The situation at CCSF continues to be unsettled. The college will appeal the decision of ACCJC. The deadline for submitting such an appeal is July 31. In the meantime, Brice Harris, Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, has announced that he will seek — and surely will receive — authorization from his Board of Governors…
Here are two items that you may have missed but that are clearly further indicators of the devaluation of workers. First, some owners of McDonald’s franchises have started issuing pre-paid debit cards, instead of paychecks, to their employees. Clearly this practice is in some way saving the owners of the franchises some money, though I…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 4 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 201 to 250, which are still generally ridiculous, but perhaps somewhat less ridiculous than those numbered 251-400. The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of the films are paraphrases of summaries found…
The following was written for the blog of the Whole Child Initiative of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, where it went live today. You can see the original here As a teacher, I cannot imagine not reflecting as a regular part of my teaching practice. Part of this is because as a shy…
The post to which this is a postscript is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/10/coal-miners-get-the-shaft-again/ Lest anyone think that what Peabody Energy and Arch Coal are doing through Patriot Coal is an anomaly in the Appalachian coal fields, let me draw your attention to the career of Don Blankenship. From 1992 to 2010, Blankenship headed Massey Energy in…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 3 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 251 to 300, which are generally ridiculous, but perhaps somewhat less ridiculous than those numbered 301-400. The first post in this series, covering films ranked 351 to 400 is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/09/400-films-about-higher-education-or-at-least-set-on-campuses-351-400/ The second post in this series,…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 2 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 301 to 350, which are, again, generally ridiculous. The first post in this series, covering films ranked 351 to 400 is available at: https://academeblog.org/2013/07/09/400-films-about-higher-education-or-at-least-set-on-campuses-351-400/ The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary: that is, these are…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 1 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 351 to 400, which are generally ridiculous. The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of many of the films are paraphrases of summaries found in a half-dozen print and online film guides.…
Late on the afternoon of July 3, as San Franciscans were preparing for a four-day holiday weekend, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which accredits two-year institutions in California, dropped a bombshell. The commission announced that it was revoking its accreditation of City College…
Many commentators on what is undermining higher education have focused on administrative bloat, on the increasing allocation of revenues to non-instructional or administrative positions. Some have pointed to the increasing exploitation of adjunct faculty at most institutions, citing the very minimal compensation, the non-existent benefits, the general lack of staff support, and the complete lack…