The happy news this week that University of Illinois President Michael Hogan will resign was followed by two disturbing pieces of information. First, a state appeals court ruling that adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago will not be allowed to be part of the tenure-track faculty union at UIC. Second, the news…
Here’s an actual job posting at the University of Chicago, Executive Director, Intellectual Capital: Chicago Booth seeks to better exploit the wealth of intellectual capital created by its faculty. The Executive Director, Intellectual Capital serves as the Chief Knowledge Officer, and is charged with creating a vision for sharing and disseminating that intellectual capital and…
By John Hinshaw Professors are often told that higher education should be run more like a business. You might think that I, as the President of the Pennsylvania AAUP, would disagree. But you’d be wrong. Look, even the AAUP is aware that higher ed has to change, and what could be better or more efficient…
Rush Limbaugh normally hates class warfare. So it was a bit unusual today when he came out and denounced millionaires. Of course, Limbaugh only hates one particular kind of millionaire: college presidents. Limbaugh declared, the bottom line here is 36 college presidents make a million dollars a year or more. Where is Occupy Wall Street?…
In June, the Department of Education released its new rules about for-profit colleges. The regulations are known as the “gainful employment” rules, because they seek to ensure that graduates are adequately prepared for the workforce (and prepared to pay off their student loans) once they leave school. The final rules were weaker than those originally…
In the new issue of Academe, Bruce Burgett argues that for public universities in states like Washington, the temptation to privatize is becoming overwhelming. He writes: Given the rise of market-based models in educational policy circles, the threat of the current moment is that the economic stress public institutions are experiencing will lead them to…
Diana Vallera is a Fine Artist and Photography Instructor at Columbia College of Chicago, and President of the Part-Time Faculty Union. In this essay based on a talk given last month at the Illinois AAUP meeting, Vallera analyzes Columbia College of Chicago (which has no connection to Columbia University), and the approach of the administration…
George Leef of Art Pope’s Center for Higher Education Policy denounces Jane Mayer’s recent profile of Pope in the New Yorker as a “scurrilous attack.” But Leef’s response reveals how accurate many of the critiques were. Leef argues, “it’s no more possible to ‘buy the curriculum’ than it is to corner the silver market.” His…
Today’s Chicago Tribune has a lengthy front-page article about how the University of Illinois’ general fund subsidizes the athletic program with $920,000 in free tuition waivers for student athletes. The University plans to reduce this number to $500,000 by 2016, but that’s clearly not enough. All universities should, at a minimum, adopt a very simple…