In my original post under this title, I pointed out that the proponents of “right to work” never directly address questions about how “right to work” improves workers’ wages, benefits, or working conditions. I rhetorically asked who can possibly believe that a worker–in particular a worker receiving low to average compensation–can negotiate more effectively as…
In the very near future, I plan to post an extended comment on the passage of so-called “right to work” legislation in Michigan, as well as a series to be called “Right to Work, By the Numbers,” which will provide much detailed evidence that this sort of union-busting legislation can hardly be said to provide…
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Percentage of those enrolled in public four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009: 79%. Percentage of those enrolled in private not-for-profit four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009: 87%. Percentage of those enrolled in private for-profit four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009: 86%. Percent of…
Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, Goldwater Institute, New Republic Average annual tuition at public four-year institutions in the U.S. in 2010: $7,605. Average annual tuition at private four-year institutions in the U.S. in 2009: $27,293. Average annual tuition at public two-year institutions in the U.S. in 2009: $2,713. Percentage increase in tuition and room-and-board…
Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, New Deal 2.0, Nation of Change Total student loan debt in the U.S. in 2012: $1 trillion. Total student loan debt in the U.S. in 2011: $830 billion. Total credit-card debt in the U.S. in 2011: $826.5 billion. Total value of the federal student loans taken in 2010: $100…
This is a guest post by Adrianna Kezar and Dan Maxey. Changes in the composition of the American professoriate toward a mostly contingent workforce are raising important questions about poor working conditions for non-tenure-track faculty and connections between these conditions and student learning outcomes. Numerous studies have found the negative working conditions of these faculty have…
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been getting a lot of attention lately. The idea of free access to higher education via online classes challenges our traditional assumptions about good undergraduate pedagogy–that small class sizes and significant face-to-face time with professors are crucial to learning. As a parent with two kids at private universities, I find…
The November-December issue of Academe looks at faculty service. It is perhaps the most ambiguous of the traditional triad along with teaching and research, and the articles in this issue seek to describe the different ways that faculty conceive of service, and the different ways that service is (or is not) recognized. Read the issue…
The following is a guest post by Donna Potts, chair of the AAUP’s Assembly of State Conferences. She is also a contributor to the newest issue of Academe. In this post, she expands on the issues in her Academe article. Watching the movie Taken, in which Liam Neeson’s daughter is abducted into the sex trade and heroically…
The 98% of scientists who have been warning of climate change that is perilously close to becoming irreversible have pointed repeatedly to the rapidly shrinking polar ice caps. Unfortunately, “global warming” predated “climate change” as the term for this crisis. So, despite considerable video evidence of the ice sheets sliding into the sea, if it…