POSTED BY SARAH MINK Winter 2021 | Vol. 107, No. 1 This issue of Academe examines several “preexisting conditions” within higher education that the pandemic has thrown into sharp relief. These long-standing problems—blind spots, inequities, deficiencies in policies and practices—have been exacerbated during the present crisis, but they require more than short-term fixes. Follow the links in…
BY KANSAS AND MISSOURI AAUP CHAPTERS In the following petition directed at state and local politicians, Kansas and Missouri AAUP chapters demand equal prioritization for Kansas and Missouri post-secondary workers as their pre-K-12 counterparts: namely, that Kansas post-secondary workers be included in vaccine Phase 2 and Missouri workers in Phase 1b, Tier 3. Seventy-two percent…
BY JANET BOWDAN Here in Massachusetts, my university just posted a coronavirus update that notes, in passing, that “higher education is not part of Phase I and II of the vaccination plan.” Wait. Why aren’t higher education faculty and staff at least in Phase II? Obviously (at least to me), health care workers and first…
BY OGNJEN Š. MILJANIĆ The start of vaccinations against COVID-19 has brought hope that the pandemic’s end is near. Over the coming months, as things return to normal, many of the changes brought about by the pandemic will be reversed. I will be glad to see my kids return to their physical school, which will…
BY JAY M. SMITH Last summer UNC–Chapel Hill became ground zero for COVID-19, setting off a prolonged exercise in blame-shifting. The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences recently convened an emergency meeting of department chairs at which she announced the provost’s “disappointment” in the faculty. Specifically, university administrators are disappointed that so many…
BY CATHRYN BAILEY I was sitting in my high school French class the first time I got called to the principal’s office. I don’t recall what the “controversial” newspaper story was about, but we student journalists explored issues such as drunk driving, race relations, and graduation requirements. I don’t even remember if I had actually…
BY MARY A. HERMANN Research, personal experiences, and watching our academic mother colleagues navigate the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the article in the fall issue of Academe, “COVID-19, Academic Mothers, and Opportunities for the Academy,” that I coauthored with Cheryl Neale-McFall. We wrote the article late last spring when we were optimistic about the length of…
BY BENJAMIN BALTHASER AND BILL V. MULLEN As US colleges and universities were preparing to reopen their doors in August, we wrote in our fall 2020 Academe article, “The Necroliberal University,” that the reopening reflected a “necroliberal” consensus among university administrators that the benefits of a return to normalcy—and fiscal solvency—outweighed the risks of the…
BY CHERYL NEALE-MCFALL Through our research and personal experiences, we know that the struggle is real for mothers in academia, especially during this pandemic. My experience is consistent with the challenges described in “COVID-19, Academic Mothers, and Opportunities for the Academy,” an article I coauthored with Mary A. Hermann for the fall issue of Academe.…