Light-green montage with images evoking scientific research, including beakers, models of atoms and molecules, double helixes, and a petri dish highlighted in yellow

Reckoning with the Devaluation of Academic Knowledge and Research

BY VERONICA VALENCIA GONZALEZ For decades, universities have served as bastions of knowledge, advancing research and shaping the intellectual foundation of society. Yet, in their pursuit of cost-cutting measures, these same institutions have systematically devalued the very people responsible for that progress: the faculty. The suppression of wages for professors; the erosion of tenure; the…

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Columbia Faculty Union banner declaring "I'm ready to fight for a fair contract."

Education as a Public Good: The Columbia College Faculty Union’s Strike

BY COLUMBIA FACULTY UNION, COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO This statement was submitted by the Columbia Faculty Union, Local 6602 IFT/AFT, representing part-time faculty at Columbia College Chicago, on Monday, October 30, as they began a strike.  In the heart of Chicago, the Columbia Faculty Union (CFAC) represents a diverse group of faculty members, many of whom…

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Responding to Robert Kuttner

BY HANK REICHMAN I usually admire American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner’s writings, but a short piece published online today, “The Republican Attack on Tenure,” got my hackles up a bit.  Most of the piece is fine, calling appropriate attention to the assault on both tenure and academic freedom being waged by the GOP in red…

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Image of the University of California at Berkeley

Collective Bargaining to Reprofessionalize the Faculty

BY JORDAN HARPER AND ADRIANNA KEZAR In the winter 2023 issue of Academe, our article “Reprofessionalizing the Faculty” highlights campuses that are making systemic changes to better support non-tenure-track faculty, including Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Penn State, and the University of Denver. These institutions provided insights into why supporting non-tenure-track faculty is advantageous for student success…

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The Material Conditions of Academic Labor

BY HANK REICHMAN “We are deeply concerned that the crisis of the American university–the decline of tenure-track jobs and universities’ eroding commitment to the humanities and social sciences–has created a structural crisis for scholarship.” So write the editors of the Journal of the Early Republic, published by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic…

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