Why Billionaires Want You to Opt Out of Your Union
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This message is borrowed from our friends at the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT). Educators in Ohio are starting to be contacted by “The Freedom Foundation” to encourage them to “opt-out” of their union membership in an attempt to further weaken unions after the Janus U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Who is…
COVID-19 on Campus and the “Community Responsibility Acknowledgment”
BY JEFFREY ISAAC Jeffrey Isaac is the James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. He posted these thoughts about reopening IU on his personal blog, and we are reposting them with his permission. In the past month it has become much clearer how U.S. colleges and universities will handle the coming Fall semester…
Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights is Launched
BY THE FACNET STEERING COMMITTEE An Open Letter to College and University Faculty We are a diverse group of faculty at all levels, at institutions throughout the United States. We would like to invite any interested faculty, from teaching assistants and adjuncts to tenured professors, to join us in founding nonpartisan national and state-level faculty networks to…
Permanent Austerity and Health Risks for Fall 2020
BY JACOB A. BENNETT Results from a survey of University of New Hampshire undergraduate students were discussed at the April 2020 meetings of the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees, indicating that only “30% of students felt they continue[d] to learn effectively” after the abrupt and necessary shift to remote learning this past…
A Fundamental Change That Police Unions Need to Make
BY MARTIN KICH It is woefully obvious that individual police officers, police departments, and the municipal governments that fund law enforcement and define its responsibilities have a whole host of changes that they need to consider and to make. But the unions that represent police officers need to make at least one very fundamental change.…
Ohio Conference of AAUP Statement on Returning to Campus
BY THE OHIO AAUP CONFERENCE The COVID-19 pandemic has created a tumultuous time in Ohio higher education. The emergency shutdown of our colleges and universities has drastically changed the nature of instruction, as well as the financial situations of our institutions. This past semester, faculty across Ohio rose to the challenge of moving courses online,…
Indiana Conference of AAUP Statement on Re-Opening
BY THE INDIANA AAUP CONFERENCE The COVID-19 virus pandemic has upended higher education, as all educational institutions quickly scrambled to protect students by making all instruction virtual, and otherwise keeping social distancing, often by sending residential students home for the rest of the year. Now, as colleges and universities must plan for how the fall…
Banksy on How to Re-Purpose Toppled Monuments
Academics for Black Survival and Wellness Week
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH A week-long series of events from Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, to Thursday, June 25, 2020 A weeklong personal and professional development initiative for academics to honor the toll of racial trauma on Black people, resist anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and facilitate accountability and collective action. Registration is encouraged. Academics for Black…