Melia Robinson and Melissa Stanger’s “The Most Famous Book in Every State”

This list has been compiled for Business Insider [http://www.businessinsider.com/most-famous-book-in-every-state-2013-10]. I will offer an alternative list shortly. Alabama: To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Alaska Into the Wild Jan Krakauer Arizona The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver Arkansas A Painted House John Grisham California East of Eden John Steinbeck Colorado The Shining Stephen King Connecticut Revolutionary Road…

If You Thought That My Previous Post on the Shutdown Seemed Unduly Intemperate, Read This

The following news item has been distributed today by the Far-Right news service Newsmax: _________________________ A crowd converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, pushing through barriers Sunday morning to protest the memorial’s closing under the government shutdown. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were…

To My Tenured Colleagues

Why is it that we, the lucky ones, try so hard to divorce ourselves from those who have not had the same breaks? Why do we, the tenured ones, look away when we see adjuncts grading papers while sitting in a stairwell? Why do we, the lordly observers, think of ourselves as the master teachers…

It’s Time to Call the Question

This week the articles, blogs and op eds on higher education share a common, repetitive theme. The Wall Street Journal carried an opinion piece on rising costs, for example, naming the usual suspects. U.S. News & World Report published its ten most expensive colleges listing. They pick up on popular rhetoric now baked into the…

Cynical beyond Belief, or (Channeling Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe) Just Plain Nuts

So the Far Right has been singularly focused on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and although they now want to decouple the two things because of increasingly negative polling data, they pointedly tried to force the repeal of the ACA through the shutdown of the government and their refusal to approve an increase…

Delaware Debacle

This is a guest post by Cary Nelson, past president of the AAUP and Jubilee Professor at the University of Illinois. Recognizing that the financial services industry succeeded in bringing the world economy to its knees, the University of Delaware administration apparently decided it was time to give them a crack at higher education. An…

How to Respond to Outrageous Exhibitions of Overblown Outrage

John K. Wilson has very succinctly highlighted the hullabaloo surrounding an innocuous e-mail by Rachel Slocum, a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, which Chancellor Joe Gow has helped to escalate into a political controversy provoking all sorts of partisan responses from places well beyond the institution. I think that it…

Dear Editor/ Dear Diary: Sorry, I’m Blogging

Here is the September report from WordPress to its bloggers. I find some of the numbers absolutely astonishing. After digesting the report, I am all the more appreciative of all of you who have been reading my posts. Since so many people are blogging, it’s very encouraging to know that there are still so many…

The Problem With Being a Transfer Student

It has been well established that two-year students face enormous problems when they decide to complete a four-year degree. By one estimate, only 11 percent of those who indicate their intention to acquire a degree on the day they start in a two-year program actually do so. There are many reasons for this failure. Certainly,…

Oh Crap, If We Have Lost Rob Schneider, How Can We Ever Win?

This week, several Far Right media outlets have reported that actor/comedian Rob Schneider had declared himself a Republican. Yes, Schneider, the star of Big Stan, The Animal, The Hot Chick, Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo, and Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo, has decided to endorse Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly. Said Schneider, “The more I am with…

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