The president of AAUP is also a very fine contract negotiator. This is the article on the new contract written by Meagan Pant that appeared in the Dayton Daily News: Nearly a year after voting to join a union, Wright State University full-time faculty not eligible for tenure have their first contract, which offers them raises, creates…
In 2010, the AAUP began publication of the Journal of Academic Freedom, an annual, online-only publication. Each year, we’ve published articles on current issues in academic freedom, and this year we are proud to announce that the fourth volume is now available on our website. Volume 4 of JAF focuses on issues of academic freedom in a global…
Great colleges are an almost perfect and imperceptible mix of people, programs and facilities. Among them, this mix works best when founded on a culture based upon a strong sense of self. This also differentiates further the subtleties that exist among them. It’s why in the end prospective applicants choose one institution over another. Students…
Kudos to John K. Wilson for illustrating what David Guth’s critics have themselves said online. For anyone on the Far Right to criticize “intemperate” speech or writings by anyone else is an absolute joke. Even if individuals on the Far Right aren’t themselves guilty of “offensive” speech or writings, as Patricia Stoneking clearly is in…
Consider the following item from the El Paso Times: “An argument in southern Russia over philosopher Immanuel Kant, the author of ‘Critique of Pure Reason,’ devolved into pure mayhem when one debater shot the other. “A police spokeswoman in Rostov-on Don, Viktoria Safarova, said two men in their 20s were discussing Kant as they stood…
Business Insider presents some wonderful photo sequences. One of the recent pieces is Tony Manfred’s “40 Stunning Photos That Show You What College Football Was Like 100 Years Ago” [http://www.businessinsider.com/vintage-college-football-photos-100-years-ago-2013-9?op=1]. Take a look at this photo of the Army Mascot from 1910 to 1915:
At this point, no one can deny that higher education has changed seriously over the last few decades. Call it corporatization, or administrative bloat, or any other name, but the symptoms are clear: more administrative control over things that had been the faculty’s. Faculty governance becoming a mere rubber stamp for administrators’ proposals. Less funding…
Or, Eight Reasons Why the Education Petition is Inadequate, Misguided, and Generally Useless The August 24 statement by AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum was compelling enough to generate some actual responses on the Academe Blog. The post was a response to Barak Obama’s dreadful education proposals, and it’s a pretty good statement. You can read it…
When Joe Moxley first published Writing Commons, an online textbook, the copyright (as is common) was held by his publisher, Pearson. After five years, their ownership of the work ended and the copyright belonged to Moxley again. He realized that he now had a number of interesting options for the future of his work. After…
In a conversation with a newly retired and highly respected college president late last week, the conversation turned to the growing problem of how to govern American colleges and universities in uncertain times. American higher education operates on a system of shared governance. It is often presented as a 3-leg stool with each leg balancing…