What follows is the first part of a posting by Public Accountability Initiative, which describes itself as “a non-profit, public interest research organization investigating power and corruption at the heights of business and government.” Read the full report at the PAI site: In May 2015, an extraordinary example of academic intimidation involving the oil and gas…
Chancellor Rebecca Blank of the University of Wisconsin-Madison shared the following message by email with faculty on June 9 ahead of an emergency meeting of the Faculty Senate. The message was also posted on a web page maintained by the University and devoted to budget issues. As we prepare to meet, I want to again…
A colleague at San Diego State University recently sent the following email message to other CSU faculty members. I thought it worth sharing more broadly. June 6 marked the anniversary of President Kennedy’s 1963 Commencement Address at San Diego State University (then San Diego State College). During the Commencement exercises, JFK was awarded an honorary…
The following is the text of a statement released yesterday by Chancellor Rebecca Blank of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It is encouraging that the Chancellor pledges consistency with AAUP policies. It remains to be seen, however, whether or not Wisconsin politicians will permit that. Chancellor Blank’s reference to AAUP should remind us of the…
What follows is a letter sent today by 32 Instructors in the Writing Programs of Arizona State University (further information can be found at the asuagainst55 website): June 8, 2015 Dear Dr. Mark Lussier, English Department Chair, and Dr. George Justice, Dean of Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University: The…
Two thoughtful yet troubling articles, published within a week of each other, startled higher education leaders last week. In the great debate about which factors best explain the growing achievement gaps between rich and poor students, these studies reached important conclusions about the “drivers” contributing to the widening disparities. Isabel Sawhill, writing for the series…
As a result of student, faculty, and public pressure, the Florida State University administration are conceding to several of the policy recommendations in our donor policy report [see: https://academeblog.org/2015/06/04/a-student-review-of-the-florida-state-university-gift-acceptance-policy-undue-influence-and-charles-koch-foundation/]. The FSU student paper broke the story, wherein the FSU Foundation acknowledges that it is “taking the report from Progress Coalition seriously”: “’We are reviewing the…
Robert Reich’s website includes a series of short videos explaining Ten Ideas to Save the Economy. The videos are available at: http://robertreich.org/post/120107784670. The first seven of Reich’s ten ideas to make the economy work for the many and not the few include: 1. Increasing the minimum wage nationally. 2. Making work family-friendly. 3. Expanding Social Security. 4. Busting…
This is a very moving eulogy. It is also a great testament to the deep friendship between President Obama and Vice President Biden. Indeed, although—or perhaps because—it is a very personal response to a deeply personal sense of loss, rather than some broader statement on public policy, political positions, or the pressing issues of the…
The federal data that will be presented in this series of posts was analyzed by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NCIR) in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research. The NECIR story on the data and its implications, written by Jon Marcus, who is currently an editor at the Hechinger Report, is available…