By Stephen Kuusisto We are living in the age of autocracy, a matter that’s clear, as every conceivable matter of public concern is about who controls what. It is hard to derive solace from the assertion America was always an oligarchy, that our founders were aristocrats, wealthy, and privileged. The second President of the…
Guest blogger Lyn S. Graybill had earlier taught in West Africa as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Fourah Bay College of the University of Sierra Leone. When the plane landed in Abidjan in August, I was excited. I had been accepted under a three year contract to teach Political Science courses at the International University of Grand-Bassam,…
September 1, 2015: When we released our letter on August 27, 2015 we had 125 signers. Despite the intimidation and harassment we have received at this blog site and elsewhere, more faculty have written to us asking that their names be included in the list of signatories–we now number 135. We are heartened by our…
The cover story of this month’s Atlantic magazine features Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s essay on “The Coddling of the American Mind.” Their thesis is simple: “A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense.” Unfortunately, their thesis…
In an apparently unintentional proof of the old adage that the term “military intelligence” is an oxymoron, an assistant professor in the law department of the US Military Academy at West Point has argued that legal scholars critical of the war on terrorism represent a “treasonous” fifth column that should be attacked as enemy combatants. …
I’ve had a strange fascination with an education start-up called Minerva for some time now. They’re a Silicon-Valley inspired online operation that has actually enrolled students now. Yet unlike so many other for-profit education ventures they’ve always aspired to be highly selective – the first “Online Ivy.” I think the source of my fascination stems…
In an e-mail from Professor Steven Salaita’s attorneys, the fired academic from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign addresses the issue of document destruction and concealment: “The revelation that top administrators at the University of Illinois destroyed evidence is disheartening. The wonderful students and scholars at the university have a right to expect transparency and…
By Andrew Scheinman The fallout at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) continues unabated: the Chancellor and Provost have both “stepped down,” and Steven Salaita’s legal team’s added destruction of evidence claims to their lawsuit. Here in Urbana-Champaign we’re having a “red soybeans” moment, what with the show-trials and blood sports already occurring and, no…
James Barrett, an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Illinois and Urbana-Champaign, wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the local News-Gazette, “2 Faculty Members Have Weakened UI.” The two are Nick Burbules and Joyce Tolliver, both of whom were involved in the ‘off-server’ email conversations of ex-Chancellor Phyllis Wise. Barrett writes: administrators relied upon this ad hoc consultation…
Chuck Rybak posted “UW Struggle: Scrap the Tenure File Edition” yesterday on his blog. It’s worth reading, especially since what is happening in Wisconsin could easily happen elsewhere–and probably will, soon. He writes: Tenure no longer exists in Wisconsin. We have entered the era of pretendure. The only moral thing to do, right now, is…