Chicago Teachers Authorize Strike
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, the union announced today. If that happens it would be the union’s second walkout in four years. “Chicago Teachers Union members do not want to strike, but we do demand that you listen to us,” Jesse Sharkey, the vice president of the union,…
Unanimous Vote: Part-time Faculty Emerson College’s Los Angeles Campus Win Union Representation
The following statement was released today by the AAUP: On Friday, 22 part-time faculty at the Los Angeles campus of Emerson College overwhelmingly won a National Labor Relations Board-supervised election for union representation, choosing to be represented by the American Association of University Professors. The vote was 16-0. “We decided to form a union because…
Justice Scalia, Affirmative Action, and the Bogus Theory of “Mismatch”
In case you haven’t heard yet, here’s what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had to say yesterday during oral arguments over the case, Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, which centers on the constitutionality of admissions criteria that take race into consideration as one factor, what remains of the principle of…
What Do Professors Do?
Early in his controversial 14-year tenure as Chancellor of the California State University system, Charles Reed notoriously told a public audience that faculty members work only two or three days a week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The comment sparked a firestorm of protest, but it sadly reflected an all too common perception among…
More on Student Evaluations
Two days ago I posted an item, Questioning Student Evaluations, which reported on two studies that call into doubt the utility of student evaluations of teaching as a mechanism for determining teacher effectiveness. In response, AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum, an economist, shared the following paper, adapted from an FAQ he prepared years ago for faculty…
Questioning Student Evaluations
Most colleges and universities are nearing the end of their fall terms. Hence it’s time not only for final examinations but also for collecting student evaluations of teaching (SET). Student ratings can be high-stakes. They’re used to evaluate teaching when faculty members are being considered for tenure or promotions. They’re also employed in decisions as…
The Assault on Climate Science
Today’s New York Times has a terrific op-ed piece by Michael Mann, who directs the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University and is a member of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Mann writes about the efforts of Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space…
On the Resignation of Erika Christakis
I just learned this morning via a report on Inside Higher Ed that Erika Christakis, the associate master of one of Yale University’s residential colleges, has decided to stop teaching at the university, in part because of the continuing controversy over an email message she sent about Halloween costumes. Although some students have demanded her…
AAUP Supports the University of Washington Center for Human Rights
Sometime between October 15-18, the office of Dr. Angelina Godoy, Director of the University of Washington (UW) Center for Human Rights, was broken into and her desktop computer and a hard drive containing sensitive information about a recent lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency were stolen. Godoy reported that the hard drive contained “about 90…