POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This post might be subtitled: “Or My Retreat from More Broadly Absurd Political Considerations.” In CNN’s Politics Nightcap newsletter for December 22, Eric Bradner reports: The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker and Karen Tumulty had a story this morning about President-elect Donald Trump’s casting call for “the look” — and included this tidbit…
BY MARTIN KICH In 1966, the University of Texas at Austin was the site of America’s first mass shooting on a college campus. Now, 50 years later, students can carry guns on campus. It has created a tense environment, where students and professors alike are not sure who might have a weapon. “Universities are meant to…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Sub-Saharan Africa, Part 2 In a March 2015 opinion piece for the Globe and Mail, Busani Ngcaweni and Robert Nkuna address the role of political dissent in the reshaping of South Africa’s universities and of the nation itself. Ngcawenu and Nkuna begin by drawing an unsettling contrast: “Allister Sparks believes apartheid…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In an article in the New York Times titled “A Peek inside the Strange World of Fake Academia,” Kevin Carey has provided much illustrative detail on the burgeoning business in very dubious academic conferences, impostor academic societies, and predatory journals. Beyond some of the illustrative detail that is often as compelling…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Sub-Saharan Africa, Part 1 In late spring 2015, tensions between the federal government of Nigeria and two group’s representing faculty at Nigerian colleges and universities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), became a very public issue. The federal government had failed to…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Currently featured on the website of University Business magazine is an article by Matt Zalaznick titled “‘New Voices’ Laws Aim to Ensure Student Press Freedoms in Higher Ed: College Media Outlets, However, Face More Threats than Just Censorship.” Zalaznick reports: “Campus newspapers face many of the same challenges confronting the professional…