Coronavirus

15 Scenarios for Fall 2020

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH I have been posting a number of items related to how campuses might be re-opened in the fall 2020 semester. If you have not seen it, the following series, written by Edward J. Mahoney and Joshua Kim for Inside Higher Ed, fairly exhaustively catalogs the various ways in which courses might…

Why Billionaires Want You to Opt Out of Your Union

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This message is borrowed from our friends at the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT). Educators in Ohio are starting to be contacted by “The Freedom Foundation” to encourage them to “opt-out” of their union membership in an attempt to further weaken unions after the Janus U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Who is…

A Fundamental Change That Police Unions Need to Make

BY MARTIN KICH It is woefully obvious that individual police officers, police departments, and the municipal governments that fund law enforcement and define its responsibilities have a whole host of changes that they need to consider and to make. But the unions that represent police officers need to make at least one very fundamental change.…

Ohio Conference of AAUP Statement on Returning to Campus

BY THE OHIO AAUP CONFERENCE The COVID-19 pandemic has created a tumultuous time in Ohio higher education. The emergency shutdown of our colleges and universities has drastically changed the nature of instruction, as well as the financial situations of our institutions. This past semester, faculty across Ohio rose to the challenge of moving courses online,…

Indiana Conference of AAUP Statement on Re-Opening

BY THE INDIANA AAUP CONFERENCE The COVID-19 virus pandemic has upended higher education, as all educational institutions quickly scrambled to protect students by making all instruction virtual, and otherwise keeping social distancing, often by sending residential students home for the rest of the year. Now, as colleges and universities must plan for how the fall…

Academics for Black Survival and Wellness Week

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH A week-long series of events from Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, to Thursday, June 25, 2020    A weeklong personal and professional development initiative for academics to honor the toll of racial trauma on Black people, resist anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and facilitate accountability and collective action. Registration is encouraged. Academics for Black…

Wittenberg AAUP Sends Open Letter to University President

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following is an open letter sent by the members of the Wittenberg AAUP chapter to their university president. The Ohio Conference AAUP fully supports the chapter and their efforts to promote and enforce standards of shared governance.   June 9, 2020 An Open Letter to the President, Provost, Board of…