school completion are lower in states with exit exams than in states without such exams. In what may be a consequence, states with exit exams have higher rates of General Educational Development test taking.
"If exit exams are having an upside -- if, on average, kids are learning more or earning higher wages -- then they might be worthwhile despite causing dropouts," said the paper's lead author, John Robert Warren, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
By contrast, Mr. Warren continued, "if the upshot of this policy is only to deny diplomas to some kids, and there's no real upside for anyone else, then we should realize that this is purely a punitive policy."
Not everyone agrees. "How bad is it if there's a 1.5-percent reduction in the rate of people who get a regular high-school diploma?" asked John H. Bishop, an associate professor of human-resource studies at Cornell University. Mr. Bishop said that most students who fail to pass exit exams have such poor skills that they are not likely to do well in the labor market, with or without a diploma.
"What counts is do these policies result in more people learning more?" Mr. Bishop said. "In the long run, it's knowing stuff, not having a high-school diploma, that will help you in the labor market."
In a 2005 study, Mr. Bishop found that, over a period of roughly a decade, states that began to use exit exams raised their eighth-grade mathematics scores significantly, whereas states that cruised along with no exit exams did not see such gains. That finding suggests, Mr. Bishop said, that introducing an exit exam can have far-reaching consequences on a school system's effectiveness.

The Independent (London), July 14, 2006, Friday

Copyright 2006 Newspaper Publishing PLC
All Rights Reserved
The Independent (London)

July 14, 2006 Friday
First Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 54

HEADLINE: FirstGroup to stamp out US union bashing

BYLINE: By Barrie Clement Labour Editor

BODY:
The head of Britain's biggest transport company promised yesterday to "stamp out anti-union behaviour" by senior managers at a key US subsidiary amid unrest among the organisation's shareholders.
Martin Gilbert, the chairman of FirstGroup, told the company's annual meeting the organisation was taking the issue "very seriously" after a number of institutional shareholders voted for a "human rights" motion in defiance of the board's wishes.
FirstStudent, which operates more than 20,000 yellow school buses in the US, has been accused of harassing and intimidating union activists.
While shareholders with 78.72 per cent of the company's equity voted against the motion, some 6.02 per cent backed it and 15.62 per cent abstained.
Union leaders argued it was "highly unusual" for institutions to fail to support a company under such circumstances. The pension funds of the TUC and universities, together with the Co-operative Insurance Society, voted for the motion. It is understood that one of the big financial institutions to abstain was Aberdeen Asset Management, whose chief executive is Mr Gilbert.
John Lyons, a former Labour MP and ex-union official, who acted as a consultant to First-Group, told the meeting the company's managers in Baltimore had used anti-union material last month during a secret ballot on union recognition.
Mr Gilbert told the AGM in Aberdeen the group would "do everything in its power" to ensure the company was neutral on the issue of employee representation. The group launched an investigation into the allegations of anti-union behaviour and will report back to shareholders in the autumn.
Outside the meeting, members of the Transport & General Workers' Union handed out copies of a report on FirstStudent's labour relations policies written by Lance Compa, a professor of international labour and human rights law at Cornell University in New York. Professor Compa concluded that First-Student violated international human rights standards on workers' freedom of association.
Tommy Campbell, a regional organiser for the T&G in Aberdeen, accused Mr Gilbert of trying to stifle debate on the issue at yesterday's meeting.
A spokesman for First said the group was not anti-union and "never had been". The board believed its present code of ethics covered the points made in the motion which called for the company to abide by standards laid down by the UN's International Labour Organisation. However, directors would consider whether policies should be brought more in line with ILO principles.
The group would ensure there were formal training programmes in place for US managers to ensure they abided by group policies.

Chicago Sun Times, July 13, 2006, Thursday

Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Chicago Sun Times

July 13, 2006 Thursday
Final Edition

SECTION: EDITORIALS; Pg. 35

HEADLINE: Workers' rights are under siege

BYLINE: John Sweeney and Margaret Blackshere, Special to The Chicago Sun-Times

BODY:
Vanishing retirement security. Rising health-care costs. Gas prices north of $3 a gallon. Workers in every industry are feeling the crunch of an increasingly harsh economy. As if it weren't difficult enough for working families to make ends meet, the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board is poised to issue a series of decisions that could take away the one avenue to economic security left for America's workers: the freedom to form and join unions.
This summer, nurses, construction workers, painters, welders, electricians and others who have exercised their freedom to have a voice on the job are bracing for the latest assault on their rights. In reality, the labor board decisions have the potential to affect workers in every industry. The labor board's rulings in three cases collectively known as "Kentucky River" could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their union protection, while many more could be blocked from joining a union.
At the heart of the issue is an effort to reclassify many workers such as nurses as "supervisors." Unlike employees, "supervisors" do not have protected rights under federal law to form and join unions, and employers often try to classify workers as supervisors in order to deny them their right to union representation. Any skilled or experienced worker who sometimes directs or assigns the work of those less skilled and experienced is vulnerable under a broader interpretation of "supervisor." For example, head or "charge" nurses, who direct less-experienced nurses and aides, could be deemed "supervisors" under the new rule.
The implications of losing union protection run deep for workers. For example, if workers lose their protections as "employees" under federal law, they may be fired or otherwise disciplined for union activity. They'll lose the freedom to choose to join or remain a member of a union.
These decisions come at critical time in history for America's workers. Big business has exploited our nation's weak labor laws, and its allies in Congress and the White House have done nothing to stop it.
With the current composition of the labor board heavily anti-worker, corporate America has become increasingly aggressive in its tactics to further erode workers' rights.
When faced with organizing drives, a quarter of employers fire pro-union workers; more than half threaten to close a work site if workers succeed in forming a union, and three-quarters hire professional anti-worker firms to help them suppress workers' will -- using both legal and illegal tactics, according to research by Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University.
The Bush labor board has been an active partner with big business in denying workers' their freedom to form and join unions. As a body composed of presidential appointees, the labor board reflects the administration's priorities. And given the board's past decisions, those priorities are clear.
In the closing months of 2004, the board issued a series of decisions that stripped workers of their legal protections. In July 2004, the board ruled that graduate teaching and research assistants were not employees, making them ineligible to form a union. In September, the board targeted disabled workers by ruling that if they are receiving rehabilitative services from their employer, they are ineligible to join a union. In November of that same year, the board ruled that temp agency employees, though performing the same duties as regular employees, could not organize without both employer and agency permission.
The Bush board, unlike previous boards, has refused to allow oral arguments in any of its cases. Even the Kentucky River cases have not been opened up for oral arguments, despite the extraordinary importance these decisions hold for the future of America's workers.
Even with ominous storm clouds gathering on the horizon, workers are not about to allow their rights to be trampled without a fight. This week, thousands of nurses and other workers are joining in Illinois and throughout the nation to stand up for our rights. We must urge our leaders to end the gross workers' rights violations that are eroding our nation's once-powerful middle class.
In a democracy, the people have the right to be heard. With working families struggling to keep afloat in an economic climate that's becoming harsher by the day, their union protection is a beacon that helps guide them through the storm. They're not going to sit quietly while the Bush administration engages in an all-out assault on one of the far-too-few protections they have left.
John Sweeney is president of the AFL-CIO, and Margaret Blackshere is president of the Illinois AFL-CIO.

The Boston Globe, July 12, 2006, Wednesday

Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe

July 12, 2006 Wednesday
THIRD EDITION

SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A9

HEADLINE: PROTECTING WORKERS' RIGHTS

BYLINE: BY JOHN SWEENEY AND RICHARD M. ROGERS

BODY:
VANISHING retirement security. Rising healthcare costs. Gas prices north of $3 a gallon. Workers in every industry are feeling the crunch of an increasingly harsh economy. As if it weren't difficult enough for working families to make ends meet, the Bush administration's National Labor Relations Board is poised to issue a series of decisions that could take away the one avenue to economic security left for many of America's workers: the freedom to form and join unions.
This summer, nurses, construction workers, painters, welders, electricians, and others who have exercised their freedom to have a voice on the job are bracing for an assault on their rights. Rulings by the Bush-appointed board in what are collectively known as the "Kentucky River" cases could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their union protection, while many more could be blocked from joining unions.
At the heart of the issue in the three cases is an effort to reclassify many workers, such as nurses, as supervisors. Unlike employees, supervisors do not have protected rights under federal law to form and join unions. Employers often try to classify workers that way to deny them their rights to union representation. Any skilled or experienced worker who sometimes directs or assigns the work of those less skilled and experienced is vulnerable under a broader interpretation of what it means to be a supervisor. For example, head or charge nurses, who direct less-experienced nurses and aides, could be deemed supervisors under the new rule.
The implications of losing union protection run deep for workers. For example, if workers lose their protections as employees under federal law, they may be fired or otherwise disciplined for union activity.
These decisions come at a critical time for America's workers. Big business has exploited the nation's weak labor laws, and its allies in Congress and the White House have done nothing to stop it. With the current composition of the Labor Relations Board heavily anti-worker, corporate America has become increasingly aggressive in its tactics to erode workers' rights further.
When faced with organizing drives, a quarter of employers fire pro-union workers, more than half threaten to close a work site if workers succeed in forming a union, and three-quarters hire professional anti-worker firms to help them suppress workers' will using both legal and illegal tactics, according to research by Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University.
The Labor Relations Board has been an active partner with big business in denying workers their freedom to form and join unions. As a body composed of presidential appointees, the board reflects the administration's priorities. And given the board's past decisions, those priorities are clear.
In 2004, the board issued a series of decisions that stripped workers of legal protections. In July of that year, the board ruled that graduate teaching and research assistants were not employees, making them ineligible to form a union. In September, the board targeted disabled workers by ruling that if they are receiving rehabilitative services from their employer, they are ineligible to join a union. In November, the board ruled that temp agency employees, though performing the same duties as regular ones, could not organize without both employer and agency permission.
The Bush administration's board, unlike previous ones, has refused to allow oral arguments in its cases. Even the "Kentucky River" cases have not been opened for such arguments, despite the extraordinary importance these decisions hold for the future of America's workers.
Even with ominous storm clouds on the horizon, workers are not about to allow their rights to be trampled without a fight. This week, thousands of nurses and other workers are joining together in Massachusetts and across the nation to stand up for their rights, urging America's leaders to end the workers' rights violations that are helping to erode the nation's once-powerful middle class.
In a democracy, the people have the right to be heard. With working families struggling to keep afloat in an economic climate that's becoming harsher by the day, their union protection is a beacon that helps guide them past rocky coasts. They're not going to sit quietly while the Bush administration engages in an all-out assault on one of the far-too-few protections they have left.

NOTES: John Sweeney is president of the AFL-CIO, and Richard M. Rogers is executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council.

PR Newswire US, July 12, 2006, Wednesday

Copyright 2006 PR Newswire Association LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
PR Newswire US

July 12, 2006 Wednesday 1:15 PM GMT

HEADLINE: Gevity Institute Study: Small Businesses See 23 Percent Higher Profit Growth Using Effective Employee Management Strategies;
Fourth Phase of Gevity Institute and Cornell University Study Reveals Significant Link Between Effective Employee Management and Business Performance Outcomes

DATELINE: BRADENTON, Fla. July 12

BODY:
BRADENTON, Fla., July 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A four-phase landmark study, sponsored by the Gevity Institute (NASDAQ:GVHR) and conducted by Cornell University associate professor Christopher Collins, Ph.D., reveals that effective human resource practices directly affect business results, including revenue growth, profit growth and employee turnover reduction.
The Gevity Institute study shows that small businesses that implement Effective Employee Management Strategies experience a 22.1% higher revenue growth, 23.3% higher profit growth and a reduction in employee turnover by 66.8% than those companies that do not.
Human resource practices fall into three categories:
1) Administrative Relief, which includes practices such as processing payroll, taxes and insurance premiums and record keeping;
2) Business Protection, which includes up-to-date regulatory compliance, risk management practices and access to insurance programs;
3) Workforce Alignment, which includes employee management strategies such as employee selection, employee management, and employee motivation and retention practices.
Earlier studies have confirmed that employee management strategies within the third category - workforce alignment - in particular, have a greater impact on business results than practices within the other two categories combined. Companies with an aligned workforce perform 39% better than those with less optimal employee management strategies. In contrast, companies that have effective administrative support and business protection practices perform 8% better than those that do not.(*) Therefore this Gevity Institute and Cornell study focuses on the category with the most impact, workforce alignment.
"The results are definitive," said David Sikora, director of the Gevity Institute. "Through this unique and first-of-its-kind study, we have been able to quantify the impact that human resource practices have on small businesses. Rather than simply being an additional cost, investments in effective employee management strategies can help a small business grow sales and profits."
Effective Employee Management Strategies
The study identified the most effective strategies as they relate to employee selection, employee management and employee motivation and retention strategies. The strategies identified as most effective for small businesses are:
1. Hiring based on person-organizational fit, as opposed to only person- job fit - The study proved that hiring candidates who fit the culture of the company is more effective than hiring solely based on skills that fit a specific job.
2. Managing employees using a self-management strategy, as opposed to a controlling management strategy - The study shows companies that give employees greater discretion, trust and empowerment perform better than those that have tight controls and closely monitor their employees.
3. Motivating and retaining employees by implementing a family-like environment/community, as opposed to using individual monetary incentives - Companies that create a family-like environment in the workplace using employee socials, company-wide meetings and challenging employees see increased business outcomes than those who just use money as an incentive.
"The study is groundbreaking because we've proven that specific human resources strategies have a meaningful, and statistically significant, impact to small business financial performance," said Christopher Collins, Ph.D., associate professor at Cornell's ILR School and Center for Advanced Human Resources. "So much of existing research concerns large companies. However, the relative impact of a single person leaving a small business can be an even greater setback. Our research clearly supports the importance of having a formal employee management strategy as part of any small business plan - either in-house or outsourced to a professional like Gevity."
The research also demonstrated that implementing even a single strategy has a significant effect on business performance outcomes. The results are included below:
Strategy Implementation Type Revenue Profit Employee
Growth Growth Turnover
Improvement Improvement Reduction
All Effective Strategies 22.1 % 23.3 % 66.8 %
Employee Selection Strategy
Only 7.5 % 6.1 % 17.1 %
Employee Management Strategy
Only 11.5 % 3.9 % 15.1 %
Employee Motivation and
Retention Strategy Only 3.8 % 13.3 % 19.1 %

"The results are encouraging to Gevity as one of the only human resource services providers that includes workforce alignment support in its offerings," said Erik Vonk, Gevity's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our unique ability to implement effective employee management practices enables us to assist our clients drive revenue and profit growth, while reducing employee turnover."
Business Environment
The Gevity Institute research also looked at how different business environments affected the results and demonstrated in which business environments the human resource practices work best. The study looked at factors including the competitive environment, a company's growth strategy and the size of a company.
The overall result is those small businesses in highly competitive markets, with high-growth goals and with more than 50 employees experience significantly higher business impact from the use of Effective Employee Management Strategies. Specific highlights are included below.
Person-organizational Fit No Growth Goal High Growth Goal
One-Year Revenue Growth 7.1% 14.7%

Self-Management Under 50 Employees Over 50 Employees
One-Year Profit Growth 8.4% 15.8%


There is a similar positive impact when looking at the competitive environment in that having a family-like community is particularly effective.
Individual Family-like
High Competition Monetary Incentives Community
One-Year Employee Turnover 27.8% 7.9%

Gevity Institute Research
This fourth phase of the Cornell study is the culmination of more than two years of research performed not only to discover a link between human resources and small business performance, but also to identify the most effective strategies independently and part of an overall employee management program.
The fourth phase of the research studied data from 323 businesses with between eight and 600 employees across diverse industries. The average number of employees was 53. The data was acquired using both manager/owner surveys and employee surveys to minimize bias.
The First Three Phases
* First Phase - Research proved that employers understand that employee management practices have a direct impact on business results, but was unclear on which practices worked best.
* Second Phase - Research proved that human resource practices helped employers improve workforce alignment - defined as having the right people with the right skills in the right jobs - and that workforce alignment improves sales growth, profits and customer satisfaction.
* Third Phase - Research verified how employee management practices affect employee behaviors; including effort, cooperation and trust, and that these employee outcomes positively impact business performance.
Full results and executive summaries of all Gevity Institute research are available at http://www.gevityinstitute.com/ .
About Gevity Institute
The Gevity Institute was established to identify and quantify the link between human resource practices and small- and medium-sized business performance. The Institute strives to become a unique and recognized authority on how effective people management practices impact business success, both financially and strategically.
The Gevity Institute sponsors research at leading universities and business organizations. The Gevity Institute's objective is to establish an ongoing stream of information, data and recommendations focused on effective people management for small- and medium-sized businesses. Additional information is available at http://www.gevityinstitute.com/ .
About Gevity
Gevity (NASDAQ:GVHR) helps clients increase profits, grow sales and improve customer satisfaction through our comprehensive employment management solution. We serve as the insourced human resource department to small- and medium-sized businesses nationwide. Our unique approach integrates three key drivers of business success: workforce alignment, administrative relief and business protection. We deliver our solution through our innovative people, processing and portal approach, combining the resources of our highly skilled human resource consultants and our scalable, Web-enabled technology platform.
A copy of this press release can be found on the company's Web site at http://www.gevity.com/ .
(*) Data based on research adapted from "Improving Business Results With HR Technology." Gevity Institute White Paper, 2005.
CONTACT: Anne-Marie Megela, Vice President, Investor and Media Relations,
of Gevity, +1-800-2GEVITY (+1-800-243-8489), x4672, or
annemarie.megela@gevity.com
Web site: http://www.gevity.com/
http://www.gevityinstitute.com/
SOURCE Gevity

URL: http://www.prnewswire.com

The Washington Post, July 11, 2006, Tuesday

Copyright 2006 The Washington Post
The Washington Post

July 11, 2006 Tuesday
Final Edition

SECTION: Financial; D02

HEADLINE: UAW Head Balks at GM Partnership Plan

BYLINE: Kathleen Day, Washington Post Staff Writer

BODY:
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said he doubts that a proposal for General Motors Corp. to link up with Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA will go anywhere.
"I don't think it's a done deal by any stretch of the imagination," Gettelfinger said Friday on a Detroit radio show.
GM is considering a plan under which Nissan and Renault would take a 20 percent stake in the automaker. The proposal was first put forward by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 percent of GM shares.
Gettelfinger said on the radio show that the UAW supports GM chief executive Rick Wagoner, who, under pressure from Kerkorian and the GM board, will explore the possibility of such an alliance.
But Gettelfinger took issue with the proposal, saying it would result in "a further erosion of good jobs in this country" if it went through.
"The entire complexion of the auto industry in the future will be determined by this," he said during the interview, broadcast on WJR. UAW officials did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment.
The UAW's opposition to the idea of GM teaming up with foreign automakers isn't surprising, said Cornell University labor studies professor Richard Hurd.
The UAW views Renault "as an unknown when it comes to labor practices" and views Nissan, which has thwarted efforts to organize workers at its plant in Tennessee, as hostile to labor, Hurd said. The UAW still carries clout in Congress and could put up hurdles if the plan proceeds, he said.
However, George Washington University Law School professor Charles Craver said that by supporting Wagoner, the UAW may be able to show Nissan and Renault that it can work with management and thereby win support from two companies for labor organizing.

Xinhua General News Service, July 11, 2006, Tuesday

Copyright 2006 Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua General News Service

July 11, 2006 Tuesday 10:30 AM EST

SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Economic

HEADLINE: Union leader balks at GM partnership plan

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said he doubts that a proposal for General Motors Corp. to link up with Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA will go anywhere, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
"I don't think it's a done deal by any stretch of the imagination," Gettelfinger was quoted as saying.
GM is considering a plan under which Nissan and Renault would take a 20 percent stake in the automaker. The proposal was first put forward by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 percent of GM shares.
Gettelfinger said on a Detroit radio show that the UAW supports GM chief executive Rick Wagoner, who, under pressure from Kerkorian and the GM board, will explore the possibility of such an alliance, according to the report.
But Gettelfinger took issue with the proposal, saying it would result in "a further erosion of good jobs in this country" if it went through.
"The entire complexion of the auto industry in the future will be determined by this," he said.
The UAW's opposition to the idea of GM teaming up with foreign automakers isn't surprising, said Cornell University labor studies professor Richard Hurd.
The UAW views Renault "as an unknown when it comes to labor practices" and views Nissan, which has thwarted efforts to organize workers at its plant in Tennessee, as hostile to labor, Hurd said. The UAW still carries clout in Congress and could put up hurdles if the plan proceeds, he said.
However, George Washington University Law School professor Charles Craver said that by supporting Wagoner, the UAW may be able to show Nissan and Renault that it can work with management and thereby win support from two companies for labor organizing.

CBS4Denver.com, July 10, 2006, Monday

CBS4Denver.com
July 10, 2006, Monday

The Early Show's Dave Price Comes To Denver
Weatherman Visits Denver As Part Of 'Great American Vacation' Tour
http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_191171753.html

(CBS4) The CBS Early Show's Dave Price is coming to Denver.Come see Price as he continues his "Great American Vacation" tour with a stop in the Mile High City.He'll be broadcasting live from Denver's Civic Center Park on Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. He'll also be surprising one viewer with a dream vacation.Filling in for Price on the CBS Early Show on Thursday will be CBS4's Ed Greene. This marks the second time that Greene has filled in in that role.
See Greene's photos from his last visit to New York for weatherman duties.
* * *
Dave Price has been the weatherman and a feature reporter for CBS News' The Early Show since July 2003.In addition to in-studio forecasts, Price can be seen entertaining crowds live on the plaza outside the studios of The Early Show. He is also frequently seen broadcasting from cities across the United States.Price received an American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award for a report in the "My New Life" series, "My New Life: Joan Lovett." The series focuses on people who have transformed their lives in some way.Price has also co-hosted the CBS coverage of Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, Calif., and of the Thanksgiving Day parade.At WNYW-TV, Price played a major role in the station's coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the crash of American Airlines flight 587 and the Iraq war. In New York, Price was the recipient of two Emmy Awards, for Best Feature Series and Best Host. On a lighter note, he was one of People magazine's 50 most eligible bachelors in 2001.Price's broadcasting career was launched at WSEE-TV in Erie, Pa., a CBS affiliate. He served as the station's morning and noon weathercaster for one year, after having spent eight years as a corporate human resources executive. A successful life-changing effort to lose 80 pounds and a chance meeting with a small-market television personality led to that career switch.He was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and is one of four brothers. He has traveled the world extensively, visiting more than 65 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, India and South Africa. Price is involved in numerous local and national charity organizations, including New York Cares, the ASPCA, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.He graduated from Cornell University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial and labor relations, and from Columbia University in 1993 with a master's degree in organizational psychology. Price is single and lives in New York.

(© MMVI CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

US Fed News, July 5, 2006, Wednesday

Copyright 2006 HT Media Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
US Fed News

July 5, 2006 Wednesday 9:30 PM EST

HEADLINE: FEC NAMES PATRINA M. CLARK NEW STAFF DIRECTOR

BYLINE: US Fed News

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
The Federal Election Commission issued the following news release:
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced today that it has selected Patrina M. Clark to be Staff Director. She will join the FEC on July 10. One of two staff positions mandated by the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) (along with the General Counsel), the Staff Director is responsible for managing the overall operation of the Commission. Ms. Clark succeeds Robert Costa who has been Acting Staff Director since October of 2005.
"Patrina comes to the Commission with an outstanding list of accomplishments and a fresh perspective that has impressed all of us." said FEC Chairman Michael Toner. "We're looking forward to having her skills and enthusiasm focused on the important work of the Commission as we move forward. We're also grateful to Bob Costa for postponing his retirement for a few weeks to help make sure we have a smooth transition."
Since 2004 Ms. Clark has served as Regional Executive Director for Naval District Washington. As the senior civilian official in the Region, she managed the Human Resources, Information Technology, Comptroller, and Public Affairs offices among other activities. Prior to her service with the Department of the Navy, she held a number of key positions with the Internal Revenue Service, most recently as Director, Cooperative Efforts and Strategic Support.
"I am really looking forward to joining the FEC" Clark said. "In so many ways, the organization feels very familiar to me, and I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to the very important work performed by the employees of the FEC. I strongly believe that public service is both a privilege and a responsibility, and I very much look forward to serving in my new role."
Ms. Clark attended the University of Texas, where she began her undergraduate studies as a National Merit Scholar and University of Texas Presidential Scholar. She completed her undergraduate studies at Thomas Edison State College with an emphasis in Communications and Human Resources Management. Ms. Clark has a graduate certificate from the Cornell University School of Industrial Labor Relations in Human Resources Management and a Master's Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University (GWU). She was awarded a joint certificate in Advanced Public Policy Leadership from the Brookings Institution and GWU, and is a graduate of GWU's Senior Executive Development Program. She recently completed Georgetown University's Senior Executive Leadership Continuing Studies Certificate Program and is certified as a Senior Human Resources Professional by the Human Resources Certification Institute.
Ms. Clark lives in Annapolis, Maryland with her husband Jerome.

Human Capital Institute (Creelman at Large), July 3, 2006, Monday

Human Capital Institute

CREELMAN AT LARGE
Monday, July 3, 2006
http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/research_reviews.guid

Metzler on Diversity
An Interview with Christopher Metzler Director, EEO, Cornell University
Christopher Metzler is director, EEO, Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell University's ILR School, he leads a department devoted to studying diversity and inclusion from a research perspective and practice perspective to determine the efficacy of whether the research . Christopher is an employment defense lawyer. He is interested in how to proactively address issues of diversity so that they don't become legal matters as well as proving the business relevance of Diversity
What is the next step in building diverse organizations?

BY DAVID CREELMAN
Diversity and inclusion are no longer new topics, but they remain on the agenda of CEOs and boards. Social responsibility reports generally devote a good deal of text to diversity topics. How do organizations continue to make progress on inclusion? I spoke to Christopher Metzler, director, EEO, Diversity and Inclusion Studies and Diversity at Cornell.
DC: Let me start from the point of view of a grumpy manager who says, "Didn't we do diversity five or 10 years ago? Why are we still doing it now?"
CM: I would agree with the grumpy manager that there have been some efforts on diversity. The difficulty has been that those efforts have been focused only on an individual level. The diversity work that has been done has been training work-we've trained people to recognize and celebrate differences, which is wonderful. But we have not looked at diversity strategically. We didn't link it to organizational change. We didn't link it to organizational performance. Managers were given these new thoughts and behaviors, but we didn't put the administration in place to support them.
DC: If I want to improve diversity, what do I need to do first?
CM: The first thing has to be looking at your recruiting policies. If I'm continually recruiting from the same sources, I'm going to keep getting the same kinds of people. To the extent I use headhunters I'm going to ask them to present diverse candidates for all positions. I won't accept unqualified candidates; I expect diverse candidates who are all well qualified.
Another thing is that the leadership has to speak up and say, "We have decided that diversity is a major effort for this organization and I'm going to hold you all accountable for recruiting, developing and retaining as diverse a workforce as possible."
Those are the charges that you'd begin with immediately. But if you expect a long-term effort, you also need someone to lead that effort. It's at that point I would appoint a "Chief Diversity Officer."
DC: Professional recruiters are pretty good at sourcing diverse candidates; the tough part is that the hiring manager just feels better about the person who looks like him or her.
CM: I would make sure managers know a couple of things: we don't go forward without a diverse slate of candidates and if you are always hiring the same type of person you are going to have to justify it. If there's a sound business reason for it, then fine. If the manager says they just feel this person is going to be a better 'fit,' that is not going to be an acceptable response. There is a managerial accountability here.
DC: Who enforces accountability? Who is having the conversation with the managers who are only hiring people like themselves?
CM: The HR person is responsible for that conversation, but it's actually the CEO who needs to make clear where we are with diversity. What ends up happening is that ultimately the head of the business unit is responsible. Once you start making the heads of the business units responsible for explaining why they haven't done what they are supposed to do, behaviors change. This is not an unusual model. We hold heads of business units responsible for a number of things, and diversity should not be any different.
DC: Have you seen accountability work well in some organizations?
CM: Yes. I've seen it work in a number of organizations where there are actually consequences attached. Where, for example, if there is not a diverse slate of candidates they will stop the hiring process.
I've also seen it work well where managers who have failed to select and promote a diverse slate of candidates are not considered for promotion because they are not able to manage diversity, which is a key organizational value. If they were not meeting financial performance goals they would not be eligible for promotion either. It's the same model.
Where it has not worked is in situations where, when they don't have diverse slates of candidates, they come back with various excuses and nothing happens there are no consequences.
DC: We've talked about recruitment, what about retention?
CM: We recommend looking at the developmental systems, the mentoring systems, and promotion systems-these are inextricably linked to the retention strategy. In most cases the reason diverse people don't stay in organizations is because there aren't the support mechanisms in place to ensure their success.
DC: Let's focus on gender diversity for a moment. In a lot of companies, they have excellent gender diversity for entry-level professional jobs, but as you go up the organization the number of women consistently falls off. What's going wrong?
CM: One of the things it could be is that organizations hire women and then expect them to act like men. In order to succeed in many organizations you need traits that are primarily male traits such as being highly aggressive. We bring women into the organization and expect them to be 'the best man' for the job. That's simply not going to work.
When you take a strategic approach to diversity you first look at how you are going to make diversity work in your particular organization and that means asking about the organizational culture. What are those things in the organizational culture that are unwelcoming to diversity? In most organizations, rather than starting there, we start with the notion of wanting to train everyone. But if an organization starts by unpacking the full organizational culture--finding out what things work, what doesn't work, and for whom, then it has a much better chance of ensuring that people of all stripes will be more successful.
Most organizations don't like to talk about organizational culture because they are so comfortable doing things the same way. It's inconsistent to tell people that you value their diversity, but only if they are also like you. Until organizations are ready to deal with that we will be stuck doing the same things over and over again.
DC: You've talked about gender diversity, what about ethnic diversity? Are there some particular things that, for example, African Americans find as barriers to inclusiveness?
CM: We often talk about the glass ceiling; that term in my opinion is something relevant to white women. The reason I say that, is that at least white women can see through the glass ceiling and may, some day, ascend through it.
For African Americans, the term should be 'concrete ceiling.' We can't even see through that barrier to the top level of the organization. African Americans going in to organizations face a presumed level of incompetence. They have to join organizations where it is presumed their presence is somehow related to affirmative action. African Americans walk in the door facing that.
Secondly, we have the issue of who people are comfortable with. Particularly in America the issue of race has not, in my view, been comprehensively addressed. There are a lot of unsaid assumptions and biases that African Americans have to deal with in the workplace.
What you windup with is a myriad of stuff: presumed incompetence, stereotypes, biases and prejudices. And African Americans often have an internal conflict around the question of how much of myself do I have to change while not appearing as a 'sell out' to other African Americans. This is an additional problem that organizations need to deal with. It's been a bit of a burden in a number of cases.
DC: That's a tough one. How do we get past this? I recognize it isn't going to be simple.
CM: The first thing to do to get past it is to ask yourself as a traditional line manager, "What are my own issues relative to race discrimination?" And not necessarily in the legal sense. Or ask "What are my own issues around cultural sensitivity? Do I know what those issues even are? Would I rather not deal with them at all and simply avoid this situation?" I have to ask myself, "What is my role in addressing these issues?" That's the first thing a manager is going to have to do.
As a traditional line manager, I also have to look at it as a productivity issue. I have to think of it this way: unless I'm able to help all of my employees, including myself, deal with differences in the workplace, I'm going to spend a lot of time dealing with people not getting along. Rather than spending that time on the back end managing the fall out, I'd like to spend time on the front end preventing problems.
It's useful to look at diversity as a key management competency, not as an 'in addition to what I do.' You have to philosophically accept the position that managing, especially in the global context, is in fact about managing all these differences.
DC: Have you seen organizations that do this really well?
CM: No, not from the approach that I'm talking about. Most organizations are doing a decent job on training and development, but haven't gotten to the point where there is accountability, where they have made a clear distinction between diversity and inclusion and where people see managing diversity as a core management competency.
Most organizations are still too tactical in their approach to diversity. But part of the beauty of the Chief Diversity Officer's Round Table we are creating at Cornell is that we will come out with position papers that indicate strategically where organizations need to go. Part of the reason why organizations haven't gotten there is that there hasn't been a sufficient blend of research to back this up.
DC: If people want to get hold of these papers once they are published, how do they do that?
CM: They will be on the Cornell website:

Newhouse News Service, June 30, 2006, Friday

Copyright 2006 Newhouse News Service
All Rights Reserved
Newhouse News Service

June 30, 2006 Friday 12:51 PM EDT

SECTION: FINANCIAL

HEADLINE: Steelworkers, Sierra Club Forge Unusual Blue/Green Alliance

BYLINE: By ALISON GRANT.
Alison Grant is a reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. She can be contacted at agrant@plaind.com

BODY:
If you think it was strange to see Teamsters and Turtles marching side-by-side at the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, check this out.
The United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club.
The country's biggest manufacturing union and its biggest collection of environmentalists are joining forces to combat what they say is mounting damage from globalization of the economy and global climate change.
The 850,000-member Steelworkers and the 750,000-member Sierra Club say their Blue/Green Alliance will fight for energy independence, fair trade and toxic pollution reduction at U.S. factories.
The alliance used Ohio as the launch pad this week for a tour to unfurl those themes "Good Jobs, a Clean Environment and a Safer World."
Leading the tour is David Foster, a former Steelworker regional director from Minnesota and the alliance's executive director, and Larry Fahn, immediate past president of the Sierra Club.
The Steelworkers and Sierra Club insist the old tossup jobs or the environment is a false choice. While prosperity may once have smelled like dirty smokestacks, they say economic security today depends on strong environmental laws.
"It is both or neither," the union said. "We see little prospect for good jobs in a nation of depleted resources, poisoned water and foul air."
The alliance kicks off at a time when global warming is in the public eye. Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," has put his long crusade against climate change before a national audience. And on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the government must regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars.
The mostly blue-collar union and the green activists say hooking up will increase their political influence on candidates and public policy.
"This represents a new level of commitment to organizing at the state and local level, engaging their members to be active in promoting policies on global warming," said scientist Daniel Lashof, who heads the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center and pushed the two groups to affiliate.
In the 2004 election, many environmentalists supported Ralph Nader, while labor backed John Kerry. The Blue/Green Alliance overrides Democratic infighting with a focus on key policies, not necessarily a party or candidate, said John Russo, coordinator of the Labor Studies Program at Youngstown State University.
Foster, head of the alliance, said people are skeptical of the marriage.
"Everywhere I go, people say `Steelworkers, Sierra Club. Those are polar opposites,"' he said. "But both organizations share common values."
The Steelworkers actually have a long history of attention to the environment, dating back to the 1960s and '70s when they pushed for stricter controls on coke ovens and were early supporters of the Clean Air Act.
But the 1999 protests at the WTO meeting in Seattle highlighted how both unions and Earth Day lovers opposed U.S. trade agreements that they said sped job loss to countries that have weak labor and environmental laws. The Teamsters found themselves marching in the streets with people worried about endangered sea turtles.
"We're finding we have a common foe in the `free trade agenda,"' the Sierra Club's Fahn said.
The Blue/Greens say:
Trade agreements should include enforceable environmental and labor standards, so U.S. companies are not at a disadvantage adhering to stricter rules than places like China.
Clean-energy sources such as wind and solar will reduce reliance on foreign oil, limit greenhouse gases and create U.S. jobs building alternate energy equipment.
Domestic plants such as chemical factories need safeguards against toxic exposure to workers and towns where the effects of pollution fall heaviest.
The Blue/Greens are concentrating first on Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington, where labor and environmental membership is strong. They are also important battlegrounds in the 2006 mid-term elections.
The Sierra Club and Steelworkers estimate that investing in clean-energy technology would create 65,000 jobs in Ohio and cut $1,300 a year from the average family's energy bill.
They point to Pennsylvania, where the Spanish wind-energy company Gamesa Corp. is investing $84 million to locate its U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia and four wind turbine plants across the state. Gov. Ed Rendell has made energy independence a centerpiece of his administration.
Outside Buffalo, N.Y., a utility has announced that a coal-fired plant considered a major polluter would get a $1.5 billion upgrade to reduce emissions. The work calls for 1,000 temporary construction jobs and 100 permanent new ones.
Lou Jean Fleron, a Cornell University economic development expert who helps labor and management collaborate on such projects, said people used to think that tree-huggers would shut down dirty industries.
"Now the questions that environmentalists and labor unions share have to do with what kind of sustainable growth we're going to have," she said. "Because this mode of having more and more of everything is running into trouble."

Black Enterprise, July 2006

Black Enterprise, July 2006
Special Report
The 40 Best companies For Diversity
http://www.aramark.com/RelatedFiles/Best%20Companies%20for%20Diversity%20article_July%2020061.pdf
[full-text, 16 pages]

[excerpts]
“There is no one to hold them accountable, not even the corporations with good diversity records,” explains Christopher Metzler, director of diversity management & EEO studies at Cornell University, who also established the country’s first diversity certification program. “Unlessan industry is publicly chagrinned through a major successful litigation, or an advocacy group were to embarrass them on the public stage, the selfmotivation simply does not exist.”
....
Though current charges against the advertising industry may be its impetus to change, Metzler believes that the industry needs to be educatedon how these changes benefit everyone. “The advertising industry clearly does not believe that there is value in diversity,” he says. “They have been unable to understand the value proposition for diversity.”
...
But the experts do believe there are ways to strengthen our position. All say that corporations have to play a bigger role in changing the attitudes of the industry. “If corporations would say to these ad agencies, ‘We’re going to look and see how well you’re doing diversity in terms of what minority agencies you use and the ranks of your own organization [as] a significant part of our evaluation,’ you would see a seismicshift,” says Metzler.

AOL Black Voices, June 16, 2006, Friday

AOL Black Voices, June 16, 2006, Friday

Work & Money

Taking Diversity Deeper: Cornell Professor Spearheads Project to Beef Up the Buzzword
The First Organization 'By Diversity Officers for Diversity Officers is Launched'
By Terence Samuel, AOL Black Voices
http://blackvoices.aol.com/black_work_money/headlines/features_advice/canvas_wmart/_a/taking-diversity-deeper-cornell/20060612181309990001

[picture with the following caption--Christopher Metzler Cornell University"If diversity is the right thing to do, frankly everyone would have done it already," he says. "The difficulty is that we have not been able to define that with any specificity what we mean by diversity." -- Prof. Christopher Metzler, Cornell University]

To Christopher Metzler, who studies these things, the whole conversation about diversity and inclusion in the American workplace has stalled, broken down, gotten so hung up on tangential issues as to be almost meaningless. He says it has become an exercise in "warmed over demographics" and a way for organizations "to deal with minority issues." And that is particularly tragic for businesses, really trying to figure out how to fit diversity and inclusion into their long-term market strategies.

So Metzler, a professor a at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a group of "diversity professionals" from large corporations, have set out to do something about what they see as a problem. They have formed the Chief Diversity Officers Roundtable, which in Metzler's words is "the only organization in the world for diversity officers, by diversity officers." The goal is a deeper, wider breath of research that will ground the conversation in facts and figures, rather that just aspirations and ideology.

The Board of the new organization will hold its first meeting this month, and the eventual aim is to make the debate about diversity more concrete and more meaningful in the offices, conference rooms and management suites of American corporations.

"I think where the opportunity lies in the chance to tighten the relationship between the business case for diversity and diversity." says Gloria Johnson-Goins, Vice-president for Diversity and Inlcusion at The Home Depot. Johnson-Goins, who sits on the board of the Diversity Roundtable, says that while diversity is widely discussed in corporate America, there are still misconceptions about its value: "A lot of people think that diversity is a synonym for affirmative action or EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity)," Johnson-Goins says, "and what we are talking about is the change in demographics of both the workplace and the marketplace; that is a bottom-line issue, and companies need to leverage diversity as a business imperative."
BV Work & MoneyWork & Money Main PageBV Small Business PageFind a Job HereBV's Careers PageE-Mail the EditorAlert Me: Sign Up for BV FeaturesMetzler says the most important goal is to make sure that business understands the "value proposition" of diversity, which he says has become an epithet in some places. Through his work with business executives responsible for diversity issues, it has become clear that "diversity has become a pejorative and must be replaced by the word ‘inclusion,’ which they believe drives a different philosophy," Metzler writes.

"If diversity is the right thing to do, frankly everyone would have done it already," he says. "The difficulty is that we have not been able to define with any specificity what we mean by diversity, and it has now come to include so many different things that the use of the word is now meaningless. When we talk about what the central issues of diversity, there are three: race, gender, and sexual orientation."

Those nuts remain very difficult ones to crack despite all the progress that has been made and all the attention that has been paid to diversity by American corporations. Metzler believes that the generalized national debate will have no effect on moving the discussion forward where business is concerned.

On Monday June 12, in New York City, Black Enterprise magazine announced its top 40 best companies for diversity in America. Aetna, Aflac Inc, and American Airlines Inc. topped the overall list, while Altria Group, DaimlerChrysler Corp. and Ford Motor Co. were the top three in marketing diversity. Black Enterprise editors said they evaluated diversity programs, and surveyed more than 1,000 publicly traded companies for their diversity study.

Notable on the list was Denny's Corp., which the editors said was recognized for making significant progress in key areas. Many of the companies honored were recognized because of the money they are willing to spend on their diversity goals, but Metzler says that as long as diversity remains a cost center instead of a profit center for companies, it will have limited success.

The Cornell Diversity Roundtable will hold a series of meeting on this issue this fall in New York City and London and Metzler says that diversity has as much to do with the way white people see themselves as much as how many minorities are in the workplace and how integrated they are into the functioning of the organization.

Metzler says the London meetings are recognition that the issue is now one of global leadership. In last Thursday’s London Financial Times, under the headline: 'Time to take racial diversity on board: There is a Dearth of Ethnic Minority Faces in the Top Echelons of Management,' John Wilman wrote: "There are two key steps needed …according to Race for Opportunity, the Business in the Community campaign …One is to recognize that there is a business case for diversity -- it is not a matter of good will or political correctness. The second is top-level commitment in the organization, with chief executives and board members championing the race agenda."

The globalization of the marketplace and of the forces that drive those market make the issues more than just an American one, say Monica Hawkins, an adjunct member of the Cornell faculty and a member of the Roundtable Board of Directors. "The Chief Diversity Officer Roundtable is the global resource for business leaders who understand the power, relevance and strategic value proposition of diversity management," says Hawkins, Founder and CEO of the Professional Pipeline Development Group.

"Where the conversation needs to move is to the internal dismantling of discriminatory and prejudicial practices," Metzler adds. "Externally, it needs to move to organizations being good citizens and harnessing the buying power of previously overlooked groups. We are having these conversations only in the most tangential way."

More Diversity at Diversity, Inc.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), July 3, 2006, Monday

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

Monday, July 3, 2006

Small Business Briefs
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060703/BUSINESS/607030321/1003


Diversity program planned at Bellarmine
Bellarmine University and Cornell University will offer a diversity manager certificate program on Bellarmine's campus starting in September. The program's classes will be taught by faculty of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Graduates of the program will learn how to manage diversity in the workplace and will be entitled to use the designation CCDP, for Cornell Certified Diversity Professional. Information: 452-8166 or continuingstudies@bellarmine.edu.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 3, 2006, Monday

Chronicle of Higher Education
Monday, July 3, 2006

High-School Exit Exams Are Associated With Higher Dropout Rates, Researchers Find
By DAVID GLENN
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/07/2006070301n.htm

Since 1979, a growing number of states have required high-school students to pass exit examinations before they can receive diplomas. For nearly as long, scholars and policy makers have debated whether such exams do more harm than good.

Proponents of exit exams say that they improve learning and future employment by giving both students and school districts better incentives to succeed. Skeptics say that the exams needlessly prevent decent students -- who have otherwise completed all of their course work -- from receiving diplomas. They also warn that the exams could prompt some students to drop out of high school as early as the 10th or 11th grade, if they foresee that they will fail the tests.
The latest battleground over the issue is California, where on July 25 an appeals court will consider a lawsuit that claims the introduction of the state's new exit exam should be delayed because certain low-income districts allegedly do not teach much of the material on the exam.
Now two teams of scholars have written papers whose findings might provide support to those on the more-harm-than-good side. In a recent working paper, Thomas S. Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College, and Brian A. Jacob, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University, report that students in states with relatively easy exit exams are roughly 4 percent more likely to drop out of high school than similar students in states with no exams. In states with relatively difficult exit exams, students are 5.5 percent more likely to drop out than their counterparts in states with no exams.

The effects are stronger among African-American men, Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob found. In states with easy exit exams, black male students are 5.2 percent more likely to drop out of high school than their counterparts in states with no exit exams. In states with more-rigorous exit exams, they are 7.3 percent more likely to drop out than are their counterparts in states with no exit exams. (On the other hand, Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob found strongly positive results for native-born Hispanic women, who are significantly more likely to complete high school and to enter college if they live in states with exit exams.)

"Our experience with this has been that it exacerbates achievement gaps," Mr. Dee said in an interview last week. "The more stringent exams seem to have more-serious effects in terms of reducing educational attainment."

Mr. Jacob added, however, that the jury is still out on whether exit exams have, over all, a positive effect on students' learning or on their ability to find jobs. (In their study, Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob found tentative evidence that African-Americans' post-high-school wages are higher in states with exit exams, and that white workers' wages are lower. They emphasize, however, that those patterns might apply only to workers whose wages are very close to the statewide average, and more study remains to be done.) "It's possible that these policies are having beneficial effects that we just haven't been able to detect," Mr. Jacob said.

Mr. Dee and Mr. Jacob used data from the "long form" of the 2000 Census, which allowed them to work with an extensive amount of data. They looked at the experiences of nearly three million people who turned 18 between 1980 and 1998. The census data also allowed them to look at relatively recent high-school graduates; certain other recent studies of exit exams have been criticized because they rely on the National Education Longitudinal Study, which looked at students who were scheduled to graduate from high school in 1992 -- a long time ago in terms of evaluating policy.

The second new paper, which appears in the summer issue of the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, reports that rates of high-school completion are lower in states with exit exams than in states without such exams. In what may be a consequence, states with exit exams have higher rates of General Educational Development test-taking.

"If exit exams are having an upside -- if, on average, kids are learning more or earning higher wages -- then they might be worthwhile despite causing dropouts," said the paper's lead author, John Robert Warren, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. (Mr. Warren wrote the paper with Krista N. Jenkins, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Rachael B. Kulick, a graduate student in sociology at Minnesota.)

By contrast, Mr. Warren continued, "if the upshot of this policy is only to deny diplomas to some kids, and there's no real upside for anyone else, then we should realize that this is purely a punitive policy." Mr. Warren is now studying exit exams' effects on learning and future employment, and at this point he is skeptical that many strong positive effects exist.

Not everyone agrees. "How bad is it if there's a 1½-percent reduction in the rate of people who get a regular high-school diploma?" asked John H. Bishop, an associate professor of human resource studies at Cornell University, in an interview on Friday. Mr. Bishop said that most students who fail to pass exit exams have such poor skills that they are not likely to do well in the labor market, with or without a diploma. He argued that the benefits of such exams outweigh the costs borne by students who do not win diplomas.

"What counts is, Do these policies result in more people learning more?" Mr. Bishop said. "In the long run, it's knowing stuff, not having a high-school diploma, that will help you in the labor market." In a 2005 study, Mr. Bishop found that, over a period of roughly a decade, states that began to use exit exams raised their eighth-grade mathematics scores significantly, whereas states that cruised along with no exit exams did not see such gains. That finding suggests, Mr. Bishop said, that introducing an exit exam can have far-reaching consequences on a school system's effectiveness.

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), July 2, 2006, Sunday

Copyright 2006 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

July 2, 2006 Sunday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: CNY; Pg. H5


HEADLINE: SAGE/KAMENY

BODY:
Marla Marlene Kameny and Daniel Simon Sage were married April 29, 2006, at Temple Society of Concord in Syracuse. Officiating was Rabbi Sheldon Ezring.
The bride is the daughter of Ronald M. Kameny, M.D., of Fayetteville, and Mrs. Margie M. May, of DeWitt. The groom is the son of Drs. Gloria and Martin Sage, of Syracuse.
Matron of honor was Diane Simons, cousin of the bride, of New York City. Ruby Kameny, niece of the bride, was flower girl. Best man was David McKenzie, friend of the groom, of New York City. Oscar Kameny, nephew of the bride, was ring bearer.
A reception was held at the Genesee Grande Hotel in Syracuse. The couple honeymooned in Botswana and South Africa.
The bride, a graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School, received a B.S. in management from Binghamton University in 1993, an M.B.A. and a master of industrial and labor relations both from Cornell University in 2000, and a doctorate of business administration from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 2006. She was a visiting researcher for INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, in 2004. The groom, a graduate of Nottingham High School, earned a B.A. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1989 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1995. He completed a research fellowship at Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, in 2003 and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., from 1998-1999. He is an associate professor of mathematics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
The couple resides in Baton Rouge, La.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO NO CREDIT Daniel S. Sage and Marla M. Kameny

Houston Chronicle, July 2, 2006, Sunday

Houston Chronicle

July 2, 2006, 2:09AM

A study in hiring at A&M
School is using nontraditional methods to add top-notch faculty
By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4017076.html

COLLEGE STATION - For years, the Becker sisters shared their physics research in string theory, but not an address.
Melanie worked at the University of Maryland while Katrin toiled at the University of Utah. They expected to spend their careers separated by states.
And then Texas A&M University offered the up-and-coming scholars something no other place had: each other. The school wanted the Beckers for an emerging institute specializing in their branch of physics.
"It was a good experience to be apart," said Melanie, 39, the older sister by 14 months. "But together we can make a major impact."
A&M is expecting as much. The hiring of the sisters is just one piece of the university's multiyear, multimillion-dollar effort to attract hundreds of new professors and boost the entire institution in national rankings.
With $40 million from the state Legislature, the aspiring research university has hired 251 faculty members since 2003 and has plans to hire 196 more by 2008. The fresh faces include Nobel laureate and chemist Dudley Herschbach, Pulitzer Prize-nominated sociologist Joe Feagin, internationally known astronomer Nicholas Suntzeff and Simon Sheather, who is considered among the top 200 mathematicians worldwide.
Their salaries so far have topped out at $278,000.
Besides catching stars, A&M has used the hiring campaign to diversify the mostly male and mostly white faculty and reduce the ratio of students to professors.
The university has made use of two growing practices in higher education: creating clusters of scholars in a particular niche and finding jobs for academic couples.
The strategies, plus the wherewithal to provide new professors with up to $1 million to start or relocate their laboratories, give A&M an edge at a time when other public universities are cutting back, campus leaders said.
"A lot of people are excited about what they are seeing," said Edward Fry, head of the physics department, which has plans to add 16 professors and launch an astronomy program. "It's just a big snowball."
Executing a visionA&M President Robert Gates started the hiring frenzy three years ago in response to "Vision 2020," the school's blueprint for vaulting into the ranks of the nation's top 10 public universities by 2020.
U.S. News & World Report, for one, lists A&M at No. 21, four spots behind the University of Texas at Austin.
The five-year program will add 447 professors, increasing the A&M faculty size by about 25 percent.
The push coincides with the largest construction boom in the university's history, with four academic buildings totaling about $275 million expected to open by 2009.
Gates lobbied for the extra dollars for additional professors from state lawmakers after faculty positions and pay decreased in the late 1980s and 1990s.
With a growing enrollment, the ratio of students to professors reached 22-to-1, significantly higher than the university's peers.
The median ratio for the consensus top 10 public universities is 16 students for every professor.
The new hires should reduce A&M's ratio to 18-to-1. Campus leaders plan to ask for more money to complete the hiring campaign, known around campus as faculty reinvestment, during the 2007 legislative session.
"You can't have an erosion of faculty members at a flagship institution of this kind and maintain quality," said David Prior, executive vice president and provost at A&M.
At the same time, UT-Austin is preparing to hire 300 professors in the next decade, and the University of Houston plans to add about 20 professors this year.
To propel themselves in the rankings and replace retirees, several schools have embarked on major hiring campaigns, education experts said. But A&M leaders think their effort is unprecedented.
Competition intense"The academic market is in great flux because financial problems of many institutions, primarily publics, have limited their ability to hire," said Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. "Everyone wants to hire winners, and the competition for top young scientists and engineers is intense."
Ricardo Romo, president of UT-San Antonio and a veteran recruiter of academic talent, said the pursuit of a top scholar is similar to chasing a professional athlete on the free-agent market.
"It's fierce," he said, because university leaders know that stars can bring in huge research grants, create a buzz and attract other top scholars and students.
When A&M came calling last year, Suntzeff, the astronomer, had been firmly ensconced at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile for 20 years, with no intention of leaving.
He fielded more than his share of inquiries from major universities interested in hiring him, but turned away all but A&M.
'A fun challenge'What lured him to College Station was the chance to build an astronomy program from scratch at one of the nation's largest and wealthiest universities.
"I didn't want to go to an excellent university and be just another astronomer," Suntzeff said. "A&M was different. They have a new department and wanted leadership. It sounded like a fun challenge."
David Lambert, director of the UT McDonald Observatory, described Suntzeff as "a first-class catch."
To understand A&M's coup in landing Suntzeff, one needs to understand his work. Eight years ago, he contributed to a team of researchers that found evidence that some form of dark energy is causing the universe's expansion to unexpectedly accelerate.
BenefactorThe breakthrough brought cosmology — the study of the origin, structure and fate of the universe — to the forefront of astronomy and caught the attention of Texas billionaire George Mitchell.
An A&M alum, Mitchell helped finance the fledgling astronomy program and pledged $1.25 million so that the school could be a partner in the Giant Magellan Telescope.
The $500 million telescope, which is under construction in Chile, will produce images 10 times sharper than the Hubble.
Before accepting the job, Suntzeff submitted a wish list of 15 items, including permanent funding for visiting lecturers and post-doctoral fellowships. Fry, head of the physics department, took the list to Mitchell, who agreed to establish endowments to satisfy the requests.
A&M also will surround Suntzeff with at least three similar-minded scholars in the new program. He said he should have no problem filling the positions with top-notch professors.
"They go where the big telescopes are," he said.
DiversificationFor all the talk about stars, most new hires are younger, promising scholars who will shape A&M's future.
The appointment of a tenure-track faculty member represents a possible 30-year commitment by a university. Professors with tenure have a lifetime appointment, and they cannot be dismissed, transferred or demoted, except under limited circumstances.
By recruiting younger faculty members, who are more likely than senior scholars to be women or minorities, the university can address an immediate aim of the hiring campaign: to diversify the faculty. When the effort began, about 80 percent of A&M professors were white, and about 80 percent were men.
Of the new hires, 61 percent are white, and 65 percent are men. In particular, the university has hired 27 women in the colleges of science and engineering and added two prominent black professors, Forster Ndubisi and Valerie Taylor, to lead the landscape-architecture and computer-science departments, respectively.
Campus leaders said the shift is important at a time when the university is trying to increase its minority enrollment without considering race in admissions. The goal is a student body that reflects the diversity of Texas.
"We're looking for people of quality, but we think we'll have a better intellectual community with more diversity," said Prior, the provost. "We're laying the foundation for decades to come."
The university has enticed talented scholars from Ivy League and other elite institutions with lucrative offers: Full professors at A&M earn an average of $104,100 per year, with some of the new senior recruits receiving more than double that amount. It has promised splashier laboratories. It also has included jobs for spouses.
The year before the hiring campaign began, A&M found jobs for four spouses of other new hires. Since then, the university has hired 95 couples, an average of 32 a year.
These days, with more women in advanced-degree programs, an increasing number of academics are married to other academics. So A&M leaders said it makes sense to hire couples because spouses may have a hard time locating well-paying or meaningful jobs in a small community such as Bryan-College Station.
The practice has troubled some unmarried scholars at other campuses when spouses are hired without a national search. But there has been no controversy at A&M.
"It's nontraditional, but this is the way the world has changed for us," said Doug Slack, a wildlife-sciences professor and speaker of the faculty senate. "There are more couples in academia than before, so we have to be imaginative.
"I'm sure it would be a lot easier if we were in Houston, Dallas or San Antonio, with many opportunities for spouses to find jobs. We're the big boy in College Station."
Worth the investmentThe Beckers wanted to work together under the same roof. But their previous institutions did not make dual offers until Texas A&M tried to reunite the German-born sisters.
"We really didn't want them to match the offer," said Melanie Becker, referring to the sisters' former employers. "We had seen the potential of Texas A&M."
After arriving next month, the sisters will join the university's growing group of scholars in string theory, led by two of their mentors, Christopher Pope and Ergin Sezgin. String theorists argue the universe is composed of infinitesimal, one-dimensional "strings," not of point-like particles.
Eventually, they will work in a new building financed in part by Mitchell. The university also promised the Beckers about $450,000 each to start their laboratories.
"We saw an opportunity," Fry said. "Generally, it's hard to hire two people simultaneously in any one department. This program opens things up dramatically."
matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

New York Times, July 2, 2006, Sunday

New York Times

Weddings & Celebrations

July 2, 2006
Tatjana Starkeova, Jacques Garibaldi
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/fashion/weddings/02tsta.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Tatjana Starkeova, the daughter of Tatjana Starkeova and Fedor Starke of Nitra, Slovakia, is to be married this afternoon to Jacques Garibaldi, a son of Jocelyn Bates and a stepson of Leon Bates of Philadelphia. The Rev. Ujjala Schwartz, an interfaith minister, is to officiate at the Glenmere Mansion, a private home rented out for events in Chester N.Y.

The bride, 29, is a human resources manager for Citibank in New York. She graduated from Comenius University in Slovakia, and received a master's in industrial and labor relations from Cornell. Her father, a former soccer player for the Nitra Football Club, retired as a project manager for a construction company in Nitra. Her mother teaches elementary school at the Kremeryho Elementary School in Nitra.

The bridegroom, 34, is a portfolio manager specializing in domestic and international stocks at Royal Capital Management, a hedge fund in New York. He graduated summa cum laude from Howard University and received an M.B.A. degree with distinction from Harvard.
His stepfather is a concert pianist.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland), June 30, 2006, Friday

Copyright 2006 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

June 30, 2006 Friday
Final Edition; All Editions

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. C1

HEADLINE: Common ground;
United Steelworkers, Sierra Club unite for good jobs, safety, clean environment; I
BYLINE: Alison Grant, Plain Dealer Reporter

BODY:
If you think it was strange to see Teamsters and Turtles marching side-by-side at the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, check this out.
The United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club.
Say what?
Yes, it's true, the country's biggest manufacturing union and its biggest collection of environmentalists are joining forces to combat what they say is mounting damage from globalization of the economy and global climate change.
The 850,000-member Steelworkers and the 750,000-member Sierra Club say their Blue/Green Alliance will fight for energy independence, fair trade and toxic pollution reduction at U.S. factories.
The alliance used Ohio as the launch pad this week for a tour to unfurl those themes - "Good Jobs, a Clean Environment and a Safer World."
Leading the tour is David Foster, a former Steelworker regional director from Minnesota and the alliance's executive director, and Larry Fahn, immediate past president of the Sierra Club.
The Blue/Greens plan to stop in Cleveland today, where they are to meet with the city's sustainability manager, Andrew Watterson.
On Monday, Cleveland anticipates joining Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and more than 200 other cities in signing on to the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. It endorses support of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming.
The Steelworkers and Sierra Club insist the old tossup - jobs or the environment - is a false choice. While prosperity may once have smelled like dirty smokestacks, they say economic security today depends on strong environmental laws.
"It is both or neither," the union said. "We see little prospect for good jobs in a nation of depleted resources, poisoned water and foul air."
The alliance kicks off at a time when global warming is in the public eye. Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," has put his long crusade against climate change before a national audience. And on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the government must regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars.
Also on Monday, the Ohio Environmental Council issued a 65-point plan for deep reductions in greenhouse gases through no-till farming, coal gasification plants and other energy-efficient moves. The report said Ohio can fight global warming yet strengthen its mainstay industries of agriculture, coal and manufacturing.
The mostly blue-collar union and the green activists say hooking up will increase their political influence on candidates and public policy.
"This represents a new level of commitment to organizing at the state and local level, engaging their members to be active in promoting policies on global warming," said scientist Daniel Lashof, who heads the Natural Resources Defense Council's climate center and pushed the two groups to affiliate.
In the 2004 election, many environmentalists supported Ralph Nader, while labor backed John Kerry. The Blue/Green Alliance overrides Democratic infighting with a focus on key policies, not necessarily a party or candidate, said John Russo, coordinator of the Labor Studies Program at Youngstown State University.
Foster, head of the alliance, said people are skeptical of the marriage.
"Everywhere I go, people say 'Steelworkers, Sierra Club. Those are polar opposites,' " he said. "But both organizations share common values."
The Steelworkers actually have a long history of attention to the environment, dating back to the 1960s and '70s when they pushed for stricter controls on coke ovens and were early supporters of the Clean Air Act.
But the 1999 protests at the WTO meeting in Seattle highlighted how both unions and Earth Day lovers opposed U.S. trade agreements that they said sped job loss to countries that have weak labor and environmental laws. The Teamsters found themselves marching in the streets with people worried about endangered sea turtles.
"We're finding we have a common foe in the 'free trade agenda,' " the Sierra Club's Fahn said.
The Blue/Greens say:
Trade agreements should include enforceable environmental and labor standards, so U.S. companies are not at a disadvantage adhering to stricter rules than places like China.
Clean-energy sources such as wind and solar will reduce reliance on foreign oil, limit greenhouse gases and create U.S. jobs building alternate energy equipment.
Domestic plants such as chemical factories need safeguards against toxic exposure to workers and towns where the effects of pollution fall heaviest.
The Blue/Greens are concentrating first on Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington, where labor and environmental membership is strong. They are also important battlegrounds in the 2006 mid-term elections.
The Sierra Club and Steelworkers estimate that investing in clean-energy technology would create 65,000 jobs in Ohio and cut $1,300 a year from the average family's energy bill.
They point to Pennsylvania, where the Spanish wind-energy company Gamesa Corp. is investing $84 million to locate its U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia and four wind turbine plants across the state. Gov. Ed Rendell has made energy independence a centerpiece of his administration.
Outside Buffalo, N.Y., last week, a utility announced that a coal-fired plant considered a major polluter would get a $1.5 billion upgrade to reduce emissions. The work calls for 1,000 temporary construction jobs and 100 permanent new ones.
Lou Jean Fleron, a Cornell University economic development expert who helps labor and management collaborate on such projects, said people used to think that tree-huggers would shut down dirty industries.
"Now the questions that environmentalists and labor unions share have to do with what kind of sustainable growth we're going to have," she said. "Because this mode of having more and more of everything is running into trouble."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: agrant@plaind.com, 216-999-4758

GRAPHIC: GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. The Blue/Green Alliance says clean-energy sources, such as this General Electric wind turbine, will reduce reliance on foreign oil, limit greenhouse gases and create
U.S. jobs building alternative energy equipment.
ASSOCIATED PRESS/
EYEPRESS Fair-trade advocates say environmental standards should be as high in developing countries as they are in the
U.S., so American jobs don't migrate to lower-cost countries. Some point in particular at China, which has suffered a rash of environmental problems, including this toxic coal tar spill in the Dasha River in China's northern Shanxi province two weeks ago.