NLRB Ruling on the Efforts of the Adjunct and Full-Time Contingent Faculty at Pacific Lutheran University to Organize a Collective Bargaining Unit

Pacific Lutheran University argued that SEIU should be prevented from organizing a collective bargaining unit for adjunct faculty at the institution for two reasons: the faculty promote the religious mission of the university and the faculty have managerial rights as described in the “Yeshiva” decision. On both counts, the NLRB (with one member providing a…

The Ideal of the American University: A Primer

At its idealistic best, the traditional vision of American higher education was one of beauty, dynamism and diversity. With undergraduate students able to take courses from as many as 40 different professors, with requirements designed to give as broad a taste of intellectual pursuits as possible, with “shared governance” assuring that corporate-style top-down influence is…

Undermining Affordability and Access to Higher Education

An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ A recent report from the New America Foundation highlights one important way access to higher education is closing down for low-income students. Even after Pell grants are factored in, the net cost of college for many of these students is still…

Deadline Approaching! Register for the CFHE Meeting in Los Angeles

The following is a letter from Susan Misenhelder of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education:   Dear CFHE friends, If you haven’t already registered, we hope you’re consulting with your organization about attending the next CFHE Gathering in Los Angeles (actually Manhattan Beach) on January 16-18, 2015. Please do plan to join us! The…

University of Oregon Graduate Students Walk Out

The following paragraphs are quoted from an article written by Diane Dietz for the Register–Guard in Eugene, Oregon: “The GTFF [Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation] demanded two weeks of paid medical or parental leave, which the university refused to grant on the grounds that graduate students are first and foremost students—and because the university doesn’t want…

Walking Papers

This is a guest post from Karen Craigo, a non-tenure-track professor at Drury University. Just the other day, professor Craigo found out that her  three-year contract was not renewed. She wrote a poem in response to her situation. To get the sack is to lose your job. We might also say canned, fired, given the boot.…

Performance Funding Is Only Increasing the Problems That It Is Ostensibly Supposed to Solve

The Community College Research Center at the Columbia University Teachers College has released a report on “Unintended Impacts of Performance Funding on Community Colleges and Universities in Three States.” The full text of this CCRC Working Paper No. 78 is available at http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/unintended-impacts-performance-funding.pdf. The report’s authors are Hana Lahr, Lara Pheatt, Kevin J. Dougherty, Sosanya…

Votes of No Confidence in Minnesota

At this past June’s annual meeting, a chapter leader suggested that AAUP ought to start tracking votes of no confidence—even if not as formally as it tracks its own investigations and censures of institutions for violations of the AAUP’s core principles of academic freedom, shared governance, and tenure/economic security. As it is now, a vote…

My Story

Last week, Robin Meade won a ruling by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, overturning a district court decision that had dismissed her lawsuit against Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Illinois. By Robin Meade The police chief handed me the envelope stating he had no idea what was in it, he was just…