POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In “Colleges Ask for a Share of Future Salary in Lieu of Loans, “ an article written for the Associated Press and published in the Washington Post, David Jordan reports that Norwich University in Montpelier, Vermont, has become the latest post-secondary institution to adopt this alternative way for students to finance…
BY AARON BARLOW My embarkation on an academic career coincided with the rise of what we now call “social media,” then known as “the blogosphere.” At that time, many involved online cloaked themselves in anonymity in the mistaken belief that they couldn’t be discovered. That made me uncomfortable: There are many legitimate reasons for masking…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Yesterday’s daily newsletter from TheTeaParty.org featured this headline: “We’re Not Joking: Kerry’s School Lacrosse Captain Was Robert Mueller.” The news item to which the headline provided a link featured this photo: Yes, Robert Mueller and John Kerry both attended St. Paul high school and played on the same lacrosse team. This…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Rebecca Bodenheimer has contributed a freelance opinion piece to CNN that is very lucid, very galvanizing, and very much worth reading and sharing. In it, she connects to the frustrations being expressed by K-12 teachers in an ever-expanding number of states to the endemic frustrations of contingent faculty at the post-secondary…
BY MEMBERS OF YOUNG APPALACHIAN LEADERS AND LEARNERS The guest bloggers, the below-signed members of Y’ALL, are members of the Appalachian Studies Association. This statement was presented to the membership as a whole. Context On Thursday, April 12th, members of Y’ALL (Young Appalachian Leaders and Learners) met to discuss J.D. Vance’s invited participation in a…
BY AARON BARLOW One of the greatest examples of a reaction to totalitarianism is comedian Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator (1940). This very funny—when it is not tragic—movie ends with a speech resonating even in today’s political milieu. Here’s a bit from it: The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH What follows is a brief descriptive item from the daily newsletter Curbed, taken largely from the announcement from Wright Auctions: A rare work by midcentury designer Isamu Noguchi, a 1948 marble table, is expected to fetch between $1 million and $1.5 million when it heads to the auction block later this year. A…
BY PATRICIA MCGUIRE Patricia McGuire is President of Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. In 2010 she was the recipient of the AAUP’s Alexander Meiklejohn Award, given to an American college or university administrator or trustee, or to a board of trustees as a group, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to academic freedom. At…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Writing for the Associated Press, Ryan J. Foley has reported on a former University of Iowa wrestler who has been arrested on federal charges because he used keyloggers to gain access to faculty accounts and thereby get advance copies of exams and to change his own grades and those of some…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In a short article for Variety, Erin Nyren has reported that the Executive Committee of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, which awarded Harvey Weinstein the Du Bois Medal in 2014, has voted to revoke the award. The statement released by the Hutchins Center reads: “We have voted…