BY HANK REICHMAN In a unanimous decision issued today (April 14), a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal for the Second District overturned the infamous lower court decision in Vergara v. State of California, which had declared tenure and seniority protections for K-12 teachers enshrined in California’s Education Code unconstitutional. Los Angeles County…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last month I posted a piece to this blog commenting on a recent book and op-ed by two conservative scholars, which argues persuasively that “right-wing hand-wringing about higher education is overblown” and that “conservatives survive and even thrive in one of America’s most progressive professions.” Now comes an essay posted today on…
The following message from Barbara Bowen, President of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), a joint AAUP-AFT union representing faculty and staff at the City University of New York, was sent to all PSC members. It is taken from the PSC website. For previous posts on the PSC’s six-year battle for a fair contract go here.…
BY HANK REICHMAN This is the second in a series examining issues in the University of California (UC) system, the nation’s premier public research university. The first entry in the series, on the UC’s funding challenge, may be found here. On March 5, I began a post on this blog entitled “Corporatizers Gone Wild!” with…
BY HANK REICHMAN This is the first in a series examining issues in the University of California system, the nation’s premier public research university. As if the University of California system did not have enough problems with embarrassing sexual harassment scandals at Berkeley and a growing movement to fire Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi for alleged…
The following piece by Christopher Newfield, Professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is re-posted with permission from his Remaking the University blog. Somewhere Michael Lewis tells the story about what the boss of a trading floor–perhaps John Meriwether–would do when a trader hung on too long to a losing position,…
The following message from California Faculty Association (CFA) President Jennifer Eagan was sent this morning to California State University faculty members: April 8, 2016 Greetings Faculty Colleagues, The CFA Board of Directors, upon recommendation of the Bargaining Team, has recommended that a tentative agreement between CFA and CSU management be submitted to the membership for…
The following media advisory was released this afternoon: MEDIA ADVISORY CFA and CSU To Announce Tentative Agreement What: California Faculty Association and California State University leaders will hold a joint news conference call for news media to announce a tentative agreement on a reopened contract between the university administration and faculty union. The proposed five-day…
Today the administration of the California State University (CSU) and the leadership of the California Faculty Association (CFA) released the following statement: Faculty Union & CSU Announce 48-Hour Blackout on Strike Preparations, News & Communication ** Blackout period to allow negotiations to continue without interruption ** (April 6, 2016) —There is hope that talks…
BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of my keynote address at the annual plenary of the University Senate at the University of Pittsburgh on March 30, 2016. Some passages in the text are taken from my essay, “Does Academic Freedom Have a Future?,” published in the November-December 2015 issue of Academe. I am…