Safety, Secrecy and Security
If college campuses are to be safe spaces, the goal needs to be to make them safe for everyone—even faculty. With tenure reduced and enfeebled and secret investigations commonplace, I have seen seasoned professors tremble with fear. They feel unsafe and unsupported by administrators and staff and have seen how processes meant to protect can…
Are Colleges and Universities the New Version of the Family Farm?
In the post that I made yesterday to this blog, “Why Is the Future of the University Never a University?,” I included the following observation: “All realms of human endeavor can borrow profitably from other endeavors. The ways in which one industry has responded to an opportunity or an issue can often inspire parallel innovations…
Denial of Entry to Professor Troubling
The following is the text of a statement released earlier today by the American Association of University Professors on the denial of entry to the emirate of Abu Dhabi to NYU Professor Andrew Ross. Not long after the statement was issued, news arrived of another incident involving a faculty member in Abu Dhabi. According to…
Race to the Bottom: California State University’s Ten-year Failure to Fund its Core Mission
The following is the Executive Summary of a report issued recently by the California Faculty Association, which represents all faculty in the 23-campus California State University system. The report is the first in a series. An extensive body of research has shown the unique and critical role that university faculty play in student success and…
Faculty Coalition against the Exploitation of College Athletes
A group of faculty from across the United States has formed an organization called College Athletes Rights and Empowerment Faculty Coalition (CARE-FC). The group has released a statement. Here are the introductory paragraphs: “The multibillion-dollar college-sport industry is built on the work of an unnamed and unrecognized labor force, the majority of who are racial…
A Posthumous Honor for Ted Kennedy for His Support of Labor
Remarks U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, Induction of Senator Edward M. Kennedy Into the Department of Labor Hall of Honor, Washington, D.C., March 12, 2015 [as prepared for delivery] Thank you, Chris. Mrs. Kennedy, Teddy, Patrick, Secretary Brock, Secretary Herman, friends, colleagues, thank you so much for joining us today. I looked…
The Case for the Public Intellectual as Gadfly
Andrew Bacevich, political-science professor at Boston University, has posted a new essay, “Rationalizing Lunacy: The Intellectual as Servant of the State.” It’s a look back at the role of the public intellectual within the U.S. federal government since the time of the New Deal, focusing particularly on their impact on foreign policy, the Vietnam War in specific…
Centennial Speakers Series at Wright State University: 5. Miranda Merklein
Testimony of the Chancellor of Ohio Board of Regents on the Proposed Appropriations to Higher Education
I am posting this testimony as a companion post to my earlier posting of the testimony of Ohio Conference President, John McNay, to the Ohio Senate Committee responsible for higher-education appropriations [https://academeblog.org/2015/03/05/ohio-conference-president-provides-senate-testimony-on-the-decline-in-state-support-administrate-bloat-the-cost-of-intercollegiate-athletics-and-faculty-workload/]. If you read the two posts you will notice quite a contrast in the emphases in the two statements to the Ohio legislature.…