On the Resignation of Erika Christakis

I just learned this morning via a report on Inside Higher Ed that Erika Christakis, the associate master of one of Yale University’s residential colleges, has decided to stop teaching at the university, in part because of the continuing controversy over an email message she sent about Halloween costumes.  Although some students have demanded her…

Last Day for AAUP Conference Proposals

Today is the deadline to submit a proposal for the AAUP Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education! The conference focus this year is on racial, social, and labor justice in higher education. Presentation proposals on all topics of interest to a diverse, multidisciplinary higher education audience will also be considered. The conference will be held June 15-19,…

Assumptions and the Class Divides they Confirm

In the mid-1970s, when I was young and even more ignorant of the ways of the world than I am today, I learned that it was becoming necessary to have completed an MFA to get a paid position in the arts world. This struck me as ridiculous, a sheepskin standing in for actual work created.…

When Everyone’s a Trump-et, It May Be Hard to Think through the Noise

This week’s “Sunday Show Wrap-Up” from The Hill (see below) seems particularly instructive. The one thing on which the GOP presidential candidates uniformly agree is that President Obama is an ineffectual leader (or, worse–because Donald Trump is now suggesting, something much more sinister). Moreover, other than Trump himself, of course, all of them agree that…

Rot in the Marble

When Honored Leaders Held and Even Promoted Some of the Least Honorable Attitudes of Their Times   The Atlantic has published a series of articles and facilitated several forums addressing the controversy, centered at Princeton University, over President Woodrow Wilson’s attitudes toward race. In “The Racist Legacy of Woodrow Wilson,” Dick Lehr provides an account…

The Miami University AAUP Chapter Has a Website—and Major Changes Are Being Imposed on the University’s Regional Campuses

This relatively new but rapidly growing chapter in Ohio now has a nice website at http://www.miamiaaup.org/. The chapter news also can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. The website includes a link to an article in The Miami Student [http://miamistudent.net/] by Megan Zahneis, reporting on the major administrative restructuring occurring at Miami’s regional campuses: “Miami’s…