BY JASON PHILLIPS Most students do not understand the hierarchy of educators in academia. What they tend to imagine when they talk about professors are tenured, full-time professors. In reality, colleges and universities are predominantly staffed by contingent and adjunct faculty members. According to a 2018 report from the AAUP, “at all US institutions combined,…
BY DEBORAH BELL, SUSAN DENNISON, SPOMA JOVANOVIC, JESSICA NAVARRO, AND JONATHAN TUDGE As colleges and universities address myriad crises—including enrollment declines, operating changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, questions about the value of a college degree, and the need to mitigate racial tensions on campus—higher education budgets have come under increasing scrutiny, and talk…
BY JOSEPH G. RAMSEY Welcome back to school, faculty—and grad student teachers, too! Wondering how much your teaching labor is subsidizing the rest of your university (in other words: your basic rate of exploitation)? Try this fun back-to-school activity! Locate your school’s per course student tuition rate. (At my public university, in-state tuition per 3…
BY STEVEN LUBET This essay was originally published on SAGE’s online network for social scientists, Social Science Space, and is republished with their permission. The right-wing Heritage Foundation has accused university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices of spreading anti-Semitism on campuses, but its recently issued report does not back up the claim. Although Heritage touts…
BY HARVEY J. GRAFF In my recent Washington Monthly essay, “The Banality of University Slogans,” I observed that “whether it’s ad campaigns for football season, gauzy reports from the provost, or bombast from the school’s president, higher education abounds with empty rhetoric.” In “Per Aspera ad Astra” Academe Blog contributing editor Hank Reichman shared and…
BY NICOLE BRAUN Recently, I was hired to teach one class in the spring for a private Catholic university whose representatives told me in multiple interviews that they are a “social justice university.” In the past couple of years, I have sent out more job applications for teaching positions (and for other work) than you…
BY Z. W. TAYLOR, PAT SOMERS, AND JOSH CHILDS The AAUP outlines a four-pronged definition of academic freedom, although it is not codified by any specific case law or statute. Dozens of educational organizations—including the American Psychological Association, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the National Education Association, among many others—have endorsed…
BY STEVEN LUBET When Covid-19 protocols forced Texas A&M to withdraw its football team from this year’s Gator Bowl, the game’s sponsors began frantically searching for a replacement to play Wake Forest on December 31, even if that required recruiting a team with a losing record. Under NCAA post-season rules, the first bid went to…
SUBMITTED BY KEVIN L. COPE Supporters of good university governance never stop shaking their heads about Louisiana State University, the only major research university to draw a double censure from the AAUP. This frequently torpedoed flagship institution—the largest vessel in a veritable fleet of state institutions also under AAUP censure—is once again under attack, this…
BY THE CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION The following is the text of a statement released on December 20 by the California Faculty Association, an AAUP affiliate and collective bargaining agent representing 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches in the California State University (CSU) system. We are pleased to report that we have reached a tentative…