BY KELLY HAND Kelly Wilz, author of the May–June Academe article “A Day in the Life of a Public University Professor in Wisconsin,” recently won the 2015–16 Teacher Excellence Award given by the student body of the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County. Becoming an award-winning teacher is never easy, but as Wilz’s article demonstrates, it has…
The following excerpts from an Associated Press news story on the website of the ABC channel WLS-TV in Chicago provides on update on the longer term impact of the ongoing state budget battle in Illinois: “High school seniors’ unease over the lack of state funding for Illinois universities is contributing to a drop in applications…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Last week, Thomas Farragher provided some thoughtful commentary on the perils of underfunding public higher education in Massachusetts. It’s an important discussion that reaches well beyond how much money flows to higher education. Mr. Farragher argued that the cost of attending U Mass Amherst is $26,445 annually but that tuition is…
This post is a follow-up to my recent post on the elimination of faculty and staff positions at Northern Kentucky University. Writing for the Lexington Herald-Leader, Linda Blackford reports: “Facing a $26 million shortfall caused by declining enrollment and a decade of budget cuts from state government, Kentucky’s community college system has cut 506…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Few Colorado taxpayers, students and hard-working, devoted, adjunct faculty members are aware that there is not one person — among the hundreds of six-figure-earning administrators in the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) — charged with advocating for paying adjunct faculty a living wage. In fact, recent, historic events prove that part of…
Writing for the Cincinnati Inquirer, Kate Murphy reports that Northern Kentucky University will eliminate “more than 100 faculty and staff positions” to cover an $8 million budget shortfall. The announcement came on the heels of a ruling by Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate that “Gov. Matt Bevin can cut the budgets of public colleges and…
BY KELLY WILZ The narrative surrounding higher education in Wisconsin is yet again being defined by those who do not work in higher education and unfortunately, as we’ve seen before, this line of attack is incredibly persuasive. “The No Confidence vote isn’t really about President Cross or the Board of Regents. The radical faculty at UW-Madison are rejecting…
These are the opening paragraphs from a report by WLS—ABC, Channel 7, in Chicago: “Chicago State University laid off more than 300 people due to lack of funding during the ongoing state budget impasse. The layoffs were announced Friday [April 29] and effective immediately. “The school has been struggling with budget issues for months. Just…
On Monday, April 25, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation providing $600 million for the state’s public universities and community colleges, funding that may help to keep the campuses open through the summer while the budget battle between the Republican governor and Democratic legislature continues. Rauner released a statement suggesting that the bill “doesn’t solve…