BY AARON BARLOW Yesterday, for April Fools Day, I posted Gig University, an only slightly satiric look at where some people would like higher education to head. It presents a reductivist vision of humanity and human possibilities. We—or, at least, the masses of us—become nothing more than material to be processed or cogs to fit…
There’s no point in continuing college and university structures as they have existed for over a century. They’re too expensive, inefficient and poorly focused. An entire culture has built up around them, including assumptions about the experience, the faculty and the outcome. These can all be swept away without materially affecting the quality of instruction…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last Fall the AAUP issued a “Statement on Presidential Searches” decrying the growing practice “by governing boards to conduct searches for new presidents or chancellors in secret, abandoning the previously standard practice of inviting a select group of finalists to visit the campus and meet publicly with faculty and other members of…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Much of the discussion about how to fix the broken higher education business model sounds a little like conversation about how best to squeeze blood out of a turnip. Where can the cuts occur? What can be delayed? What new programs can produce revenue quickly? These are legitimate questions. They represent…
This is an update to the list of signatories to the statement initially posted to this blog yesterday. Signatories [Some prominent names have been added to the front end of the list.]: Lawrence Cohen, Director, Institute for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley Navtej K Purewal Deputy Director, South Asia Institute SOAS University of…
Dear Friends and Colleagues, The statement that follows is being circulated in solidarity with the students and faculty of the Hyderabad Central University, presently under siege by the police and from the central government in India. In the past three days police and paramilitary forces have been occupying the HCU campus–dozens of students were beaten…
This is an update from those who are, in effect, under siege at the university: Between 21 and 34 students and two professors were picked up yesterday around 5 pm, brutally beaten in a police van, and detained in unknown locations all night. We have some information now that they were detained in Miyapur and…
BY RISA LIEBERWITZ Yesterday, AAUP posted for public comment a draft report, “The History, Uses, and Abuses of Title IX.” This extensive report, an evaluation of the history and current uses of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, is a joint effort authored by a subcommittee (which I chaired) comprised of members of…
BY HANK REICHMAN With the countdown to what would be the largest strike of university faculty in U.S. history ticking away, California Faculty Association (CFA) leaders rebuked Chancellor Tim White and CSU Trustees Tuesday for failing to resolve the contract dispute with their faculty. The Trustees’ meeting March 8 and 9 was the last public…
Three days ago I posted a piece, which I called “Corporatizers Gone Wild,” about the controversy surrounding University of California at Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi’s acceptance of positions on corporate boards that either compete or do business with UC. UCLA history professor Michael Meranze, writing on the Remaking the University blog, has now used this…