Douglas Antola Crowe and the Exploitation of Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Faculty

BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN The Bradley University AAUP chapter contacted the Illinois Conference Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure on behalf of Professor Douglas Antola Crowe. He was a full-time non-tenure track instructor with twenty-seven years of service. He was recently non-reappointed without explanation, and fought courageously through various Bradley grievance procedures for reinstatement. He…

The Chicago Story: The Spread of Contingent Union Ferment

BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN A spectre is haunting Chicago–the spectre is academic unionism. Both the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago have witnessed the rise of contingent faculty organising success. Now at Northwestern University, a placid campus in Evanston, part-time faculty and non-tenure track full time faculty are moving rapidly in that direction. According…

A Response to Emanuel Goldman's Academe B.D.S. Article

BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Emanuel Goldman’s, “Why an Academic Boycott of Israel is Wrong,” appears in the May-June 2016 issue of Academe: Magazine of the A.A.U.P. The article is needlessly inflammatory and dismissive of ethical challenges to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Professor Goldman claims that its supporters, which includes many tens of thousands of students…

Hillary Clinton’s Race Problem

BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN In 2008, then Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (Dem. NY)–she avoids using her family name and prefers the title “Mrs.” to garner presumably the anti-feminist vote-was engaged in one of the most epic contests in American history for the Democratic-presidential nomination. In May 2008, her first presidential bid was stagnating having lost BOTH the Indiana…

Illinois Governor Turns Back on the Needy and Higher Education

BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Right-wing ideologue, Governor Bruce Rauner, has indeed demonstrated his disdain for the vulnerable and marginalised working class of Illinois. A bright, luminous red-state reactionary in blue-state, pro-union, pro-labour Illinois, he has vetoed a bill that would have given $721,000,000 to help fund higher education for income-challenged students. The Illinois General Assembly, which marked…

Loyola Adjuncts Vote to Affiliate with S.E.I.U.

BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Loyola University Chicago adjuncts voted January 27 to unionise by a vote of 142-82, They will be represented by the Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.) Local 73. Unlike other Roman Catholic Universities such as Manhattan College, Saint Xavier and Duquesne, the Loyola University administration, while opposing it, used tools of persuasion such…

H.A.W. Responds to A.H.A. Pro-Palestine Academic Freedom Resolution Defeat: New York Times Coverage

The New York Times covered the Historians Against the War resolution to protect academic freedom in Gaza and the West Bank that have been under Israeli control since the 1967 war. It stated in part: More than a half-dozen American scholarly groups have passed resolutions condemning Israel, including the American Anthropological Association, which endorsed a boycott…