My Questions for Chancellor White

BY HANK REICHMAN On February 29, California State University (CSU) Chancellor Tim White visited the CSU East Bay campus and addressed a public meeting of faculty, staff and students.  White was greeted by some 40 student and faculty demonstrators who later joined others in the audience.  As readers of this blog know, the CSU faculty…

“You get raises?”

BY JONATHAN REES Last week, I went to a meeting with our system’s Chancellor, Tony Frank, who is also the President of the Colorado State System’s flagship campus, CSU-Fort Collins. I was sitting in on a Faculty Senate meeting with no planned agenda except to ask Frank questions.  Nonetheless, almost every single question was something…

UC Faculty Associations Oppose Proposed Changes to UC Pension Plan

BY HENRY REICHMAN The following statement was released January 20 by the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA). A link to their petition can be found below. The University of California is currently considering introducing a new pension plan for its employees hired after 2016.  These proposed changes will dramatically reduce pension benefits…

Back to School in Higher Ed: Who Needs Faculty

This past fall, I somehow failed to post this notice on the most recent working paper published by the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education (CFHE). The CFHE website is located at http://futureofhighered.org/ _________________________ Executive Summary Although 50 years of research has shown that faculty/student interaction is crucial to student success, recent trends and…

Universities, Penthouses and C.E.O. Venality

As the corporate university starves its adjuncts, graduate assistants and resists unionisation, there is always room for penthouse restoration and other lavish emoluments for the C.E.O. (the president). I found it noteworthy in the New York Times, that New York University would not reveal the salary of its incoming robber baronesque C.E.O. (president) Andrew Hamilton. His coronation will take…

The Irony of it All

The pecking order: those who teach the most students are not part of the academic elite. The pecking order: those with the fewest students are the privileged, proud elite. Those who teach the most classes are paid less than those who think about teaching. The reason for the increase in academic-fiscal mismanagement is the rise of…

AAUP Leadership in Midst of CUNY Activism

On October 20, The Excelsior, the student news site at Brooklyn College published an article titled “Brooklyn College PSC Continues to Press CUNY and the State.” At the top of the article is this photo of James Davis, who served several terms on the Executive Committee of AAUP’s national Collective Bargaining Congress, and Rudy Fichtenbaum, president…

Fighting for Five With the CFA

Yesterday more than a thousand California State University (CSU) faculty members, students, and their supporters marched through Long Beach, California to the CSU Office of the Chancellor, where the CSU Board of Trustees was meeting, to rally and voice their support for the California Faculty’s Association’s “Fight for Five.”  After years of declining real salaries,…