BY HANK REICHMAN The late UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr once famously quipped that “the three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty.” Only the last of these, he suggested, presented a problem. Another related saying attributed to him was his description…
BY HANK REICHMAN At their spring meeting May 10, the 22 members of the Board of Governors of the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges (FACCC) took a unanimous vote of no confidence in the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. It was only the second such vote in the organization’s 66-year history, the last…
BY BETHANY LETIECQ, SAMANTHA PARSONS, AND GUS THOMSON We did it! We organized. We educated. We advocated. And with student activism, solidarity, and a collaborative spirit, we collectively achieved a huge victory for transparency at George Mason University (GMU). Last week, Provost Wu announced at our GMU Faculty Senate meeting that we will institute a…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” This adage, or some version of it, is widely attributed to Benjamin Franklin or Winston Churchill or 1970s self-help author Alan Lakein. Regardless of origin, the wisdom is applicable to many U.S. colleges and universities today. As institutions continue to face uphill challenges in their…
BY EMILY M.S. HOUH An investigation by the AAUP released today found unacceptable conditions for academic governance at Vermont Law School (VLS). The investigation was launched in response to the VLS administration’s action to “restructure” the faculty in order to address financial challenges. The “restructuring” included lowering salaries, radically reducing the number of full-time positions…
BY MATTHEW DEAN HINDMAN AND RYAN SAYLOR Matthew Dean Hindman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Tulsa. Ryan Saylor is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Tulsa. Since 1920, the AAUP has championed shared governance in higher education; you can even complete its questionnaire to gauge how your…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the face of an avalanche of criticism, Stanford University provost Persis Drell has stepped back from a plan revealed last week to end university financial support for the highly esteemed Stanford University Press. But the reprieve may just be temporary, as Drell agreed only to provide funds for one year. The…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL The complex challenges facing colleges and universities are well known: changing demographics and consumer preferences, aging facilities, and the need to keep pace with technological advances. College closures and mergers are becoming increasingly common. But what can faculty and other colleges and university leaders — trustees, presidents, alumni and parent boards,…
BY FRANK D. LOMONTE Headhunters for university presidential searches make their six-figure commissions by promising trustees they’ll deliver an efficient search with high-quality candidates. What they’ve delivered to the University of Colorado is a slow-motion train wreck, as president-elect Mark Kennedy struggles to salvage his candidacy after a “ready-fire-aim” search process in which trustees admit…
BY JULIE SCHMID As we move into the final months of the academic year, I wanted to share updates about three recent wins. These three successes emphasize the power of collective action and solidarity—among chapter members; among the national AAUP and our state conferences and chapters; and among faculty, students, and the community—when we all…