Rutgers Faculty Opposes Use of “Big Data” in Academic and Employment Decisions: Resolution Raises Concerns over Mistakes and Narrowing Scholarship

Use of a proprietary database that purports to show the publications, citations, books and grants awarded to a professor provides far too limited a perspective on faculty achievement and creates the potential for career-ending errors, according to David M. Hughes, professor of anthropology and president of the faculty union AAUP-AFT at Rutgers. The same data…

Follow-Up on EAA Protests at Eastern Michigan University

This past week, there was a protest at Eastern Michigan University against the continuation of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) that Governor Snyder’s administration created ostensibly to “save” Detroit’s “failing” public school system. The EAA has promoted charter schools at the expense of the already under-funded public schools, while producing no improvement in the educations…

Speaking of Ill-Considered Decisions by Boards of Trustees—Despite Very Vocal Faculty and Student Concerns

The following “Breaking News” item was distributed today by the Detroit Free-Press: “Eastern Michigan University’s Board of Regents today stood with Gov. Snyder and declined to vote on the future of the Education Achievement Authority. That keeps the reform district running for now—at least until Snyder introduces legislation aimed at a new effort to improve education in…

Overhauling Our Boards of Trustees

John Zipp, the president of the AAUP chapter at the University of Akron, recently contributed an op-ed, titled “University Board Selection Process Needs Shake-Up,” to the Columbus Dispatch. After opening with a range of examples of how the Boards of Trustees of Ohio’s public universities have recently made ill-considered decisions–often despite very vocal concerns expressed…

Duncan: For-Profit College Chain Guilty of Lying to DoE about Deceptive Recruiting Practices but Students Not Deceived by Those Practices

As if anyone needed further proof that Arne Duncan could not care less about students, consider his logic on the settlement reached with Education Management, the for-profit college corporation. What follows is taken from a Huffington Post article by Shahien Nasiripour: “A trio of Senate Democrats on Monday sharply rebuked outgoing Education Secretary Arne Duncan…

More on Academic Programs Subsidizing Intercollegiate Athletics

In an article for the Buffalo News, Jay Tokasz has reported yet another example of how our institutions are spending exorbitant sums to subsidize intercollegiate athletics—at the expense of academic programs and students. Here are the opening paragraphs from Tokasz article, “Small Crowds, Big Subsidy for UB Sports”:   “The price of pursuing athletic glory…