C&RL News June 2015  352

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@email.
unc.edu

G a r y  P a t t i l l o

Summer reading
A selection of choices from college summer reading programs: The University of 
North Carolina-Chapel Hill: Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson; Clemson University: 
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler; Saint Louis Univer-
sity: Outcasts United, by Warren St. John; Appalachian State University: A Long Way 
Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah; Lehigh University: The Most Hu-
man Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive, by Brian 
Christian; Meredith College: A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock 
Central High School, by Carlotta Walls Lanier with Lisa Frazier Page; Smith College: 
The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future, by Naomi Oreskes and 
Erik Conway; Occidental College: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by 
Elizabeth Kolbert; Miami University: The 46 Rules of Genius: An Innovator’s Guide 
to Creativity, by Marty Neumeier; Ohio Northern University: Where am I Wearing: 
A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes, by 
Kelsey Timmerman; Whitman College: Brother, I’m Dying, by Edwidge Danticat; 
University of Kentucky: Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, by 
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton; Middle Tennessee State University: 
This I Believe II: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, edited 
by Jay Allison.
Sources: Individual university websites (retrieved May 13, 2015).

Tertiary education
From 2000 to 2012 the percentage of 25 to 64 year-olds with tertiary education has 
increased across all OECD member countries. The OECD average changed from 
approximately 22 percent to about 33 percent. Canada led the pack, rising from 40 
to about 53 percent.
OECD, “Education at a glance: OECD indicators selected data,” OECD360 2015, www.oecd360.org/oecd360/Education 
(retrieved May 1, 2015).

College financial aid
A lower percentage of the general undergraduate population receives financial aid 
from colleges and universities than do freshmen alone. In other words, financial aid 
often declines after freshman year. “More than 46 percent of freshmen get tuition 
discounts, according to an annual survey by the National Association of College and 
University Business Officers—but fewer than 41 percent of all undergraduates do.”
Timothy Pratt, “College ‘bait and switch,’” The Hechinger Report, April 20, 2015, http://hechingerreport.org/in-a-college-bait-
and-switch-financial-aid-often-declines-after-freshman-year-2 (retrieved May 14, 2015).

Bunkum research
The National Education Policy Center via its Think Tank Review project presents 
“Bunkum Awards,” recognizing lowlights in education research. Some issues in 
problem research arise repeatedly: mistaking correlation for causation; not accounting 
for potential reasons for results, such as selection bias; leaping from conclusions in 
one area to others that are not necessarily supported by the results; using small or 
barely statistically significant results to recommend broad policy changes; and starting 
studies from an ideological point rather than an objective hypothesis. 
Sarah D. Sparks, “What Can Educators Learn From ‘Bunkum’ Research?” Education Week, March 4, 2015, http://blogs.edweek.
org/edweek/inside-school-research/2015/03/learning_from_bunkum_research.html (retrieved May 14, 2015).