BY RACHEL IDA BUFF University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. I had a rough day at work on Friday for the usual reasons: administrative overreach, lack of support for the actual education work of the university. As on countless previous occasions, I left my office discouraged. But this day was different from a thousand other Fridays on campus.…
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF On April 7, Marquette University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), with full knowledge and consent by the university administration, planted 41,000 flags to symbolize the death toll from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. That night, three Zionist educators not affiliated with the university desecrated the memorial. One of them carried…
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MILWAUKEE AAUP As faculty, staff, and students prepare to return to a newly re-opened campus this fall, UWM AAUP reminds us of the centrality of academic freedom and democratic governance in ensuring our collective safety and public health. The Covid-19 pandemic is not over. Faculty, staff, and students must be free…
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF This post is excerpted from the introduction to volume 11 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. The entire volume will be available on September 22. The managed campus and the governed campus represent opposing visions of higher education. In practice and by definition, the managed campus is antithetical to both…
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF Last week, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee students organized a Peaceful Protest Against Professor Betsey Schoeller. On a warm summer evening, the event drew about 250 people, most of them young, many of them people of color. Most wore masks and stood in small clusters around Spaights Plaza, a gathering place in the…
BY BENJAMIN BALTHASER I didn’t think it could happen to a student of mine. I know the statistics: the United States incarcerates more people than any other country on the planet, both per capita and in total numbers. There are nearly two and half million people behind bars in our country; currently 65 million Americans…
BY STEVEN VICKERS Twenty visits to a doctor, thirty-two tests or screenings, six doctors, and countless pills: this is my new reality. In the summer of 2018, I began feeling flushed and nauseated. I would wake at 3am and run to the toilet to empty the contents of my stomach. I would go purchase diapers…
BY NERISSA NELSON My campus, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has had a tumultuous year of dealing with a budget deficit of $8 million over the next three years. It started as an announced administrative “document/plan” to cut 13 liberal arts majors, followed by a “reduced plan” to cut six majors and tenured faculty, and…
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF Politically progressive faculty at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, have begun organizing more actively at their workplace. Most recently, a number of them have come together to run a slate in the upcoming campus union chapter elections, setting forth a vision of building a vibrant chapter grounded in rank-and-file activism. As these…
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF When the chancellor donates his $50,000 raise to the University Food Pantry, They put out a spread. It’s delicious. Everyone gathers to eat it. The shelves are full. Since there is no more food insecurity among students, They are free to focus on learning. When the chancellor donates his $50,000…