Mailer, Norman. Harlot’s Ghost. New York: Random, 1991. Mailer reportedly spent seven years writing this massive novel which treats the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency from the Berlin Airlift to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. What is more surprising than the book’s size is that, despite its size, it closes with the words…
One of the biggest concerns at colleges and universities is how best to improve retention. Retention means something quite different depending upon the institution. At elite colleges, for example, retention rates below 85 percent in four years are a cause of concern. At two-year and four-year colleges that are overwhelmingly first generation, highly diverse, adult-learning…
By Susan Gubernat The following op-ed piece appeared in the July 25 issue of the Sacramento Bee. Susan Gubernat, is Professor of English at California State University, East Bay, and secretary of the California State University system Academic Senate. She is a member of the California Faculty Association and the AAUP. California’s public higher education…
In an article titled “Outsourced in Michigan” written for Inside Higher Ed, Colleen Flaherty chronicles the movement among Michigan’s community colleges to outsource the hiring of adjunct faculty and the management of related “payroll duties” to a corporation called EDUStaff. EDUStaff had previously specialized in providing substitute teachers for K-12 systems. So, if you have…
A recently released research article in the July issue of Frontiers in Psychology, authored by Gretchen M. Reevy and Grace Deason, finds that the nature of non-tenure-track employment—now a reality for some 70% of higher education faculty members in the U.S.—brings with it an increase in stress, depression, and anxiety. Appropriately titled “Predictors of depression, stress,…
The following post by Richard B. Simon, Professor of English at City College of San Francisco, appeared initially on the Forum Blog of the California Part-Time Faculty Association (CPFA) and is reposted with the author’s permission. CPFA serves approximately 40,000 Non-tenure Track Faculty in California Community Colleges and has been advocating for Part-time faculty in…
MacInnes, Helen. Assignment in Brittany. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942. Among authors in the espionage category, MacInnes stands out for her lack of cynicism and for her faith in the essential decency of individuals who are willing to expose themselves to hazard for the sake of a good cause. This sensibility makes her work very distinct…
Bonuses, both for performance and longevity, have become commonplace for higher-ed administrators at both public and private institutions. Indeed, these bonuses have become so commonplace that they now generally go unnoticed and unquestioned. But when such bonuses continue to be given during periods of great budget constraints, while faculty and staff compensation and/or positions are…
For centuries, imperial China endured an examination system that created a putative meritocracy of imperial bureaucrats. Based on a carefully curated body of knowledge, it created a cognoscenti with no need to look “outside,” to be curious, or to explore. I thought of it this morning as I was reading Meredith Broussard’s article for The Atlantic,…