New Academe Focuses Inward

POSTED BY KELLY HAND May–June 2018 | Vol. 104, No. 3 Contributors to the new issue of Academe remind us that even in the face of attacks against higher education from the outside, it is from the inside that we must work to keep our colleges and universities the best in the world. Articles include discussions of…

Wright in Your Neighborhood–Dayton Forum

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Our extended and ongoing contract impasse and our even more extended and ongoing contract campaign have made us aware of many opportunities that we have missed to connect more effectively with our members, with constituencies within our university community, and with groups in the communities that our university serves. As a…

“Wright in Your Neighborhood” Forums

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The Wright State Chapter of AAUP will be holding three community forums this semester on the value of a public university to the Miami Valley region around Dayton. We have decided that since the university seems to de-emphasize faculty in its advertising and public messaging, we will attempt to redress that…

Barbarians and Gatekeepers

BY AARON BARLOW Fifty-plus years ago, the political right began a campaign to undermine the institutions of the American political and societal system. They were out of power and had found themselves far outside of the mainstream of both political parties; lacking responsibilities within any extant institutions, they had no commitment to those landmarks of…

Why Full-Time Faculty Don’t Teach More Low-Level Courses: Amy Thompson’s Testimony

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Opponent Testimony for H.B. 66 Submitted By Dr. Amy Thompson, Professor of Public Health Chairman Duffy, Vice Chairman Antani, Ranking Member Sweeney, Members of the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, my name is Dr. Amy Thompson. For identification purposes, I am a tenured Professor of Public Health and the…

Becoming Interdisciplinary

BY AARON BARLOW “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy.” That line, and Juliet’s following thoughts, come to mind each time I listen to talk of interdisciplinary courses and programs. So bound are we by names and the divisions they create that we no longer seem able to see how ridiculous and small-minded we…

New Academe Focuses on a Profession “in the Crosshairs”

POSTED BY KELLY HAND The new September–October issue of Academe focuses on a profession that increasingly finds itself “in the crosshairs.” Articles address recent and historical instances of targeted harassment of faculty, the obligations of tenure-track faculty toward colleagues on contingent appointments, and the suppression of a course scrutinizing collegiate athletics. Follow the links in…

Fighting Outcomes

BY AARON BARLOW Underlying the mania for “assessment” and “accountability” in higher education is an elitist sensibility that, having gone unexamined for too long, has undermined real efforts at providing useful education for everyone, no matter what college or what level. Not only is it creating a two-tiered model of education, but it is changing…

From College to High School

BY GILLIAN STEINBERG When I tell people that I left a tenured university position to teach high school, most suggest that I’ve taken a significant step backwards. But with so many college teachers either underemployed or feeling desperately pressured, more might want to consider the switch to high school teaching.  High school teaching is not,…