Just over a month after being censured by the AAUP annual meeting, the administration of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center took steps toward instituting a shared governance model and improving academic due process. The Cancer Letter reported this past Friday that UT System Chancellor William McRaven directed MD Anderson President Ronald DePinho in a July 23 letter…
One of the ways faculty are intimidated and coerced into accepting codified curricula is through the specter of not living up to assessable “outcomes” (I use the scare quotes because the word has become one of those cant words of educational “reform”—another word in the category—that have become so popular in some quarters, especially administrative…
One of the most glaring weaknesses in American higher education is the strength of its governance group. There is a celebrated tradition within higher education to portray governance as a kind of three-leg stool. Led by the president as CEO, the administration manages the operation, works with the faculty, and reports to the Board of…
Close to my house in Tambaong, Togo–where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer 25 years ago–was the remains of a large fish pond, a development project of the past. Nobody I knew could even identify the Non-Governmental Organization that had built it–nor could anyone remember having eaten fish from it. West Africa is littered with…
This will be the first in a series of posts taken from the blog of the AAUP chapter at the University of Akron [http://akronaaup.org/blog/]. That blog provides a chronicle of the changes that have been occurring with often startling rapidity at the university in the wake of a change in institutional leadership. This sort of…
Currently, about one in five U.S. workers is contingent—that is, not directly employed by the company for which he or she works. That percentage is expected to rise to about 30% over the next decade. One of the major drivers of this increase in contingent employment has been the use of “temp agencies” to avoid…
Between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. this morning, the Discovery Channel aired the following three 30-minute infomercials:Sexy in Three Weeks!; The Graduate: Learn about Innovative Grad and Undergrad Degrees; and No More Wrinkles! The middle of those three infomercials has been produced by Tribune Media for Western Governors University. One alternative to conventional, on-site delivery…
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, 1966. With In Cold Blood, Truman Capote not only established himself as a major voice among writers of his generation, but also created the prototype for several new genres. The book has been classified as a “true crime” book, a “nonfiction novel,” “new journalism,” and “creative…