Opening Minds, Opening Doors at CSCU
BY PATTY O’NEILL The op-ed below was originally published in the CT Mirror, and we are posting it here with the permission of the author. Our communities have been shaken to their core. COVID-19 has taken loved ones, jobs have vanished, and racial injustice continues unabated. But we have also witnessed the everyday heroism of ordinary people.…
Teaching and Learning Relationships across Modalities
BY KIMBERLY HARDING Spring 2020 was the unanticipated semester. Few thought in January 2020 that we would be teaching remotely by the end of March. Even then, hope existed that Fall 2020 would emerge as a more “normal” semester. This hope has since been put to rest for most institutions of higher learning. During this…
What Chutzpah Looks Like
BY ELYSE CRYSTALL In my circle of family and friends in Brooklyn, the word chutzpah could indicate admiration for someone who asserted herself, spoke truth to power in spite of what others thought: “She had the chutzpah to challenge the senator’s policy on Medicaid expansion.” More often, however, chutzpah expressed disgust at a person who…
Investigation into Governance Issues Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic
BY GREGORY SCHOLTZ The American Association of University Professors has authorized an investigation of the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on seven institutions: Canisius College (NY), Illinois Wesleyan University, Keuka College (NY), Marian University(WI), Medaille College (NY), National University (CA), and Wittenberg University…
No Common Good at an Uncommon Institution
BY HUEY-LI LI In the middle of World War II, the AAUP published its oft-quoted 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure in order to “promote public understanding and support of academic freedom and tenure and agreement upon procedures to ensure them in colleges and universities.” In response to the outbreak of the…
Webinars!
BY HANK REICHMAN Two webinars in which I had the pleasure and privilege of participating are now available to view as video recordings on the web. Here is the first, originally scheduled as a live presentation at the annual conference of the National Center for for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and…
Is the Managed Campus a Graveyard?
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF This post is excerpted from the introduction to volume 11 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. The entire volume will be available on September 22. The managed campus and the governed campus represent opposing visions of higher education. In practice and by definition, the managed campus is antithetical to both…
Labor Day as a Tribute to Interdependence
BY DAVE CRAWFORD With permission of the author, we share below the text of a message he sent to members of his AAUP chapter, the Fairfield University Faculty Welfare Committee / AAUP, on Labor Day. As most of us know, “Labor Day . . . constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have…
The COVID Reopening Disasters
BY HANK REICHMAN This chart of new coronavirus cases by metropolitan area during the past two weeks comes from the New York Times: Metro or micro area Population Recent cases Per 1,000 1 Ames, Iowa 97,117 964 8.2 2 Iowa City, Iowa 173,105 1,664 7.6 3 Auburn-Opelika, Ala. 164,542 1,430 7.4 4 Muskogee, Okla. 67,997…