POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Walkouts Held at 3 Seattle Community Colleges to Protest Funding Crisis Faculty, staff and students at South Seattle College, Seattle Central College and North Seattle College participated in walkouts on their campuses from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday [April 16]. They say state funding has dropped, causing tuition to rise to…
BY MARTIN KICH Yesterday, teachers, parents, and students across Colorado were spared any sort of repeat of the Columbine massacre, but as the anniversary of that horrible tragedy approaches, they, and all of us, were reminded of just how vulnerable our schools remain. Indeed, the same can be said about the vulnerability of most of…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH At a House committee hearing on “The Need for Leadership to Combat Climate Change and Protect National Security,” Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie was questioning former Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry is regarded as an expert on climate change who helped to develop the Paris climate accord. He has criticized President Trump…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Last Tuesday, April 9, Ohio State professor and OCAAUP member Lisa Voigt testified on House Bill 88, the “Forming Open and Robust University Minds” or FORUM Act, also called the “Campus Free Speech” bill. Calling the bill unnecessary, Voigt stated in her tstimony that the First Amendment already protects free speech…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Last Thursday, April 11, OCAAUP President John McNay testified to the Ohio House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education on House Bill 166, the biennial state budget bill. In his testimony, McNay advocated for greater State Share of Instruction funding, encouraging the committee members to seek new revenue, if need be, in…
BY MARTIN KICH In this series, I have highlighted headlines that are cleverly expressed, making use of puns, irony, figurative language, or unexpected word choices to grab a reader’s attention. Not surprisingly, the Trump administration has so unabashedly flouted all sorts of political conventions that headline writers have felt freer to write headlines that during…
BY MARTIN KICH What follows is an excerpt from Amanda Sakuma’s detailed summary, for Vox, of President Trump’s lengthy speech at the 2019 CPAC meeting: Trump announced plans to issue an executive order for free speech on college campuses At one point, Trump brought on stage Hayden Williams, a conservative activist who was allegedly punched…
BY MARTIN KICH This open letter was posted on the faculty listserve at Wright State by Julie L. Williams, Psy.D., ABPP, a Professor and Board Certified Rehabilitation Psychologist in the Wright State University-School of Professional Psychology. She has given permission to re-post it. Good afternoon…. For the past 3 weeks, I have read the strike-related email threads,…
BY MARTIN KICH On Friday, February 8, more than 75 Wright State AAUP members, members of Students4Faculty, and allies gathered first at the Ohio Statehouse and then at the Ohio Department of Higher Education to bring the causes of the three-week-long faculty strike directly to the attention of lawmakers. At the Statehouse, Faculty Senate President…
BY MARTIN KICH Board of Trustees Wright State University 282 University Hall Dayton, Ohio 45435 February 8, 2019 Dear Trustees, We write in support of the Wright State University faculty who are exercising their ability to collectively bargain to protect the fair wages and benefits of workers. We all have a shared interest in…