BY ED BURMILA The following is reposted with permission from The Outline. Ed Burmila is assistant professor of political science at Bradley University. The 2014 right-wing fever dream of a film God’s Not Dead, a fantasy version of higher education for young adults raised on the Left Behind series, is a comic masterpiece, at least…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL When you live in cities like Boston and work in higher education, it’s impossible not to feel simultaneously a tremendous sense of history and some trepidation about the future. The broad expanse of the Charles River outside my windows offers a sweeping, encompassing view of wealthy universities with 400-year old traditions,…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last week three scholars published an article reporting on how they had submitted over twenty fraudulent and purportedly ridiculous nonsense papers to various journals in gender and diversity studies. Seven were accepted, four were published online, and three were in process when the authors “had to take the project public prematurely and…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL A fellow trustee for whom I have great respect responded to my recent column about the value of the liberal arts. I had argued that the liberal arts teach college students how to think by training them how to write, articulate, apply quantitative methods, use technology, and work in a collaborative…
BY AARON BARLOW David Horowitz, whose attacks on “professors” caused a great deal of concern among the American faculty a decade ago, is back in the news in relation to Florida Gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, who spoke at a number of Horowitz’s Freedom Center conferences. DeSantis is quoted in the Washington Post from a conference speech…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL In our new book – How to Run a College: A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Administrators and Policymakers – Dr. Joey King and I lay out the case for revitalizing the shared governance structure under which higher education institutions operate. We see governance, especially at the trustee level, as a significant…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL The following is an excerpt of my address to graduate students at the University of Rochester commencement. My full remarks are available here. I suspect that one of the reasons that the University asked me to serve as your speaker is that I have had many opportunities to re-invent myself in…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Joe Knott, one of the Republicans who dominate the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, published an op-ed on May 25 that imagines an alarming future for higher education under the headline “We need more conservative professors. Here’s how we can do that at UNC.” Knott generously declares his support for…
BY SANDIE GRAVETT AND STELLA ANDERSON Last week, we formally launched our study Faculty Employment Rights and Hearing Procedures in Public Non-Union Universities by emailing a survey link to faculty members on the higher education campuses in the constituent institutions of the University of North Carolina. These 16 higher education campuses provide an excellent test…
BY HANK REICHMAN Today, after nine days on an “illegal” and “unauthorized” strike, West Virginia teachers won a powerful victory when Republican Governor Jim Justice signed legislation passed earlier in the day that will raise salaries of not only teachers but also all state employees by 5%, the largest single pay hike for public employees…