Last week the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on the fundraising achievements of the top ten public and private colleges and universities in America The results are sobering and instructive. The top recipients of private donations are all major research universities with clear global brands, comprehensive university-sized scale, and well-established giving networks. Harvard University topped…
In a post published yesterday on this blog, Aaron Barlow replied to a Weekly Standard review, by Professor Jonathan Marks of Ursinus College, of Joerg Tiede’s recently published study of the founding of the AAUP, University Reform. But Aaron focused more on a New York Times column by Arthur Brooks so his discussion of Marks…
In a comment on a post of mine yesterday, Frederick Glaysher wrote, “Human experience is much deeper and profound than what the humanities has come to allow in our time, creating a disharmony that has deeply damaged itself and contemporary culture.” Indeed, many in humanities departments across American have created—or have allowed the creation of—an…
I think that Carbondale, Illinois, the home of Southern Illinois University, must have just about the most options for celebrating Halloween of any college town in the United States. If you want the full list of events related to the holiday, go to the events page on the website maintained by CarbondaleRocks.com: http://www.carbondalerocks.com/taxonomy/term/191. Even if…
In one of my recent reviews of recent news items on higher education [https://academeblog.org/2015/10/23/u-s-higher-education-news-from-september-29-2015/], I opened with an item on the elimination of continuing contracts for faculty at Florida State College. Now the member of the college’s board of trustees who initiated that change of policy has been emboldened to advance a proposal that faculty…
What’s the point of calling academia, or an association of academics like the AAUP, “too liberal”? Doing so always has a political goal; it’s an attempt to make academia—or the organization—more conservative. It’s never an unbiased or objective (whatever that means) complaint; it is part of an agenda to transform academia into one’s own image and…
Two days ago, Hank Reichman did a post on the anti-science bias on the House Science Committee. In the Ohio House, we now have a parallel situation. Here is how Diane Ravitch has described the new chairperson of the House Education Committee: “State Representative Andrew Brenner recently became chairman of Ohio’s House Education Committee. His…
This is an op-ed written by John McNay, president of the Ohio Conference, and published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Gov. John Kasich’s task force on affordability and efficiency in higher education released its recommendations to the General Assembly recently, and the results were to be expected. The task force was headed by Geoff Chatas,…
I was associated with the University of Connecticut for almost 25 years before I learned that I did not have academic freedom. Naively I had assumed that all American institutions of higher learning, except some small religious colleges, guaranteed academic freedom. I had hoped that the current contract negotiations between UConn’s trustees and its chapter…
As part of Campus Equity Week, Brave New Films has released this terrific short film about the very real poverty of many faculty in contingent positions: Contains some illuminating stats comparing presidential salaries to adjunct wages, and personal stories from adjuncts–mostly women, which reflects the reality that contingent labor issues are also women’s issues. It’s…