Hallin's Spheres

Getting Back to Consensus

BY AARON BARLOW What the Eric Rasmusen situation at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business (read more about that here and here) brings to the fore is a slipping away from any sort of consensus about what a professor should be and what a student should expect. IU Provost Lauren Robel tried to respond to…

“Viewpoint Diversity” and UNC-Chapel Hill

BY SHERRYL KLEINMAN The right has recently adopted the language of “viewpoint diversity” in their critique of allegedly liberal professors. “Diversity” sounds nice (how could one be against it?) and, coupled with “viewpoint,” has a ring of freedom about it. But this rhetoric barely masks the intent: to justify hiring conservative faculty and creating conservative…

School teacher punished by order of Camillus.

A “Voluntary Mandatory” Retirement?

BY AARON BARLOW What’s with our disdain for age? I felt it myself for a bit in the sixties, that “don’t trust anyone over thirty” nonsense. But I got over it—even before I got old myself. The people who were influencing me most back then, I realized, were even older than my ancient parents who,…

The Regent Who Wouldn’t Leave

BY NICHOLAS FLEISHER (Cross-posted from Language Politics) “[F]ixed terms of members of boards shall expire on May 1.” So says Wis. stat. 15.07(1)(c), the portion of state law that governs when the terms of state board members—including members of the UW System Board of Regents—come to an end. So it was curious to see that…

view of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn on a cloudy winter day

A Letter to the CUNY Chancellor

POSTED BY JOAN W. SCOTT In March, Rachel Ida Buff published an Academe Blog post recounting the attacks by the Canary Mission and others on faculty at Kingsborough Community College. In response to the attack, a group of faculty, staff, and graduate students decided to greet the incoming chancellor, Felix Matos (a “veteran” administrator in…

Close-up of poster showing people holding signs related to higher education issues and spelling out A-A-U-P.

Spring 2019 Academe Highlights AAUP Chapter Power

POSTED BY KELLY HAND The new issue of Academe highlights the power of faculty to build strength on their campuses by organizing through AAUP advocacy and collective bargaining chapters. Articles focus on presidential searches, private donor influence, adjunct faculty activism, risks of gun violence, retirement, and other topics. Follow the links in the table of contents…

book cover: How to Run a College

The Must-Read for Your Higher Ed Summer Reading List

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL The complex challenges facing colleges and universities are well known: changing demographics and consumer preferences, aging facilities, and the need to keep pace with technological advances. College closures and mergers are becoming increasingly common. But what can faculty and other colleges and university leaders — trustees, presidents, alumni and parent boards,…

graphic showing gender pay gap for faculty in academic year 2018-2019.

Little Movement on Salaries and Gender Pay Disparity

BY GWENDOLYN BRADLEY Faculty salaries barely budged when adjusted for inflation during the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the AAUP’s 2018-19 Faculty Compensation Survey. Average salaries for full-time faculty members at US colleges and universities are 2 percent higher in 2018-19 than they were in the preceding academic year, but with prices in the economy…