BY HANK REICHMAN University of California at Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who was suspended in April after the UC Office of the President opened an inquiry into allegations of nepotism and misuse of student funds, resigned today after an investigation commissioned by UC President Janet Napolitano found that she had violated “multiple policies,” “exercised poor…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Here we go again. Late last month, the board of trustees fired Suffolk University’s president, Margaret McKenna, for cause. She is the fifth president in five years to depart the school. The six-month saga had more thrills, spills, and missteps than the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and has become something…
BY MICHAEL DECESARE In June, delegates to the AAUP’s 102nd annual meeting voted to add Union County College (NJ) to the Association’s list of institutions sanctioned for “substantial noncompliance with standards of academic government.” The unanimous vote was based on a scorching report by Robert A. Gorman, former AAUP president and emeritus professor of labor law at…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL American higher education’s operational model is based on outmoded — and some (myself included) would argue, unsustainable — revenue and expense assumptions. The premise is that student-generated revenues will expand to offset increasing operational expenses of the institutions. However, the decline in per-student net tuition revenues and the backlash against higher…
BY MICHAEL DECESARE The AAUP will hold its shared governance conference and workshops at the Loews Madison Hotel in Washington, DC, September 30 – October 2, 2016. Proposals are being accepted through Friday, July 29, for presentations on topics relating to academic governance. The preliminary program is available here. Please join us as we mark…
BY HANK REICHMAN This is the fifth in a series of posts on issues in the University of California (UC) system, the nation’s premier public research institution. Previous posts in the series may be found here, here, here and here. At a time when there is growing concern about governing board overreach, the University of…
In the initial item in this series, I mentioned that my statement to the Wright State Board of Trustees was preceded by two open letters to the bargaining unit faculty represented by our AAUP chapter at Wright State, letters which were then also posted to the faculty and staff listserves and to our social…
In March I reposted from the WMU-AAUP blog comments delivered to the Western Michigan University (WMU) Board of Trustees by WMU-AAUP President and AAUP national Council member Lisa Minnick. Below are comments delivered today, June 29, to the same board by Professor Minnick. They offer a truly eloquent and effective defense of fundamental academic values…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article by Peter Schmidt entitled “AAUP Rethinks How It Fights Governing Boards.” In a nutshell, the piece argues that as college and university governing boards, often overseeing multiple state institutions, increasingly overreach and interfere in governance matters best left to faculty and administrators, the…
In the initial item in this series, I mentioned that my statement to the Wright State Board of Trustees was preceded by two open letters to the bargaining unit faculty represented by our AAUP chapter at Wright State, letters which were then also posted to the faculty and staff listserves and to our social media…