two rows of wooden alphabet blocks with painted letters spelling out "Hand" on the top row and "Book" on the bottom row, with a reflection on the surface below

Faculty Handbooks Are Not Meant to Be Ironic Documents

BY ALEX ZUKAS In a recent Academe Blog post, Eva Cherniavsky wrote, “As we enter a fourth decade of life in the neoliberal university, where permanent austerity rules everywhere except in the swelling ranks of upper administration; where the pretense of shared governance has all but collapsed; where tenure lines are vanishing (particularly in the…

scene of an outdoor protest about COVID-19 safety on the campus of the University of Oklahoma

There Will Still Be Singing in These Dark Times

BY AMIT BAISHYA AND JULIE ANN WARD “OU Days of Action” was organized on September 20 and 21 to coincide with the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents Meeting. This action was the culmination of a months-long process of appealing to OU’s upper administration to adopt basic, common-sense policies of COVID-19 mitigation, with little to…

black chalkboard with the word RACISM and a red eraser beginning to erase the lower right corner of the letter M

Biden’s Racism Speech

BY JONATHAN FEINGOLD Earlier this month, President Biden delivered the COVID-19 speech we needed. As the Delta variant surges, Biden offered concrete policy and commanding leadership. He announced wide-ranging initiatives to maximize vaccinations, curb transmission, and protect our kids. He was also unifying but blunt, calling out “elected officials actively working to undermine the fight…

cardboard signs calling for mask use at University of North Georgia

Galvanizing through Protest in Georgia

BY MATTHEW BOEDY It’s been a long week here in Georgia. I write at the end of weeklong, statewide protests about our university system’s poor COVID-19 policies. You might have seen media coverage splashed across many platforms and networks.  It’s also been a long month here as our hospitals are overrun and our campuses saw…

variegated gray stone surface with IN MEMORIAN etched into it

Remembering Mel Goldfinger, a Tireless Faculty Advocate

BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM Melvyn Goldfinger, who was associate professor of neuroscience, cell biology, and physiology at Wright State University, died on September 17 at the age of seventy-four. Mel Goldfinger was a champion for academic freedom, shared governance, and the economic security of the faculty–the three bedrock principles of the AAUP. It was Mel, along…