September 1, 2015: When we released our letter on August 27, 2015 we had 125 signers. Despite the intimidation and harassment we have received at this blog site and elsewhere, more faculty have written to us asking that their names be included in the list of signatories–we now number 135. We are heartened by our…
A new report from the Association for Public and Land-Grant Universities is titled Land-Grant but Unequal. Focusing on the funding for the HBCUs covered under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, the report offers the following conclusions: “From 2010-2012, 61 percent of 1890 land-grant institutions did not receive 100 percent of the one-to-one-matching funds from…
Here is the weekly newsletter from Education Dive, which focuses largely on digital innovations in higher education: The first article somewhat blithely acknowledges that “instructor availability” is one of the major concerns of students enrolled in MOOCs, as if it is a problem that can be resolved with more “innovation,” rather than one of the…
The following map was included in an article by Libby Nelson, published by Vox. The map originally appeared in an article by Sandhya Kambhampati and Meredith Myers in the Chronicle of Higher Education. It shows how long it would take a student working half-time at a minimum wage job to earn enough to cover one…
Phil Magness keeps attributing the growth in the percentage of part-time faculty to the rise of the for-profit universities. But his own chart seems to show that that impact has been less than one might expect. Notice that the percentage of part-time faculty at all institutions is 47%, only .4% higher than the total for…
Another element of the broader issues addressed in Aaron’s post is the disparity in the nature of adjuncting–of teaching part-time–in different disciplines and in covering different levels of courses. The adjunct faculty in professional schools very likely have full-time employment outside of the university. The same is true for the great majority of adjunct faculty…
Forbes September 7, 2015 issue will contain an article “Black Arts: The $800 Million Family Selling Art Degrees and False Hopes” by Katia Savchuk. It’s about the for-profit Academy of Art University, another of such colleges that expanded greatly over the last couple of decades. Since 1992, its “enrollment has skyrocketed from 2,200 to 16,000,…
The following is from an article by Rick Armon for the Akron Beacon-Journal: “The University of Akron is rehiring UA Press workers that it let go last month and says its publishing arm will remain ‘a vibrant, active academic press.’ “’The University of Akron Press has been and will continue to be a vital part…
When state governments began cutting state support for public higher education, one of the first casualties was the federal and state funding for providing college educations to prisoners. It was politically unsustainable to compel American families to bear much more of the cost of higher education while providing such an education free of charge to…
Last week, in the New York Times, Michael J. de la Merced reported on News Corp.’s plan to sell off its unprofitable education unit. _________________________ “Amplify, a much-heralded push by News Corporation into digital education, led by Joel Klein, a former New York City schools chancellor, is nearing an inglorious end. “News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said on…