BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Jacqueline Stevens and her attorney Rima Kapitan had contacted Illinois Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure concerning violations of AAUP standards at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Academe blog covered elements of her case, and this is an update of the Association’s engagement in the matter. Professor Stevens was forced to undergo…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Norman G. Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul University in one of the most significant academic freedom cases of our time. It haunts many in the academic-freedom struggle, and has left an indelible wound in the Chicago area as many continue to feel the outrage of such persecution and inattention to…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN In 2011, Saint Xavier University adjunct faculty voted to organize under the banner of the Illinois Education Association. President Christine Wiseman challenged the right of adjunct faculty at the Sisters of Mercy Catholic institution to unionize, in claiming a religious exemption under the First Amendment. Federal labour law, they argued, should not apply to…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN I was interviewed on Comcast Public Perspectives in the Chicagoland area on academic freedom in July, but they just posted the YouTube video. The half-hour show covers the AAUP Illinois Conference Committee A, the Finkelstein and Salaita cases, the contingent faculty explosion, and the Douglas Crowe case at Bradley University. I speak only for…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Our Collective Bargaining Agreement at a private Catholic institution has a no-strike-no-lockout clause: ARTICLE 6: NO STRIKE, NO LOCKOUT Neither the Union nor any member of the bargaining unit shall, during the term of this Agreement, instigate, engage in, support, encourage, or condone any strike, work stoppage, other concerted refusal to…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN The LIU lockout is ending at 11:59 pm tonight. The administration capitulated to the faculty’s request for a mediator to settle the contract. Faculty will be reimbursed for any health costs incurred during the lockout. http://bit.ly/2csyx7k Dear LIUFF Colleagues, We have won a victory. The administration will end their unprecedented lockout effective 11:59 p.m.…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Melissa Click, who called for “some muscle” to thwart student academic freedom to film an on-campus anti-racism protest at the University of Missouri, is now on the faculty of Gonzaga University. According to the Chicago Tribune, Professor Click has a one-year appointment in the undergraduate communication studies department. She is listed on their website at the Roman…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN One of the concerns that emerged during the ideological purge of Steven Salaita was its potential evisceration of the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Many feared that the vile assault on academic freedom and shared governance that precipitated the irreparable harm of a tenured professor’s career, would…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Five years ago my university, Saint Xavier, prevented the counting of adjunct ballots for the purpose of organizing collectively with the Illinois Education Association (I.E.A.). I testified before the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago. I was under subpoena and it was very intense. In the room were…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN “Yes Virginia, there is a constitution”: an AAUP constitution. While inexplicably not included in the “centennial” edition of the Redbook, (American Association of University Professors Policy Documents and Reports, 2015, Eleventh Edition) there is indeed an AAUP constitution. It does appear along with an excellent preambular historical statement on pp. 283-90 in the tenth edition…