BY JENNIFER RUTH In February, historian Ellen Schrecker and I called upon faculty to use the power we possess through shared governance to fight the education gag orders sweeping the country. In January, I commented here on how institutions in the south hesitate to pass resolutions out of fear of “poking the bear.” I am…
BY HANK REICHMAN Despite ongoing and lively debate among scholars of the region about the nature and histories of Russian and Ukrainian nationalism, the origins and causes of the current crisis, and the appropriate role for the US and its allies in the conflict, a remarkable unanimity has emerged among scholarly organizations in Russian and…
BY ALICE BROWN Read the first in the series, “Who Cares about Small Colleges?” COVID-19 has reduced the autonomy faculty once had to choose their course content and teaching methods. Colleges across the country have reduced retirement benefits, sabbaticals, and tenure appointments to help balance budgets. Faculty are told whether to teach in person or…
BY MARY ELLEN FLANNERY The following is reposted with permission from NEA Today. Mary Ellen Flannery is senior writer at the National Education Association. Fifty years ago, a Florida state legislative committee sought to identify, interrogate, and purge gay schoolteachers and university faculty. With subpoena powers and a network of informants, state legislators used uniformed…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY I’ve been spending the past two weeks speaking with colleagues who teach at public and private colleges and universities in Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin, and Texas. All of these states are led by governors or legislatures that have demonstrated varying degrees of hostility to protective policies against the spread of COVID. To…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This news release is from the AAUP chapter at the University of Akron: The University of Akron Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (Akron-AAUP) has created a one-time donation fund, the “Akron-AAUP Faculty Care Fund”. The fund is an act of support for the 66 University of Akron (UA)…
BY RICHARD J. REDDICK AND LISA L. MOORE “Have you gotten the shot?” It’s springtime, and those of us in higher education are beginning to cautiously imagine some kind of return to campus later this year. Many are calling not for a return to “normal” but to a revisioning of our habits, assumptions, and structures—many…
POSTED BY CAPRICE LAWLESS The statement was written by Don Eron, a retired Senior Instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder and former member of the AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. It was approved by the Executive Committee of the Colorado Conference on February 8, 2021. On January 22, 2021, the University…
BY JANET BOWDAN Here in Massachusetts, my university just posted a coronavirus update that notes, in passing, that “higher education is not part of Phase I and II of the vaccination plan.” Wait. Why aren’t higher education faculty and staff at least in Phase II? Obviously (at least to me), health care workers and first…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Northwestern University professors Jackie Stevens and Jorge Coronado, two officers of the Northwestern AAUP chapter, have an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times today titled “Hey, Northwestern students, choose your own grade point average!” The article criticizes a new Northwestern University policy adopted by the administration during the pandemic. As faculty members…