Ross Responds to Ongoing Travel Ban
In March, New York University professor Andrew Ross was stopped from boarding a flight to Abu Dhabi, where NYU has a campus and where Ross had intended to conduct research. The NYU administration has maintained that its Abu Dhabi campus will observe the AAUP’s principles on academic freedom and that all faculty and students will…
Quo Vadis? Or, On Quitpieces
“Quitpieces?” That’s what Ian Bogost calls them in The Atlantic, writing “No One Cares That You Quit Your Job.” He’s right, but I’m more interested in what they say about our profession and what we can learn from them than in anything about any individuals. Two such quitpieces were posted two days ago, one by…
University, Inc., Dissected in the New York Times Magazine
The most recent issue of the New York Times Magazine includes a very thought-provoking article by Frederick deBoer, a recent graduate of the doctoral program in English at Purdue University. In “Why We Should Fear University, Inc.,” deBoer considers the whole gamut of ramifications of the increasing corporatization of our universities. After very succinctly but…
One of the New Far-Right Buzzwords Appears to Be “Cartel”
This buzzword has actually been around for a while: Higher Education Is a Government-Created Cartel By Conn Carroll August 6 2013 Washington Examiner The government-created accreditation cartel is one of the biggest reasons why college costs continue to rise and there is very little innovation in the higher education industry. It is no…
Issues without Nuance Are as Rare as Flawless Heroes
We often talk about teaching our students critical-thinking skills, but the fear of provoking controversy causes many of us to steer away from many, if not most, of the controversial issues of the day. So our students are left to absorb the almost always very selective and superficial talking points disseminated by public figures and…
One Weird Labor Day Message
The Two Funniest Things Said during This Week’s Presidential Campaigning
Both of these two things were actually said by a non-candidate who was speculating about her future roles if a particular Republican candidate should will the 2016 presidential election. While being interviewed on CNN about what cabinet positions she would prefer to hold within a Trump administration, Sarah Palin responded that she would like to…
Faculty as “Service Providers”?
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, acceptance of the “free market” neoliberal corporatist model of top-down management has become so pervasive that its vacuous language is being extended backwards to cover events of almost a thousand years ago. Someone posted this comment on a post of mine yesterday: When have the faculty ever been…
The Faculty: “Speed Bumps to Progress”?
In the comments to one of the posts on this blog, someone wrote: in my opinion, faculty absolutely should not be governing a university. We need broadly trained academic professionals who understand the business of higher education making decisions, not narrowly-focused/educated faculty members who are likely privileged, entitled, and completely out of touch with the…