Occupy

This photo collection from the Atlantic, with pictures collected from Occupy demonstrations across the world, really brings home the breadth of the protests.The AAUP’s Council and Collective Bargaining Congress endorsed the Occupy movement last week–a move that, judging from the volume and intensity of e-mail responses, evoked strong feelings among our membership. For many reasons–including…

Jon Stewart on Newt Gingrich’s Paranoia about Professors

A brilliant comment by Jon Stewart on academia (begins 5:30 into the clip): http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:400060 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Newt Gingrich: The tenured professors who can flunk you if you are too openly conservative. Jon Stewart: …where the F- did…

Debating Higher Education

In this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education, Ted Gup calls for the idea of diversity to include political ideas, and he reports mumbling “sorry” to a parent who complains that his conservative son didn’t feel comfortable speaking his ideas in class. I’m annoyed at Gup for citing ACTA’s distorted surveys as proof that conservatives face…

Institutional Review Boards Overstepping Their Roles

The AAUP recently submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services in response to proposed new rule making on institutional review boards, the campus bodies that oversee research on human subjects. In accordance with the AAUP’s 2006 report on this subject, the comments emphasize that IRBs should evaluate risk based on empirical evidence,…

The Fault of Academic Stars

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”–Julius Caesar The star system is one of the worst afflictions to hit academia, and responsible for many of academia’s current problems. Frank Donogue wrote a recent blog on academic stars that got me thinking about the topic. Academia has…

Higher Education Round-Up

On my College Freedom blog is my essay responding to an earlier article by Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne of the NAS regarding Erskine College firing Bill Crenshaw. I also did a short interview with Bill Crenshaw. Joe Berry also has more COCAL Updates: 1. Santa Fe CC (NM) colleagues at Occupy demonstration [some great…

COCAL Updates

By Joe Berry From the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor 1. An amazing story from Missouri (Missouri Southern State U) of undergrads hired to grade speeches which make up large portion of final course grades.

More False Smears and Attacks on Academic Freedom at Columbia

“Anti-Jewish Bias Claim at Columbia,” declares the headline at the National Review’s Phi Beta Cons blog. The only problem is that it’s utterly false. In January, Barnard Professor Rachel McDermott is alleged to have advised a student not to take Columbia professor Joseph Massad’s course on the Arab world because “he’s very anti-Israel,” and “You’ll…

The AAUP Supports Occupy Wall Street

The AAUP has issued this statement in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement: The Collective Bargaining Congress and national Council of the American Association of University Professors stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Over the last several years, we have watched as those at the very top have prospered while the…