One often hears complaints that legislators, especially at the federal level, court donations from powerful interests, introduce and seek to advance legislation that serves those interests, and then, when they leave office, continue to promote those interests as paid lobbyists. Although the monies involved might be somewhat smaller, depending on the state, the same thing…
This is a transcript of President Obama’s remarks at last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner. _________________________ Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the White House Correspondents’ dinner. A night when Washington celebrates itself. Somebody’s got to do it. And welcome to the fourth quarter of my presidency. It’s true — that’s Michelle cheering. The fact is…
As culled by The Hill and the Washington Post: _________________________ – On her ambiguous ethnicity: “I’m sort of a mashup of all the people in Hillary Clinton’s announcement video.” – “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on you people. I’m gonna go easy on you people because my brain is…
The faculty at Miami University in Ohio have formed an advocacy chapter, initially consisting of about 100 of the university’s 700 full-time faculty. The formation of the chapter will be marked formally with an on-campus event on April 29, featuring a talk by AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum. An article in the Dayton Daily News notes…
This post is an elaboration on a message that was sent to the members of our chapter at Wright State University, which itself was collaboratively drafted and developed from a message distributed by the chapter leadership at the University of Cincinnati. (In these kinds of things, it is “collaboration” and “sharing,” not “plagiarism.”) We have…
Moody’s has just released a report indicating that just ten universities control over 30% of the total institutional wealth in higher education. The first number in brackets is the previous year’s total; so it is very clear that, here as elsewhere, the rich are now getting much richer one year to the next. The second…
Testimony of John McNay, Ph.D., President Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors Before the House Finance Committee Representative Ryan Smith, Chair April 16, 2015 Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Driehaus, and distinguished members of the Finance Committee: my name is John McNay and I am President of the Ohio Conference of the…
Earlier today, Tuesday, April 14, House Republicans unveiled Substitute House Bill 64, which contained their revisions to the governor’s budget. Most alarming about the substitute bill were new provisions that would reclassify faculty as managers if they participate in any sort of decision-making at their institutions. If faculty are managers, then they are not employees,…
Item 1 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville To direct school staff on how to respond to a visitor who is carrying a visible firearm, a school district in Michigan has distributed the following flow chart: I would like to be able to say that one cannot help but feel…
Item 2 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville In 2013, 17 states and the District of Columbia, gun-related deaths exceeded traffic-related deaths: Alaska: 144 gun deaths, 66 motor vehicle deaths Arizona: 941 gun deaths, 863 motor vehicle deaths Colorado: 619 gun deaths, 514 motor vehicle deaths District of Columbia: 71…