We Are Just Not Working Hard Enough

Earlier this month, the Ohio Conference Communication Committee (although I formally chair the committee, our Executive Director, Sara Kilpatrick, now drafts most of the regular communications with our members) distributed the following item. Rosenberger Releases Report from Higher Education Study Committee As we reported to you in September, the Ohio House of Representatives had formed a “Higher Education…

Ohio Higher Education Coalition Holds Press Conference on Student Debt

The Ohio Conference of AAUP (OCAAUP) has joined such groups as the Ohio Education Association (OEA), Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT), New Faculty Majority (NFM), Ohio Part-Time Faculty Association (OPTFA), and Ohio Student Association (OSA) in forming a statewide advocacy group on issues related to higher education. After taking some time to create an operating…

Arts Education: Saying the Right Things Is a Start, but Then Undercutting What You Appear to Be Promoting Is Either Ineptitude or Hypocrisy

A very recent post on the Department of Education blog Homeroom promotes “Arts in the Schools Month.” Written by Doug Herbert, a special assistant in the Office of Innovation and Improvement, the post begins: “The arts are an important part of a well-rounded education for all students. Arts-rich schools, those with high-quality arts programs and…

Is Education Like a Cell Phone? A Call to Action

By Dean Murakami, President, Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges (FACCC) The following remarks were delivered at the opening general session of the FACCC Advocacy and Policy Conference in Sacramento, California on March 2, 2014.  California is finally coming out of the horrible recession where our state legislators cut the funding for community colleges…

The AFL-CIO Executive Council's Statement on Accessibility in Higher Education

February 18, 2014 At the 2013 convention in Los Angeles, the AFL-CIO reaffirmed its historical commitment to increasing access to post-secondary education and alleviating the financial burden that now too often is part of that education. Accordingly, we call on federal and state policymakers to make post-secondary training and education more accessible by ending the…

Issues with Program Review and the Role of Faculty in Shared Governance at the University of Akron

I present the article that follows this introduction, which is taken from the newsletter of the AAUP chapter at the University of Akron, because what is occurring there now is certainly occurring elsewhere and would seem to be of considerable broader interest. The political endorsements of increasing enrollments in STEM programs and the resulting allocation…

Employment Patterns in Higher Education, 2004-2012, a State by State Survey: Part 1, Alabama

This series will review the employment data for U.S. colleges and universities from 2004 to 2012. That data has been measured against enrollment, by the percentage increase in each category per 1,000 students at the institution. The five categories are: full-time faculty, part-time faculty, upper administration, professional staff, and non-professional staff (with the last three…