a large tsunami wave swells up from the ocean

Don’t Believe the AI Hype

BY JONATHAN REES Do you remember MOOCs? I realize that that question is itself cliche now, but if you do remember massive open online courses you almost certainly remember the quote about how in the future there were only going to be ten universities and that “There’s a tsunami coming.” Needless to say, there are…

Crumpled white notebook paper has blue lines and a big F with a circle around it made by a red marker

Set a Good Example

BY JONATHAN REES I have seen exactly one use of AI of which I actually approve. My friend Alegria fed our faculty handbook into NotebookLM, a Google product that can set bounds on what your artificial intelligence digests. Our handbook is an absolute monstrosity. It gives me a headache just to think about it because…

"AI" appears in blue letters within a blue box with a black background and blue, intersecting lines behind it that suggest networks

Why You Should Be Unrelentingly Hostile to AI

BY JONATHAN REES This post is about the biggest threat to the jobs of college professors in America today. No, not that guy. Not the guy with the chain saw either. I’m writing about that other subject that you’re sick of reading about because it just makes you depressed. I first wrote about AI for…

screenshot showing events planned for Coalition for Action in Higher Ed April 17 Day of Action events

Everything Is Political Now

BY JONATHAN REES My chapter is planning its National Day of Action for Higher Education event on April 17. Up to this point in time, we’ve been tightly focused on organizing to improve faculty salaries, but looking around at the world today the need to broaden our scope seemed clear. It is time to get…

Light blue neon sign over dark background shows the word UNION on top with the word YES and a check mark inside a red box below it.

We Are All Workers

BY JONATHAN REES Back in December, I was listening to Adam Conover’s podcast, and his guests were the directors of Union: A Documentary Film, which is about the successful organizing effort by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island. In the discussion, I learned that the film has been unable…

Light blue neon sign over dark background shows the word UNION on top with the word YES and a check mark inside a red box below it.

Faculty Unions in Colorado Are Already Here

BY JONATHAN REES Back in the 1990s, I studied labor history at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Naturally, I belonged to the Teaching Assistants’ Association, the first graduate student union in the country. When I arrived in Colorado as a tenure-track academic, I naturally wanted to know if I could somehow duplicate my positive…

AAUP senior program officer Mike CeCesare points to a slide presentation with a quote about the role of faculty in higher education governance.

The Shared Governance Crisis in Colorado

BY JONATHAN REES The Colorado Conference of the AAUP held its annual meeting in Denver last Saturday. Our special guest was Mike DeCesare from the national AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance. He gave us a primer on shared governance. I have a feeling that most of you reading this know what shared…