BY HANK REICHMAN [CORRECTION: Professor Mann has pointed out to me that the damage award was made two years ago. Someone tweeted a link to a story on it this week and I mistakenly thought it was current. Nevertheless, the issue certainly is still alive] The Virginia Supreme Court has [in July 2014] ordered the…
BY HANK REICHMAN Very few academics were much surprised when it turned out that Donald Trump’s highly advertised “Trump University” turned out to be nothing more than a sleazy scam. After all, in some respects Trump’s con was not much different from that engaged in by too many other for-profit “educational” institutions, except, perhaps, that…
BY JOERG TIEDE Quincy Wright (1890-1970) served as the 20th president of the AAUP from 1944 to 1946. At the time of his election to the presidency, Wright had already served for almost two decades on Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and he would continue to serve on the committee for another decade.…
BY LOREN GLASS Loren Glass is a Professor of English at the University of Iowa. This op-ed appeared last week in the Quad City Times. Based on recent statements by University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld as well as various members and representatives of the Iowa Board of Regents it would seem that there is…
BY JOERG TIEDE Women professors were among the charter members at the AAUP’s founding, although their numbers in the early history of the Association are hard to reconstruct. In 1917 Vassar College professor Lucy Salmon was elected as the first woman member of council, and in 1925 Wellesley College professor Mary Calkins was the first woman…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The AAUP Foundation Board has approved funds to cover registration fees for up to six faculty members to attend the AAUP Shared Governance Conference and Workshops, with preference given to candidates who are likely to broaden the diversity of shared governance on their campuses. Interested candidates should contact AAUP Executive Director Julie…
BY JOERG TIEDE Walter P. Metzger, professor of history at Columbia University for his entire career and the AAUP’s official historian for most of that time, has passed away. Professor Metzger dedicated his entire professional life to the AAUP, both by contributing to the ongoing work of the Association, in particular on Committee A on Academic Freedom…
Peter Wood at Minding the Campus complains about the AAUP’s unanimous vote to censure the University of Missouri Board of Curators because “the AAUP has yet to find anyone to censure over abuses of Title IX.” What the hell does that mean? The AAUP censure list is a list of university administrations. The AAUP has…
In March I reposted from the WMU-AAUP blog comments delivered to the Western Michigan University (WMU) Board of Trustees by WMU-AAUP President and AAUP national Council member Lisa Minnick. Below are comments delivered today, June 29, to the same board by Professor Minnick. They offer a truly eloquent and effective defense of fundamental academic values…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article by Peter Schmidt entitled “AAUP Rethinks How It Fights Governing Boards.” In a nutshell, the piece argues that as college and university governing boards, often overseeing multiple state institutions, increasingly overreach and interfere in governance matters best left to faculty and administrators, the…