Saturday Six: because I took Friday off

I blew off my Friday Five this week, but now I’m racked with guilt, so today I’m giving you an extra click for your weekend blog-reading pleasure.

  1. The good, bad and ugly of campus visits, by Tom Hayes of SimpsonScarborough. Hayes is accompanying his daughter on her quest for a college home, and so far they’ve visited 10 campuses, with two more to go. Hayes offers perceptions on the good, bad and ugly of the campus tours.
  2. This blog has been tagged in the thinking bloggers meme that’s been going around. I first read about it on Robert French’s blog. I was shocked — shocked! — that French didn’t mention me as one of the five bloggers who make him think, but he did mention Karine Joly (who would certainly make my list, along with French), and she picked up on the meme theme and mentioned this one. I’m truly honored and humbled by this selection, and must get to work on my acceptance speech post haste.
  3. Diva Marketing celebrates three years of blogging with a look how blogging has changed her business. Happy blogiversary, Diva.
  4. Watch this video or we’ll shoot this puppy! National Lampoon — anyone remember them? — joins the world of viral video by launching an online video network. Global Neighbourhoods provides the scoop, noting that the announcement came in the form of “a very top-down, unfunny business-to-business oriented press release.” That’s pretty sad. Calling P.J. O’Rourke…
  5. While we’re on the subject of viral video, Dennis Miller of Mansfield University posted recently about his second thoughts on posting college-promo video to YouTube (see YouTube: Wrong Channel?). His second thoughts came after a discussion with some female students at Mansfield who told him YouTube was “mainly a guy thing” and used only for catching stupid videos. Karine Joly picks up the topic and ponders whether there might be hope for Miller and Mansfield after all.
  6. After weeks of blogging inactivity, eRelevant‘s Morgan Davis announces a hiatus from blogging so he can “finish some hulking, be-fanged programming projects.” He plans to relaunch the blog in the fall and vows: “It will be less personal, less inflammatory and more topical and content-oriented.” I only hope the inflammation doesn’t disappear completely. That’s part of what makes eRelevant so irreverent.

Bonus link: the latest eduflick, Chalk, looks interesting. Link via EduWonk.

Presidential politics, higher ed and direct lending

InsideHigherEd.com offers a look at how the presidential candidates are addressing higher ed issues as they look toward the 2008 elections.

While higher education isn’t at the top of any candidate’s agenda, the candidates all want to appear higher ed-friendly. The most populist of the field is Democratic candidate John Edwards, whose proposal to abolish guaranteed student loans in favor of direct lending is “unusually detailed for this early in a campaign,” InsideHigherEd.com reports. Following Edwards’ announcement, Barack Obama quickly followed suit with his own proposal to eliminate lender subsidies. While front-runner Hillary Clinton also backs direct lending, “she has not focused on eliminating the guaranteed program but on urging the adoption of a ‘Student Borrower Bill of Rights,’ which would assure students certain information about loan options, a choice of loan options, and income-based limits on their monthly repayment schedule.”

On the GOP side, things are apparently quieter. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney both have discussed higher ed to some extent, but McClain and others have had little to say thus far. No doubt that will change as the campaign heats up over the summer months.