BY ROBERT A. SCOTT According to Moody’s Investors Service, about 25% of private colleges are experiencing budget deficits. It also is estimated that traditional high school graduates will decline by 9% between 2026 and 2031, reducing by almost 300,000 the number of four-year college students. Moody’s also predicts more campus mergers and closings. Finally, it…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is a follow-up to Hank Reichman’s post on the news coverage of the most recent debacle at the University of Akron. John McNay, the President of the Ohio Conference, wrote a letter to the Akron administration that found its way into an article by Amanda Garrett published in the Beacon-Journal.…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The announcement this week that the University of Akron will eliminate 19 percent of its degree programs, has received considerable national publicity (see here and here). The following is the text of a statement responding to the cuts issued jointly by the Akron AAUP and the executive committee of the university’s…
In our new book — How to Run a College: A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Staff and Policymakers — Dr. Joey King and I argue that governance is the worst problem affecting American higher education. Most Trustees Unschooled About Institutional Issues Most trustees are notoriously unschooled about the issues that affect their institutions. They…
POSTED BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM The Rider University AAUP chapter is circulating a petition calling on the Rider board of trustees to stop the university’s proposed sale of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, to Kaiwen, a Chinese for-profit company with no experience in higher education. The costly negotiations for the deal, which is detrimental…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL In our new book – How to Run a College: A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Administrators and Policymakers – Dr. Joey King and I lay out the case for revitalizing the shared governance structure under which higher education institutions operate. We see governance, especially at the trustee level, as a significant…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 4-2 ruling on Friday in favor of John McAdams against Marquette University has received an enormous amount of media coverage, and it deserves it. This is a very important decision protecting the contractual right of academic freedom (and the AAUP’s definition of it), which sets a precedent…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Several years ago, I spoke to a group of extraordinarily bright, committed colleagues from across a group of neighboring colleges and universities in a large metropolitan area. The subject – collaboration — was a precursor to a larger conversation about whether they might consider a merger of like-minded institutions to create…
POSTED BY STEVE MUMME AND MARGARET LECOMPTE Steve Mumme is a Professor at Colorado State University and the AAUP-Colorado Conference Co-President, and Margaret LeCompte is a Professor Emerita and President of the AAUP Chapter, University of Colorado at Boulder. Colorado’s college students are deemed by some to be civics deficient and University of Colorado Board of Regents…
BY HANK REICHMAN University of California President and former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has been a leader among university administrators in opposing the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, most recently speaking forcefully to denounce the administration’s hideous policy of separating children from their parents at the border. Now UC faculty are calling on Napolitano…