The Road Taken

BY AARON BARLOW When I was an undergraduate, students and faculty saw a great deal of each other. We went to dinner at faculty homes, saw our teachers at concerts and art shows as well as frequently throughout the day. The faculty lived near campus and students were the prime focus of their professional lives.…

“Right to Work,” by the Numbers: Part 14

Workers Earning Federal Minimum Wage or Less   The “right-to-work” states are indicated in red, and the pro-labor states in white:   Compare that map with the following map: __________________________ Previous posts in this series have included: Right to Work by the Numbers, Part 1: Population Growth and Movement: https://academeblog.org/2013/04/03/2666/. Right to Work by the…

Gov. Rauner Appoints a Right-Wing Crackpot to Represent Faculty on the Illinois Board of Higher Ed

John Bambenek has been appointed to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) by Gov. Bruce Rauner (but must still be approved by the Illinois Senate). Bambenek (an adjunct who teaches classes on cybersecurity at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is listed as the sole “representative of faculty” on the IBHE. Rauner wanted someone…

Non-Tenure-Track Faculty at U of Illinois Strike

Here’s a press release from the AFT/IFT/AAUP local 6546 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, representing the non-tenure-track faculty out on strike today and tomorrow: Hundreds of non-tenure track faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will walk out of their labs and classrooms for two days beginning Tuesday morning, April 19, to…

Another Conservative Defends Liberal Education

BY HANK REICHMAN Last month I posted a piece to this blog commenting on a recent book and op-ed by two conservative scholars, which argues persuasively that “right-wing hand-wringing about higher education is overblown” and that “conservatives survive and even thrive in one of America’s most progressive professions.”  Now comes an essay posted today on…

Kaner, Stalin, & the Fight Against Ignorance

BY TOM MCBRIDE Guest blogger Tom McBride is professor emeritus at Beloit College in Wisconsin. In Chicago there’s a sports talk radio station with a couple of afternoon hosts who insist that their callers think critically about the topic at hand. When Patrick Kane, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey star, was accused of sexual assault, callers would…

How Data Can Help Shape Higher Education Policy

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Much of the discussion about how to fix the broken higher education business model sounds a little like conversation about how best to squeeze blood out of a turnip. Where can the cuts occur? What can be delayed? What new programs can produce revenue quickly? These are legitimate questions. They represent…

Against Grants

BY AARON BARLOW A decade or so ago, I applied for a travel grant to examine papers of Carlos Salzedo, a twentieth-century French/American harpist. The request was turned down, the result of a scathing evaluation by someone who was incensed that I had not mentioned the other important French/American harpist of the time, Marcel Grandjany.…