BY MIKE ALEWITZ Last week, Connecticut state employees agreed to accept yet another new concession contract. To read the mainstream media, or announcements from the governor’s office, or statements from state union officials, this is a victory for working people. In fact, the agreement is a theft of epic proportions – planned in secret and…
“The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.” *** Faculties in the Connecticut State University system are facing an unprecedented attack on tenure and collective bargaining. In the current negotiations for a new contract with the American Association of University professors (AAUP), the Board of Regents…
Stop the censorship of The City at the Crossroads of History! An Open Letter to the Puffin Foundation and the Museum of the City of New York: As individuals deeply concerned about both the history and current status of the labor movement, we are writing to oppose the suppression and censorship of a major new…
Dear Students and Fellow Artists, Recently, nine of your murals at Central CT State University were ordered destroyed by CCSU President Jack Miller. Nine more are on the immediate chopping block. Miller and Chief Administrative Officer Richard Bachoo waited until classes had ended for the semester – then, without informing the artists, faculty or the…
In response to news of the destruction of murals at Central CT State University, we have received dozens of letters from around the world. These messages speak to the value of our mural program and the incredible contribution that our students have made to this campus and the community beyond our walls. We should…
On Wednesday, May 14, a student completing a project called me to report that murals were being systematically destroyed in Copernicus Hall at Central CT State University. CCSU is home to perhaps largest and finest collection of murals at any university in the world. Previously, murals have occasionally been removed, but generally in consultation…
Or, Eight Reasons Why the Education Petition is Inadequate, Misguided, and Generally Useless The August 24 statement by AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum was compelling enough to generate some actual responses on the Academe Blog. The post was a response to Barak Obama’s dreadful education proposals, and it’s a pretty good statement. You can read it…
(The opening meeting of the faculty union at CCSU was graced with the presence of University administrators, invited by AAUP officers, who provided them with a lavish lobster spread. Sadly, I was not present to bask in the glow of this company-union affection – but it has inspired me to make this poetic offering}: Colleagues…
May 14 marks the 43rd anniversary of the bloody massacre at Jackson State University. On this day in 1970, Mississippi cops fired a deadly barrage of over 450 bullets at unarmed black students in a women’s dormitory. Two were left dead and at least 12 wounded. The murdered Jackson students were Phillip Gibbs, the son…