BY SHANNON DEA Shannon Dea is associate professor of philosophy and vice-president of the faculty association at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The following is re-posted with permission from University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires (universityaffairs.ca). Last month I had the privilege and honor of participating in and speaking at the triennial Harry Crowe Conference, sponsored by…
BY HANK REICHMAN On February 27, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gazette, published an article, “Iowa universities face rising mental health needs.” In that article, which reports a significant increase in the number of students seeking mental health assistance at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, we read the…
BY HANK REICHMAN Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang, arrested by Iranian authorities for alleged espionage, has now been in prison for over 900 days (see previous posts on this case here and here). February 20 will be a “day of action” in support of the imprisoned scholar, which will include a “call-a-thon” and rally…
BY HANK REICHMAN In 2017 California State University Chancellor Timothy White issued two controversial executive orders on general education and remediation that prompted a major backlash among faculty. Many opposed the substance of the orders, but most concerning was the Chancellor’s failure to engage faculty governance on either the system or campus levels. The CSU…
BY HANK REICHMAN In December I posted “Another Assault on Scholarship in Hungary,” reporting that László Lovász, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences had informed an emergency assembly of the Academy about a move by the government to drastically cut the institution’s funding. As I reported, “Innovation Minister László Palkovics had explained why he…
BY HANK REICHMAN Today Democracy Now!, the daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Rutgers University professor Juan González, ran a feature about the strike at Wright State University, which featured an interview with AAUP President and chief Wright State negotiator Rudy Fichtenbaum. You can watch it here:
BY HANK REICHMAN This week the New York Times reported that the University Senate at American University in Cairo (AUC) had on February 5 “voted overwhelmingly” to declare no confidence in the university’s president, Francis Ricciardone, a former United States ambassador to Egypt, Turkey and the Philippines and Palau. In the resolution, the Times reported,…
BY HANK REICHMAN Scholars in the humanities and social sciences are painfully familiar with the widespread and baneful trend of converting teaching positions into contingent non-tenure-track, often part-time, “adjunct” jobs. But some may not realize that a similar trend on the research side, especially in the physical and natural sciences, has emerged through the abuse…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office agreed to drop all criminal charges against Melina Abdullah, a professor and chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles and an activist in the AAUP-affiliated California Faculty Association. Prof. Abdullah, a prominent Black Lives Matter leader, faced charges of assaulting a police…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the wake of last year’s exciting wave of teacher strikes that began in West Virginia and quickly spread to Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Colorado — states where public employees lack collective bargaining rights, unions are weak, and voters supported Donald Trump — the current strike by teachers in Los…