Who should teach? And who should decide who teaches? What should the learning environment look like? And who should decide how it looks–and should there even be just one “look”? These old questions came to mind today when I read Marty Nemko’s October 29 article in Time, “Why Ph.D.s Shouldn’t Teach College Students.” I went…
Guest blogger Sister Mary Reap, IHM, is President of Elms College, Chicopee, MA, She also served as President of Marywood University, Scranton, PA, for 19 years. As the economy continues to fluctuate, the demands of the workforce have followed suit. In order to compete for jobs, or to stay current with skills needed for their current…
Given yesterday’s election results, here are some observations and recommendations that I would like to offer to the leadership of the Democratic party—locally, statewide, and nationally: 1. Deluging registered Democrats with fund-raising appeals is ultimately counterproductive. I am on the lists for five dozen or so Democratic and progressive organizations, and at a certain point,…
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is becoming a very pro-faculty, pro-adjunct, pro-academic freedom and anti-Garcetti v. Ceballos court. It continues to reverse or remand upon appeal several draconian decisions of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Loretta Capeheart, a member of the Illinois Committee A…
The following is reproduced from the website of the Colorado Conference of the AAUP. Faculty Bill of Rights Proposes to End Adjunct Labor by Suzanne Hudson Following several years of work with the Colorado legislature and a thorough investigation of community college finances and employment practices, the Colorado Conference of the American Association of University…
It seems increasingly likely that one of the “make or break” points in American higher education will be how well individual institutions craft their message. It’s a complex issue. There are many constituencies, all of whom carry an expectation about what makes a college or university special. These expectations are often at odds with one…
In the upcoming Nov/Dec issue of Academe (due out in the next few days), we’ve not one but two articles arguing against the business model in education. Treating colleges and corporations and students as customers makes no sense. We who teach know this. Unfortunately, the boards of trustees an upper administrators who set policy seem to have…
On Friday, five days of testimony concluded in the trial of San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s case against the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), which last year denied accreditation to the City College of San Francisco, with nearly 80,000 students, effective July 1, 2014, a decision that is now on hold…
Many of our institutions are paying consultants very large sums to improve their “branding.” My own institution, Wright State University, has budgeted $2.3 million for this purpose. And I believe that that funding has been designated simply for a “branding” plan and not for conducting a actual “branding” campaign. So who knows what the price…
An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ In “I Used to be a Good Teacher,” Alice Umber contrasts her experiences teaching as a tenure-track professor and then as a contingent, “adjunct” faculty member. Her piece should be required reading for college students and parents, for administrators…