On March 13, Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and a member of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, delivered a talk on “Civility and Academic Freedom” at a celebration of the AAUP’s centennial held at California State University, East Bay. That talk has now…
Testimony of John McNay, Ph.D., President Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors Before the House Finance Committee Representative Ryan Smith, Chair April 16, 2015 Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Driehaus, and distinguished members of the Finance Committee: my name is John McNay and I am President of the Ohio Conference of the…
Earlier today, Tuesday, April 14, House Republicans unveiled Substitute House Bill 64, which contained their revisions to the governor’s budget. Most alarming about the substitute bill were new provisions that would reclassify faculty as managers if they participate in any sort of decision-making at their institutions. If faculty are managers, then they are not employees,…
Late last week I had a telling conversation with Dr. Jim Douthat, a colleague and mentor and the highly respected president emeritus of Lycoming College (PA). Like me, Dr. Douthat is convinced that the present operational path taken by many private colleges and universities is financially unsustainable. As Jim argued so perceptively, the looming financial…
The following is the text of my keynote address at “Hurdles on the Horizon: Governance & Student Success in the Connecticut State College & University System,” a conference organized by the Faculty Advisory Committee to the CSCU Board of Regents for Higher Education at Manchester Community College on April 10, 2015. Let me begin by…
The following is the Executive Summary of a report issued recently by the California Faculty Association, which represents all faculty in the 23-campus California State University system. The report is the third in a series. To see the entire series go to http://www.calfac.org/race-to-the-bottom The job of college professor used to be a solidly middle-class profession.…
Item 1 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville To direct school staff on how to respond to a visitor who is carrying a visible firearm, a school district in Michigan has distributed the following flow chart: I would like to be able to say that one cannot help but feel…
Item 2 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville In 2013, 17 states and the District of Columbia, gun-related deaths exceeded traffic-related deaths: Alaska: 144 gun deaths, 66 motor vehicle deaths Arizona: 941 gun deaths, 863 motor vehicle deaths Colorado: 619 gun deaths, 514 motor vehicle deaths District of Columbia: 71…
Item 3 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville Yesterday, the U.S. Capitol was locked down because a gunshot was fired immediately outside its walls. Initial reports indicated only that the gunman had been “neutralized” by a “self-inflicted fatal gunshot.” Putting aside the very odd language that authorities used to summarize…
Item 4 Marking the National Rifle Association’s 2015 Freedom Festival in Nashville Some truisms, even about guns, turn out to be true. In January 2013, a security guard in Trinidad and Tobago accidentally shot off his penis with an illegal gun. The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian reported that the 33-year-old man was carrying a…