Policing, Mentors
"Geoffrey
Alpert has, since 1975, been researching how police conduct themselves, and one
finding borne out in his work is that many police officers see themselves as “warriors” against crime. He’s seen that dynamic on display as
he’s studied studied racial profiling and the use of force in some of
the nation’s most controversial departments, including in Miami and Los
Angeles.
Alpert, who is a
professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South
Carolina, has advised police departments throughout the country on how to
reduce the use of force and increase trust between the public and law
enforcement. One change he commonly recommends is for police officers to
provide more constructive criticism to each other.
For The Atlantic’s
series on mentorship, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” I spoke with
Alpert about how the balance of affirmation and criticism plays out in police
departments, as well as in conversations with his own students. The interview
that follows has been edited for length and clarity."
Technology, Prosthetics, Inspiration
Today’s
feel-good story:
Higher Education,
Testing
"The GRE’s shortcomings
haven’t gone unnoticed by admissions committees, which in recent years have
pushed to reduce reliance on the exam scores. Even the ETS is encouraging
programs to de-emphasize GRE scores and not use them as cutoffs. Some programs
at the University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Georgetown University recently dropped GRE requirements. In
2015, the president of the American Astronomical Society wrote an open letter
urging the chairs of departments in the field to rethink the role of the GRE.
In response, several astronomy programs, including Harvard’s, removed
the test from their physics requirements.
The latest to bail is
the University of Michigan’s Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS) program.
“For a long time there was really no point in discussing [it],” says professor
Scott Barolo, PIBS director, since students needed the score for pre-doctoral grants
from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. But
in 2010 the NIH dropped its GRE requirement, and NSF followed suit in 2015. “So
it became clear that there were no institutional or funding barriers to
reconsidering this decision,” says Barolo. After debating the issue at a town
hall session, PIBS announced on August 18 that it would drop the GRE starting
next year."
Housing Affordability
"Gov. Jerry Brown has
finalized lawmakers’ most robust response to California’s housing affordability
problems in recent memory.
The “15 good bills”
Brown signed into law here Friday morning include a new fee on real estate
transactions and a $4-billion bond on the 2018 ballot that together could raise
close to $1 billion a year in the near term to help subsidize new homes for
low-income residents.
"It is a big
challenge. We have risen to it this year,” Brown said.
The governor signed the
legislation surrounded by lawmakers and advocates at Hunters View, a $450-million project in
San Francisco that is redeveloping what was once crumbling public housing into
new homes for 700 low- and middle-income families. Speakers at the ceremony
hailed the package of bills as a sea change in how the state handles housing
issues.
“Today California begins
a pivot from a housing-last policy to a housing-first policy,” said Sen. Scott
Wiener (D-San Francisco), who wrote one of the key measures.
Still, the array of new
laws Brown signed Friday will hardly put a dent in the state’s housing
problems. Developers need to build about 100,000 new homes each year beyond
what’s already planned, simply to keep pace with California’s population
growth.
Here’s
a rundown of how the bills aim to address different factors that add to the
state’s housing problems:"
Identity
Protection, Cell Phones
Click on the title to
watch the video.
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