On March 3 the board of trustees of Sweet Briar College, a small liberal arts college for women in rural Virginia, made the shocking announcement that the school would close at the end of the academic year. After nearly four months of intense fund-raising and legal maneuvering, however, the college was saved. Under the terms…
Several months ago, I did a post to this blog on the controversy surrounding the announcement that Geoff Chatas, the CFO of Ohio State University, would be resigning from that position to take a position with the corporate conglomerate with which he had recently negotiated a long-term and lucrative contract to manage the university’s parking…
By Elena Levy-Navarro, University of Wisconsin at Whitewater I write this as the state house leaders announce they have reached an agreement over the Wisconsin budget. If it is agreed upon on Thursday, they will craft the final bill. As of now, all we know about the discussions is what has been reported: namely, that…
According to the Champaign, Illinois News-Gazette, Steven G. Salaita has accepted a position with the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. See here. Most academics rarely recover from a summary dismissal, particularly when ethical and moral sentiments are expressed that induce controversy. Perhaps, the national attention that this tenure travesty generated may have facilitated this positive development,…
The US Supreme Court will hear the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, where some anti-union high school teachers are trying to avoid paying an agency fee to the union that represents them, as part of the so-called “right to work” campaign. Let’s ignore for a moment the devastating effects such a ruling against…
An article on Inside Higher Ed today, on the threat to faculty unions through a case on its way to the Supreme Court, includes this: “If the Supreme Court rules that ‘fair share’ violates the First Amendment rights of public employees, they would transform the entire public sector into right to work, more appropriately named ‘right to…
British scholar Sara Ahmed writes in The New Inquiry (with a slightly earlier and very little different version on her own blog, feministkilljoys) an essay entitled “Against Students.” She starts out: What do I mean by “against students”? By using this expression I am trying to describe a series of speech acts which consistently position…
Earlier this month a student at Crafton Hills College, a community college in the Los Angeles area, and her parents urged the institution to ban several graphic novels. They complained about four works: Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel; YY: The Last Man, Vol. 1, by Brian Vaughan; The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll’s House, by…
What follows is a news release disseminated this week by the Department of Labor. _________________________ Federal enforcement effort finds more than 3,000 Gulf Coast workers owed nearly $3.5 million in back wages by staffing agencies. US Labor Department determines agencies illegally paid wages as per diem reimbursement. NEW ORLEANS — Six Gulf Coast staffing agencies have…