Of all the responses to Arne’s Duncan’s announced resignation from the Department of Education, Diane Ravitch’s has the most succinct and incisive: “In the car yesterday, I heard a report that Arne Dyncan was stepping down. President Obama said: He did more than anyone else to bring American education into the 21at century, sometimes kicking…
In an opinion piece published several days ago in the Wall Street Journal, Harvey J. Graff, an English professor at Ohio State University has, in essence, provided readers with “An Education in Sloganeering” in the process of delineating why the university is a case “study in institutional puffery.” Here are the first few paragraphs…
One of the most disheartening events of this past summer on the Academe blog was the rise of invective in the comments that started with our posting of a guest commentary by a group of scholars with particular connections to–or interests in–India. The vituperation exhibited astonished me, and it came in the dozens and then hundreds (to…
In the late afternoon on Thursday, September 24, between 80 and 100 faculty and students at Miami University attended a presentation by CBC Chair Howard Bunsis on the university’s finances. The event was hosted by the relatively new but quickly growing AAUP advocacy chapter at the university. The presentation received fairly detailed coverage in the…
Today, it has been announced that Arne Duncan, who has “rescued public education” by promoting the expansion of corporate-operated charter schools and corporate-provided standardized testing, is leaving his post as Secretary of Education. That would be cause for a deep sigh of relief, if not a loud cheer—except that his replacement will be John B.…
Over the past few decades, multicultural studies, diaspora studies, and cross-cultural and transnational studies have all provoked considerable scholarly interest and have become distinct disciplines, reflecting the dramatic increase in the mobility of the global population. In the midst of these broader movements of people, corporations have placed considerable value on international studies, foreign-language studies,…
Michael Behrent, the president of the Appalachian State University chapter of the AAUP, and John Steen, Program Coordinator of Scholars for North Carolina’s Future (with contribution from Jim Carmichael, professor at UNC Greensboro and president of the AAUP’s North Carolina Conference) have an op-ed today in The News & Observer or Raleigh, NC entitled “Outrageous move to foster runaway…
Last year, Michigan State University hosted a conference on “Neoliberalism in Public Higher Education.” I was supposed to present a paper at the conference, but because I became ill will some sort of virus, John McNay was kind enough to present the paper for me. The conference has created a sense of shared purpose among…
OCAAUP President John McNay appeared on “WHIO Reports,” a local news show in Dayton, to discuss the issue of administrative bloat at Ohio’s public colleges and universities. McNay was joined by conservative Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, as well as Dayton Daily News reporter Josh Sweigart and host Jim Otte. McNay used the opportunity to discuss the…
In the current issue of Academe, AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum explores the question, “What’s New about Today’s Corporate University?” He concludes: Corporations today are interested not just in controlling those who might criticize their agenda but also in using institutions of higher education as publicly financed research centers and privately financed (tuition-funded) training facilities that focus on…