Superexploitation, in the academy and ancient Rome

The November-December issue of Academe looks at faculty service. It is perhaps the most ambiguous of the traditional triad along with teaching and research, and the articles in this issue seek to describe the different ways that faculty conceive of service, and the different ways that service is (or is not) recognized. Read the issue…

When Service is Overlooked

The November-December issue of Academe looks at faculty service. It is perhaps the most ambiguous of the traditional triad along with teaching and research, and the articles in this issue seek to describe the different ways that faculty conceive of service, and the different ways that service is (or is not) recognized. Read the issue…

It’s About Time

One of the things that those of us who teach in public institutions, particularly those granting two-year degrees, have long known is that students get a better value from us than from the for-profit institutions that have been pushing so hard to compete with us. Now, with growing online opportunities from state institutions, the difference…

Mitt Romney as the “Evil Twin” of Tom Joad

McSweeney’s has published a wonderful parody of John Steinbeck’s most famous novel. Called The Grapes of Mitt, the parody imagines how things might have been different if Tom Joad had been born Mitt Romney. In the following passage, Tom Joad’s climactic speech about his commitment to the long fight for basic workers’ rights and human…

Building a Senior Staff: The Burden of Support

As I prepared to take over my duties as president, I sought the advice of a distinguished senior colleague who had experience outside academia and who was used to managing staff as a successful sitting president.  I inquired about how best to proceed as I prepared to assume the leadership of an institution. His recommendation…

Be a barrier

The idea of shared governance proceeds from the notion that faculty are uniquely qualified to participate in the decision-making process with respect to academic matters. Since just about everything at a university affects academic matters, a healthy campus would solicit faculty input on just about everything. However, with respect to decisions about awarding credit, you’d…