Excellent Universities Begin with Excellent Faculty

The following article was published originally on the website of the AAUP chapter at the University of Akron, though it appears that the university will soon have a new name—and the article concerns that “rebranding.” The article is reprinted here with the permission of the chapter leadership. ________________________ On Friday, May 15, President Scarborough unveiled…

Politics and Profanity

Each year, there is a “roast” of the governor of New Jersey attending by politicians, journalists, and lobbyists. This year’s roast was held at the Hamilton banquet hall and was attended by about 350 people. When it was Chris Christie’s turn to speak, here is a sampling of what he had to say: About Bridgegate,…

Sometimes English Seems like a Foreign Language

Today’s HuffPost Hill news brief has this headline: “Buzzkill McPartyfoul Transitions to Skadden.” I believe that this is the news item that explains the headline: “WALL STREET FATCATS FOILED BY SCRAPPY STREET BAND – From the internal Skadden Arps email obtained by Above the Law this week: ‘As many of you are aware, a group of musicians have…

Affluence and Influence Are Always Relative

Curbed.com is a website specializing in interior design, décor, and real estate. You can receive a daily newsletter that typically features an expensive residence with some sort of unusual overall design or notable features or some intriguing aspects to its history. Yesterday, that daily newsletter featured this Long Island residence:   Here is the description…

Income Inequality in “College Towns”

Last November, Business Insider published a list of the 18 metro areas in the U.S. with the highest levels of income inequality. The rankings were based on the following methodology: “The Census Bureau makes annual estimates of a standard measure of inequality for US metropolitan areas. The Gini index is a measure, ranging between 0…

The Future of Teaching and the Machine

In my review for the current issue of Academe of Bill Ferster’s new book , Teaching Machines: Learning from the Intersection of Technology and Education, I write, “Ferster presents three great but distinct advantages to technology in education: increased accessibility (starting with the use of the mail for correspondence courses), potentially lowered costs, and improved classroom efficiency. He also illustrates its greatest danger: belief that…

Support the Sanders-Fichtenbaum Plan!

On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced The College for All Act, legislation that would eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and expand work-study programs to help students at private universities. The bill also calls for a reduction in interest rates on federal student loans to stop the government from profiting off of lending to young…

How to Talk About Online Instruction

This week the Board of Trustees of the California State University (CSU) met in Long Beach and, as is the custom, they were addressed by, among others, the Chair of the CSU system Academic Senate, Steven Filling, an accounting professor at CSU, Stanislaus and a member of AAUP and the California Faculty Association.  Earlier the…