Links and Random Thoughts on the “Sokal Squared” Hoax

BY HANK REICHMAN Last week three scholars published an article reporting on how they had submitted over twenty fraudulent and purportedly ridiculous nonsense papers to various journals in gender and diversity studies.  Seven were accepted, four were published online, and three were in process when the authors “had to take the project public prematurely and…

Academic Freedom Explored at FACCC/AAUP Conference

BY HANK REICHMAN On Friday, September 28, about 100 California community college faculty members gathered at Berkeley City College for a day-long conference on academic freedom co-sponsored by the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges Educational Institute (FACCC-EI) and the AAUP Foundation.  The conference highlighted the growing importance of academic freedom in community colleges…

Standing with Professional Ethics

BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday a group of faculty supporters of the BDS movement posted to this blog a statement, “Standing with John Cheney-Lippold,” which called on readers to support University of Michigan Professor Cheney-Lippold’s decision not to write a letter of recommendation for a student seeking to study for a semester in Israel.  They offer…

Targeted Harassment and the Kavanaugh Nomination

BY HANK REICHMAN Recently the AAUP and others have been calling attention to the growing phenomenon of targeted online (and direct) harassment of faculty members, which has become a major threat to the academic freedom of everyone in higher education.  In January 2017, the AAUP issued a statement noting how individual faculty members “have been…

Trump Once Again Attacks Science

BY HANK REICHMAN The Trump administration’s disregard for and assault on science have been well documented by the AAUP, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and others.  Now President Trump himself and his FEMA administrator, Brock Long, have attacked the credibility of a study by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, which found…

Diversity and General Education in the CSU

BY HANK REICHMAN A little more than a year ago the Chancellor of the California State University system (CSU) issued two executive orders governing general education and remediation.  The directives, prepared and released without appropriate faculty input, were immediately controversial.  In October 2017, the California Faculty Association (CFA), an AAUP-affiliate representing over 27,000 CSU faculty…

“Out of the Shadows”: Non-Tenure-Track Faculty in Canada

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this month the Canadian Association of University Teachers released results of the first national survey of contract academic staff, which is what Canadian universities call faculty hired on contingent non-tenure-track appointments.  The findings of the report, Out of the Shadows: Experiences of Contract Academic Staff, will be familiar to U.S.…