New Academe Issue on Race on Campus

BY KELLY HAND The November–December issue of Academe, now available on the AAUP website, considers the racial climate on campuses from a variety of perspectives. Guest edited by Donna Young, the magazine’s articles seem all the more relevant in the aftermath of an election that heightened concerns about increasing racial polarization in American society. Many student protests on…

The Debate Over "Safe Spaces" Has Taken on New Significance

BY HANK REICHMAN For some time now colleges and universities across the country have been roiled by debates over so-called “safe spaces.”  On one side stand those who argue that many members of the higher education community, especially various minorities, need “safe spaces” free from potentially harassing behavior and verbal abuse.  Sometimes they have gone…

What's a Teacher/Scholar to Do?

BY AARON BARLOW There’s an essay on Chronicle,com by NYU professor Eric Klinenberg called “What Trump’s Win Compels Scholars To Do.” After discussing the overreach of Big Data, Klinenberg writes: There’s one other thing that universities must do better: teach student skills for learning, discerning, reasoning, and communicating in an informational environment dominated by quick…

Impacts of Prestige Seeking in Higher Education

BY DESIREE ZERQUERA Guest blogger Desiree Zerquera, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership Studies at the University of San Francisco. Her research focuses on the structuring of access and opportunity for marginalized students, particularly within urban universities. With fall recruitment in full swing, many colleges and universities may be eager to tout…

Diverse Faculty? Maybe "We Don't Want Them"

BY HANK REICHMAN “Why aren’t college faculties more racially diverse?”  That’s the important question addressed in a recent column published in the Hechinger report and the Washington Post by Marybeth Gasman, professor of higher education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Penn Center for Minority Serving…

Duke Supports NCAA’s Position on North Carolina Law

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Duke University has released the following statement on the NCAA’s decision to pull seven championship tournaments out of North Carolina in the 2016-2017 academic year: “We agree with the NCAA’s decision. Our position has been clear on this matter, which is that this legislation is discriminatory, troubling and embarrassing. We deplore…