Student Op-Ed on Koch “Gifts”

  This is a letter written by George Mason sophomore Mark Hammond to the George Mason student newspaper, The Fourth Estate. For some reason, that newspaper never published it on its website; so he has given permission to Connor Gibson, a co-founder of the group Un-Koch My Campus, to disseminate it. _________________________ “Last fall, when…

Sherrod Brown on Charter-School Waste

  The following letter was sent by Sherrod Brown to Secretary of Education John King. (I have omitted a half-dozen footnotes that cite the sources for the details that Senator Brown highlights.) The letter illustrates why Sherrod Brown is a very effective and widely respected progressive Senator in a “purple” state. _________________________ June 20, 2016…

Privatization of Campus Services in Broader Context

My most recent post reports on the efforts at Eastern Michigan University to forestall the privatization of the institution’s dining services. In a post to the Miami University of Ohio chapter’s Facebook page, Cathy Wagner has provided not just a parallel example of this sort of privatization at that institution but a broader perspective on…

AAUP Chapter Fights Dining Services Outsourcing

Faculty and other workers at Eastern Michigan University are fighting a move by the EMU board of regents to privatize dining services at the institution. In April, according to the EMU All Union Council, which includes unions representing tenure and non-tenure-­track faculty, food service and maintenance workers and clerical employees, a request for proposals (RFP) for…

How the Cutting Edge Does Damage

BY MARTIN KICH An article on the AsiaOne website cites a news item that originally appeared in the Huaxi Metropolis Daily, reporting that “a robot is being designed to compete with 12th graders during the college entrance examination in 2017 and get a score qualifying it to enter first-class universities in China.” Indeed, in the…

UnKoch George Mason?

BY HANK REICHMAN This blog has in the past posted several items concerning the efforts by the notorious conservative Charles Koch Foundation to influence curriculum and even hiring at institutions of higher education.  Early last month I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion of the issue at the annual higher education conference…

The Suspension of Linda Katehi

BY HANK REICHMAN On April 27, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced that Linda Katehi, Chancellor of the UC Davis campus, had been placed on “investigatory leave.”  The action came in the wake of repeated calls by legislators for Katehi’s resignation or dismissal.  This was not yet, as some have reported, tantamount to her…