Midwest AAUP Coalition’s Video Press Conference on Re-Opening

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following video press conference featured faculty members from AAUP chapters in the Midwest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3NIwdQDsk&feature=youtu.be. This coalition of AAUP chapter’s has a website at https://midwestaaupdocs.wordpress.com/about/. That website prominently includes the following statement on “Protecting Lives, Promoting Education: Principles for Reopening Campuses”: We are a coalition of American Association of University Professors…

University of Dayton Solidarity Can Use Our Support

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Several weeks ago, Tom Rooney, the treasurer of the Wright State chapter, spoke at an event inaugurating the UD Solidarity effort at the University of Dayton, which is focused on insuring that the university carefully weighs the pros and cons of re-opening. Tom made the following remarks: As I stand before…

University Reserves as Frozen Assets

BY LINDA KIM, DREXEL AAUP Guest blogger Linda Kim is associate professor of art history at Drexel University.

The Utter Devastation of Wayne College—The University of Akron’s Only Regional Campus

BY THE WAYNE COLLEGE REDUCTION IN FORCE (RIF) FACULTY HIT LIST On July 15, 2020, the Board of Trustees, in consultation with the administration, at the University of Akron (UA) chose to eliminate ninety-six bargaining unit faculty. Those of us on that list of cut faculty call ourselves the Hit List. Although there are satellite…

The University of Akron: Why We Cannot Just Move Along as if Nothing Happened Here

BY EVONN WELTON In 2011, The University of Akron received an award from the American Psychological Association for being a healthy workplace environment. What a profound and sad irony that in less than ten years, it has become a place of financial hardship, possible injustices, fear, anxiety, and pitting faculty against faculty. It has become…

So Just How Dire Is the University of Akron’s Financial Condition?

POSTED BY MARTY KICH As he has been doing for faculty at institutions across the United States for two decades, past AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum has provided a financial analysis to the AAUP chapter at the University of Akron. He has distilled the main points of that analysis into the following short video: https://akronaaup.org/uas-budget-presentation-dr-rudy-fichtenbaum-responds/. The…

Harvard, Hong Kong, and China

BY HARRY R. LEWIS Harry Lewis is Gordon McKay Research Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College. This essay is reposted from his blog. I used to visit Hong Kong regularly, and also made a few trips to mainland China. One of those trips put me in a provincial…

Please Take Just a Moment to Support Our Colleagues at the University of Akron

POSTED BY MARTY KICH On July 15, the University of Akron Board of Trustees, at the recommendation of President Gary Miller, terminated the employment of ninety-seven full-time faculty members. When factoring in retirements, this results in the loss of over one hundred faculty. The Board and President must rescind this decision or resign their positions.…

My Report about Freedom of the Press on Campus

BY JOHN K. WILSON I have written a new study about freedom of the press on campus that has been released today, a product of my 2019–20 fellowship with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. The study includes a survey of policies for professional media at the top twenty-five…

Open Letter to Our Akron Colleagues

POSTED BY SUE RAMLO A couple of months ago, the Provost’s office sent faculty, through their deans, a survey, asking us what we thought the criteria for firings should be. Akron-AAUP saw this for what it was: direct dealing with faculty, and a failed attempt to legitimize the gutting of the faculty. At the time,…

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Yearly Archives: 2020