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…
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…
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,…
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 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…
Nearly three hundred academic activists convened at the University of Denver July 23–26 for the 2015 AAUP/AAUP-CBC Summer Institute. An intensive series of workshops and seminars prepared participants to organize their colleagues, stand up for academic freedom, and advocate for research and teaching as the core priorities of higher education. This was one of the…
This morning word came via AAUP Contingent Faculty Committee member Joe Berry’s indispensable COCAL Updates of the death last week of John Hess, following a six-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease. John has been described by many as, in Berry’s words, “one of the fathers of the contingent faculty movement.” The description is well-merited; John’s work…
The American Prospect, a liberal periodical, distributes a weekly e-newsletter, The Labor Prospect, highlighting the best reporting and latest developments in the labor movement. The latest missive reports, among other stories, that “more and more Americans are recognizing that unions are a crucial component in the workplace, according to a new Gallup poll. Rising five percentage points…
Today I received multiple email alerts from disciplinary associations participating in the National Humanities Alliance. The issue is threatened cuts to international education programs, specifically Title VI and Fulbright-Hays. The proposed cut would slash $25 million (35%) from Title VI and Fulbright-Hays, and it has already been passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This…
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) has upheld its 2013 decision to terminate the accreditation of City College of San Francisco (CCSF), but the move will not affect the current status of the college, which remains open and fully accredited. ACCJC announced its affirmation of the decision it made in June 2013…