San Francisco’s cab ridership is down by 65% in the last 15 months, according to a report by San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Why? They claim companies like Uber and Lyft that provide an app-dispatched ride service have changed the for-hire transportation industry. For anyone that has used Uber, you know it is so much better than a traditional taxi service.

What has been the cab operators’ response? They have asked the government agency that regulates taxis to step in and stifle the expansion of the ride share companies. And the agency’s response is requiring the cabs to act more like ride share companies, forcing them to use app-based hailing and electronic payment. Additionally, the agencies are trying to bring the regulation of the ride-share programs under their purview and control.

The difference is market demand. In Virginia, the State Department of Transportation gave Uber and Lyft a cease and desist ultimatum, but the riders kept using them. The advantage of ride-share operators is that they simply say they do not operate a for-hire transportation service, but simply facilitate the sharing of rides between individuals, for a small fee of course. Virginia finally dropped the cease order, much to the taxicab owners’ dismay.

The cab owners should be mad. For years they have been under the control of the government agencies that imposed strict rules and made compliance mandatory through threats of pulling their medallions, basically their license to operate. Yet these agencies, charged with ultimately protecting the consumers, really didn’t do much to ensure your cab ride was high quality.

Wow, this sounds a lot like higher education…

Institutions are accredited by a regional or national accrediting body, licensed or approved in their particular state, subject to the demands of the Department of Education with the threat of removal of Title IV funds (student loans and grants) and a myriad of other specialized accrediting bodies. Yet, all of these overseeing agencies who ultimately tout ensuring quality education, have done very little to actually ensure quality. The MOOC movement, while many hoped would be the Uber of the higher education industry, simply could not gain the market demand to overthrow the current system.

However, always the disruptive optimist, I do believe there is a way to Uberize the higher education industry in the United States. I will share the secret in next week’s blog.

image courtesy Uber.com

I read a blog by Craig Ballantyne about politically incorrect time management strategies to be productive. As the CEO of an online consortium of colleges where 75% of the staff works remotely, we communicate A LOT via email. Last year after reading Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Work Week, I implemented an email management strategy he has used for years; I only check my emails at noon and 4:00 PM. I sent an email to my staff upon my implementation of this new system stating my intention to check emails on the above schedule. I also clarified that they are fully empowered to make any decision that costs less than $500. For those financial decisions that range between $501 – $1,000, they should consult another team member for their opinion and just do it. So many emails were for approval for items they should have the authority to carryout. As always, I would be available via phone if they needed me.

On my first day under the new plan, I checked emails at noon and 5:30. It took me a combined total of eleven minutes to review all of the emails for the day and answer those that needed my attention. The next day it took 8 minutes. It is amazing how many of the issues resolved themselves without my input. Normally, I would have my Outlook open on my desktop and would immediately look over or even switch over whenever I heard the chime of a new message. This wasted hours of my day.

So given Craig’s blog and Tim’s book, here are my strategies for a college student to manage their time HARD-CORE:

1. Turn your phone’s ringer off (no vibrate either). In a connected society, our phones provide us with distractions like texts, email, Facebook, Twitter and the occasional phone call. The majority does not require immediate attention or response.
2. Check phone, email and other forms of social media four times per day: morning before class or work, at lunch, at dinner and before you go to bed. You will be amazed at the time you have just freed up.
3. Make study time a sacrosanct event. Set a time and do not let distractions interfere with this time.
4. Schedule fun. All work and no play is no way to go. College is a great time to have fun and discover who you are.
5. Make a schedule and stick to it. Use a planner that you keep with you at all times, this can be electronic or good ole paper. Review your plans for the upcoming week on Sunday.
6. Only have one planner or system, multiple systems don’t work.
7. Be realistic with your schedule. If you are not a morning person, don’t schedule an 8:00 AM class.

Be a HARD CORE time manager.

For those of us that have or have had a teenager in the home, we realize mornings are often like dealing with cold war era Russia. Most of the time there are no words exchanged and that is usually better because when words come out, they are not often productive or positive.

My friend, Dr. Jeff Borden, has been advocating in his presentations for years that research shows middle and high school students should be starting school later based on neurological studies. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its first policy statement advocating for later school start times for high school students. “Probably the ideal start time would be 9 o’clock,” the lead author of the study, Judith Owens, said.

Based on a report in the Wall Street Journal, only about 15% of schools in the United States start after 8:30. Why?

I think it is related to two factors – a lack of a desire and motivation on faculty and administration to change and disbelief that what they are currently doing is not the right approach.

See my blogs “Time to Change…..FEAR” and “You’re Killing Me” for more rants on this topic.

Okay, so the title is a bit more of an attention grabber than actually a statement of fact. However, given the latest report from the highly acclaimed and peer-referenced journal, Cosmopolitan, I now have yet another reason to advocate for online education.

Cosmo published an infograph depicting the results of a survey of 1,000 college students who were asked about sex on the college campus. Here are some of the highlights:

• 28% reported being virgins
• 8% of college women say they have been sexually assaulted by someone associated with the college while only 2% reported the incident to authorities
• 70% of sexually active students say most hookups end with sexual intercourse
• 45% describe sex in college as carefree and fun, 44% say it is messy and complicated and 11% reported sex in college as hurtful and damaging.
• There are other statistics in the infograph that, well you will just need to read yourself!

Remember when sex was safe and online is where the bad stuff happened? It only worries me a bit that my college sophomore daughter is only taking half of her classes online.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Share with me below on on my social networks.