Ashna Mallowe blog

Report: French minister doesn't want rebels back

PARIS – French Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno has reportedly said that the players responsible for a strike at the World Cup should never again play for the national team.

L'Equipe newspaper reported Saturday that Jouanno said it is "unacceptable" for the players who led the training session boycott last summer to be called back.

The players were protesting the decision by team officials to send Nicolas Anelka home from South Africa for his profanity-laced tirade against then-coach Raymond Domenech during a 2-0 group loss to Mexico.

France failed to make it out of the group stage and was widely criticized at home over the conduct of its players.

Anelka was subsequently suspended for 18 matches by the French soccer federation. Former captain Patrice Evra (five games), Franck Ribery (three games) and Jeremy Toulalan (one game) were also banned for their part in the boycott.

Federation president Fernand Duchaussoy said this week that Evra is eligible to return to coach Laurent Blanc's team now that his ban has ended.

Blanc is expected to announce his squad Thursday for next month's exhibition against Brazil.

Minority B-School Faculty Growing -- Slowly

American business schools, much like American businesses, have some catching up to do when it comes to minority hiring.

Stymied by a lack of minorities in the PhD pipeline and growing competition for minority faculty, progress in hiring African American, Hispanic American, and Native American faculty at U.S. B-schools has been slow. Bernard J. Milano, president of the PhD Project, an organization based in Montvale, N.J., that aims to increase the diversity of corporate America by increasing the diversity of business school faculty, says just 3.5 percent of B-school faculty and administrators come from such underrepresented minority groups. "When you think about the changing demographics of this country," Milano says, "that's tragic."

Since 1994, when the PhD Project launched, the number of underrepresented minorities -- excluding Asian Americans -- at U.S. business schools has more than tripled, from 294 to 1,061 in 2010. The number ofunderrepresented minority doctoral students grew from fewer than 175 to 385 over the same period, according to the PhD Project.

For B-schools, the lack of minorities among the faculty is a real problem, making it difficult to recruit minority students and to satisfy corporate recruiters seeking minority MBA talent."We like to be reflective of the world we live in," says Sachin Gupta, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of marketing at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management (Johnson Full-Time MBA Profile). "We want the community here to reflect diversity in the real world. This is important because it's what constituents -- from students to recruiters -- want."

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At many schools, minority representation in the faculty ranks appears far more robust when all minorities, including Asians, are considered. For example, at the University of Southern California's MarshallSchool of Business (Marshall Full-Time MBA Profile), 27 percent of the 222 faculty members are minorities.Minorities represent 24 percent of the 96 faculty members at the Johnson School and 22 percent of 187 faculty members at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business (Ross Full-Time MBA Profile), according to data supplied by the schools. However, underrepresented minorities, excluding Asians, account for just 2.7 percent of the faculty at Marshall, 3.1 percent at Johnson, and 3.7 percent at Ross.

The greatest challenge for business schools, says Gupta, is the small supply of minorities with PhDs to hire, when the demand among the 1,600 business schools in the U.S. is so great. "The availability of well-trained, credentialed (underrepresented minority) faculty has grown over the years but remains small," says Gupta. "We're competing with schools for a small number of faculty."

Most top business schools have asked faculty searchcommittees to broaden their searches, and many of them turn to organizations such as the PhD Project for help in finding qualified minority candidates for openings. At the Johnson School, search committees sometimes get extra money to allow them to broaden the search for minority candidates. Still, business schools say hiring decisions aren't made based on race, creed, ethnicity, or gender alone. "I don't think we'll ever be in a position where we'd hire just to improve stats," says John Matsusaka, vice-dean for faculty and academic affairs at Marshall. "We use the numbers, but we won't be driven by the numbers."

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One reason the minority PhD pipeline is as dry as it is: Undergraduates are not being shown the benefits of pursuing a business doctorate and a career in academia, says Jerry Strawser, dean at Texas A&M's Mays Business School (Mays Full-Time MBA Profile), where six of the 186faculty come from underrepresented minority groups. Milano says the case can be made persuasively with information on work-life balance and salaries enjoyed by business faculty.

Opening up the minds of minorities to the possibilities of business degrees and showing them that the business world welcomes them are steps in the right direction, says Milano. "How many minorities have relatives who are corporate executives? What is their personal experience with business?" he asks. "They wonder, 'How do I make my mark in a world dominated by white people?' "

Another key to making progress, say business school administrators, is providing mentoring and networking opportunities for all faculty. Strawser suggests supporting faculty organizations for minorities and other underrepresented groups that bring together professors from the wider university and not just the business school.

Having support in place for minority faculty members is alsonecessary to retain them once a school has hired them. Finding mentors is especially important for minority faculty, who face specific challenges, says Nandini Rajagopalan, a chair in strategic entrepreneurship at Marshall. Many of them are overwhelmed by questions from minority students, who often feel a kinship with minority faculty, and they may feel like outsiders if there are few professors like them. Mainly, says Rajagopalan, they must get help in securing tenure, which requires hard work and a cultivation of talent on the part of the school, regardless of whether one is part of a minority group.

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Minorities, like any other group, want proof they will be able to influence the institutions at which they work. With few underrepresented minorities holding deanships at top business schools -- New York University's Stern School of Business (Stern Full-Time MBA Profile) is the only one among Bloomberg Businessweek's top 30U.S.programs -- that is a challenge, says Milano. The PhD Project recently launched the Achieving Higher Education Administration Diversity (AHEAD) program, which is intended to encourage tenured minority faculty to think about moving into administration.

In the meantime, some business schools, such as Marshall, see diversity as including the recruitment of professors from other nations and ethnic groups, as well as underrepresented minorities in the U.S., says Rajagopalan. With the U.S. facing more competition from other parts of the world, including the emerging economic powers of China and India, business schools must step up their efforts to diversify their communities and especially their faculty, she adds.

"U.S. universities have no choice but to make diversity a part of their strategy," says Rajagopalan. "It's crucial to their survival."

Stephen Baldwin apologizes to Hannity for threatening messages

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

Stephen Baldwin publicly apologized to Sean Hannity Thursday formessages to the Fox News television host two weeks prior.

Upset that Hannity had joked about replaying clips from brother Alec Baldwin’s 2007 expletive-laden voice messages to Alec’s then 11-year-old daughter, StephenHannity in the New York Post. Soon after, Stephen wrote Hannity’s producer and said, “That’s it, game on [Hannity] will regret starting off the new year.”

Stephen toldThursday that he regretted getting worked up and engaging in a fight with Hannity.

“He, in my book, in my mind, he crossed the line again, but really specific to, on his radio program, playing that infamous voicemail that my brother left for his daughter which obviously to this day he feels terrible about,” Stephen said. “But when Sean played that again, it really caused a knee jerk reaction in me because it’s my brother. And what Sean I don’t think is taking into consideration there is, even though in Sean’s mind, ‘Hey, I’m using it in the context of my show,’ and whatever his motivation is, it’s hurtful to others, other members of my family, and for that I feel responsible.”

Stephen, a self-described born-again Christian, added that he’d like to be the bigger person and apologize.

“I did a very foolish thing, I didn’t practice what I preach, and I got angry and I kind of sent him a nasty text message and started this kind of new problem,” Stephen said. “And I’m here to…publicly apologize to Sean Hannity and say that I’m very sorry. That was not the correct thing to do, and I feel terrible about it. In turn, it became a much more exacerbated situation because he got upset and he got angry and kind of used his platform in a greater way to make the matters worse. So I just wanna call it even, and want to say Sean, from the bottom of my heart, God bless ya. I apologize and wanna take the higher road here, bury the hatchet and just hopefully start over.”

LA schools step up security after student shooting

LOS ANGELES – Security officers wielding metal detecting wands meticulously searched students Wednesday as they waited in a long line outside a Los Angeles high school where two 15-year-olds were shot in a classroom a day earlier.

The stepped-up security measures come after a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun being carried in a backpack by a 10th-grader discharged Tuesday when he put the bag down on a desk at Gardena High School, authorities said.

A bullet pierced a boy in the neck, exited, and hit a girl in the head. The boy was doing well Wednesday, while the girl remained in serious condition with a skull fracture.

The girl regained consciousness and could move her body after surgery to remove a blood clot from her brain caused by the bullet's impact, said Julie Rees, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The boy was expected to be discharged Wednesday night, Rees said.

The 17-year-old suspect, who was already on probation for a fight at school, was arrested. Police said two other students were also taken into custody for investigation of concealing evidence.

A boy traded clothes with the fleeing suspect, and a girl took the backpack, police Detective A. Batris said.

In an unrelated incident, authorities said a bulletproof vest saved the life of a Los Angeles school police officer who was shot Wednesday as he confronted a man who appeared to breaking into cars near El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills. Also Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy was shot in a restaurant parking lot near his high school in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, authorities said. The Bell High School student was shot once in the abdomen, but his vital signs appeared good when he was taken to a hospital, Bell police Captain Anthony Miranda said.

A preliminary investigation determined the lone shot came from a pickup truck that sped away after the shooting, Miranda said. Authorities were questioning a person of interest in the case Wednesday evening. There have been no arrests.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said the man got out of a car and fired several times, hitting the officer at least once in the chest. A manhunt was under way.

Security experts and school officials say it is almost impossible to completely prevent students from bringing guns onto school campuses, but there are basic precautions that should be followed, including random metal-detecting checks.

Since 1993, Los Angeles Unified School District has required some campuses to randomly check students with hand-held metal-detectors every day at different times.

A preliminary review of security at Gardena, however, showed the 2,400-student school had lapsed in that procedure, a district official said.

There was no check on Tuesday, and possibly not on other days as well, said Deputy Superintendent John Deasy.

"I think it's at least fair to say from the level of review at this moment that it was sporadic," he said.

After an investigation, disciplinary action will be taken that could involve firing some officials, Deasy said.

School Police Chief Steven Zipperman, who heads a force of 340 police officers and 147 school safety officers who patrol about 1,000 campuses, noted that even if the school had conducted a random check, it may not have revealed the gun in the backpack.

Zipperman said he'll be reviewing compliance with the district's security procedures and ways to tighten them.

"Secondary schools should be doing random searches on a daily basis," he said. "We'll be taking a look at the current frequency of that."

Although some observers call for metal-detector searches of all students, the long line at Gardena High demonstrated the logistical problem with that, Zipperman said.

"It's not feasible to run these schools as if you were boarding an airplane," Zipperman said. "There has to be that fine balance between not disrupting school operations and safety and security."

Random checks are an effective deterrent to kids who think of bringing weapons to school, said Ken Trump, president of consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. But they must be truly random, conducted at different times of the day and in different places on campus, even on buses, he said.

The best line of defense is an alert staff and student body, Trump said, noting most incidents of guns at schools are reported by kids. "You have to create a climate where it's not seen as snitching, it's saving lives," he said.

The school district has an anonymous tip line to report suspicious activity, Zipperman said.

Surveillance cameras, metal detectors and X-ray machines are other tools increasingly being used by schools, along with basic procedures such as limiting building access to one entrance, said Patrick Fiel, former security director at Washington, D.C., public schools who is now a consultant.

Above all, experts said schools need to think proactively about preventing violence.

"It's a mentality. A lot of schools say it's not going to happen to us," Fiel said. "But it's happening more often in suburban, urban and rural schools."

Costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge dies at age 78

NEW YORK – Theoni V. Aldredge, an award-winning costume designer who created memorable outfits for more than 300 stage and film projects, including "Gypsy," "A Chorus Line," "Dreamgirls" and "42nd Street," has died. She was 78.

Her husband, actor Tom Aldredge, said she died Friday at a hospice in Connecticut.

She won three Tonys for "Annie," "Barnum" and "La Cage aux Folles" and an Oscar in 1975 for designing costumes for "The Great Gatsby," starring Robert Redford.

Aldredge, known for her ability to go from Las Vegas stage shows to opera, and to create everything from Elizabethan period costumes to contemporary street fashion, was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

She was the principal designer for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival for many years.