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…
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…
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…
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…
Direct the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents to put off the privatization of dining services for at least one year, as we do not believe that students should put up with mold, human hair and under-cooked meat, and we do not believe students should be left out of the process. Direct the EMU administration…
The federal data that will be presented in this series of posts was analyzed by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NCIR) in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research. The NECIR story on the data and its implications, written by Jon Marcus, who is currently an editor at the Hechinger Report, is…
The following is the text of a letter sent today by AAUP Associate Secretary Anita Levy to Dr. Ángel Cabrera, President of George Mason University, and Mr. G. Gilmer Minor III, Chair, State Council of Higher Education for Virginia: Dear President Cabrera and Chair Minor: Members of the faculty at George Mason University have advised…
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…
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…
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…