BY MATTHEW BOEDY It’s that time of year again for professors across the nation. End of the semester review. What worked well? What didn’t? What can or should I change next time? And how might I make it all more relevant? This run-of-the-mill academic action should take on much more importance if you look up…
BY SUSAN E. MASON May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency declaration. COVID-19 is not gone, to be sure, but we now have a better understanding of the severity and spread of the virus, how to protect ourselves, and how to protect our students. We were all in the…
BY JOSHUA KNICKERBOCKER In early 2023, artificial intelligence (AI) made headlines when one of the most popular AI-powered tools, ChatGPT, passed the medical licensing boards, as reported in an Insider story. The ability of AI to pass difficult examinations easily and reliably has prompted many scholars to question the implications for academia. ChatGPT is a…
BY BILL BERGMAN Recently, I participated in an experiment that had several first-year seminar (FYS) instructors attend each other’s classes. It was an effort to see if we could improve our teaching techniques by observing colleagues. My first visit was to a FYS class in physics. Surprisingly, this ninety-minute first-year science class not only taught…
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TENURE-STREAM ART HISTORY FACULTY The statement was issued on January 13 on the website of the UMN Department of Art History with the note, “No images other than the painting of Jonah and the Whale appear in this story.” The tenure-stream faculty of the Department of Art History at the…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN I previously posted this in 2016. The following was written by Martin Luther King, Jr. and first published in the February 1947 edition of the Morehouse College Student Newspaper. King was 18 years old. As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find…
BY ALEX SMALL Breathe easy, everyone. We physicists have a strategy to help all students pass tough introductory classes. Hear me out. An administrator recently said that more students would pass freshman physics if faculty gave more frequent and early feedback. Students could study more effectively if they had some way to gauge their understanding…
BY KRIS BOUDREAU AND MARK RICHMAN In her recent survey of a handful of research universities that have improved conditions for their teaching faculty—particularly those that provide job stability and paths for professional advancement—the Chronicle’s Becky Supiano suggests that while such a “teaching track” distinct from a tenure track can “elevate undergraduate instruction and the…
BY HARVEY J. GRAFF We live in a new age of division. Universities are so often centers of differences, contradictions, and clashes between knowledge and ignorance. One revealing site is the false opposition of the faculty and the—to faculty and academic administration—second-class “professionals” in departments of student affairs and student life. Critically, this dichotomy parallels…
BY JONATHAN REES I’m a member of the AAUP Committee on Teaching, Research, and Publication. Last week, committee chair Hank Reichman and I convened a listening session at the AAUP biennial meeting to start the long process of revising the organization’s statement regarding online education. The existing Statement on Online and Distance Education dates from…