LSU, F. King Alexander, Profanity, and Harassment

Last week the AAUP released a supplementary report about the dismissal of tenured professor Teresa Buchanan from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, which has been on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations since 2012.  The report raises questions about the extent to which LSU followed its own policies and AAUP-approved principles of due process in…

The Accreditation Wars: Where are the Faculty?

Inside Higher Ed has since its creation some years ago earned a largely justified reputation as a site more hospitable to views outside of the educational establishment and, in particular, views reflecting faculty experiences than other media covering higher education.  Therefore it was disappointing this morning to read Doug Lederman’s lengthy article on debates over…

Should Dissenting Professors Be Military Targets?

In an apparently unintentional proof of the old adage that the term “military intelligence” is an oxymoron, an assistant professor in the law department of the US Military Academy at West Point has argued that legal scholars critical of the war on terrorism represent a “treasonous” fifth column that should be attacked as enemy combatants. …

How to Fight for Education Funding

Maybe some of us in higher education might think about what these K-12 teachers in Washington State have done, as reported in Labor Notes: Lawmakers in Washington state are scrambling to get ready for a special session after the state’s highest court announced it will start charging a penalty of $100,000 per day while legislators…

California Task Force Recommends Replacing ACCJC

If you have been following my long series of posts about the accreditation controversy at City College of San Francisco (CCSF), you are aware that I have been one of many critics of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), an independent entity of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) charged…

U.S. Politics for "Tech Nerds" (and Everyone Else)

I usually try to limit my posts on this blog to issues directly involving higher education.  But as AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum has pointed out, “the attack on higher education as a public good is a political attack” that “requires us to respond by entering the arena of politics.”  And today, via Paul Krugman’s blog,…

Must-See Video: The Yes Men Pose as Members of the Iowa Regents’ Efficiency Review Committee

The Yes Men — whose slogan is “impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them, and otherwise giving journalists excuses to cover important issues” — delivered a satirical speech yesterday at the Iowa City Public Library wherein they posed as representatives of the Iowa Regents, as well as the private consulting firm that is doing the…

The Most Common Job Held by Immigrants in Each State

The following map was created by Andy Kierz at the website Business Insider.  Much of its content is not surprising: the most common jobs for immigrants on west coast are in agriculture, in the south housekeeping and construction.  But note that in four states — Maine, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio — the most common job…