The administrative superstructure that characterizes American higher education is coming under increased scrutiny. Yet administrators keep multiplying anyway, as do the “managerial pathologies” that Benjamin Ginsburg vividly described in his recent book The Fall of the Faculty. It seems like a good time, then, for someone to try to provide guidance to the growing number of faculty who are…
This essay originally appeared in Logos: a journal of modern society and culture. The first paragraph was edited to reflect subsequent revelations concerning the Association and the Great War. Howard Zinn died five years ago in 2010. The American Association of University Professors was founded 100 years ago in 1915 to defend academic freedom for professors…
Moody’s has just released a report indicating that just ten universities control over 30% of the total institutional wealth in higher education. The first number in brackets is the previous year’s total; so it is very clear that, here as elsewhere, the rich are now getting much richer one year to the next. The second…
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…