Years ago, before I even thought about teaching as a full-time and permanent career, I spent a few semesters working for an online “university.” I won’t call what I did “teaching.” After all, the institution didn’t. I was a “facilitator” responsible for a section or two of the required Composition course. It had been designed…
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a conservative group that has advocated increased activism by college and university trustees and a “return” to “traditional” curricula in Western Civilization and American military, constitutional, and diplomatic history (let’s put aside for now that, given the recent behavior of most trustee boards, these two goals may…
Among the most controversial and widely publicized controversies during the recent autumn of student unrest was that surrounding the incident at Yale University, where a residence hall adviser’s email about Halloween costumes prompted a national debate over the allegedly competing values of free speech and racial justice. I previously commented at some length on the…
Chicago Tribune sportswriter Shannon Ryan has an important column today attacking the efforts of Missouri legislators to punish activist student athletes who boycott games (and fine coaches who support them): “This is another attempt to control athletes, silence them and pigeonhole them as solely money-makers for the university.” Even if I don’t think football players should…
On December 10, the Academic Senate at California State University, Chico adopted a Resolution of No Confidence in university President Paul Zingg, Interim Provost Susan Elrod, and Vice President for Business and Finance Lorraine (Lori) Hoffman. After nearly three and a half hours of statements, comments from faculty, staff, and students, and discourse among the…
Last week the AAUP issued a blistering report criticizing the Iowa Board of Regents for its conduct of a presidential search that led to the hiring of businessman J. Bruce Harreld as President of the University of Iowa. The report acknowledged, however, that Harreld had pledged to respect shared governance and faculty rights and had…
The College of Saint Rose (NY) faces a $9.3 million deficit and declining enrollment. “It’s a challenging time in higher education and it’s not for the faint of heart,” President Carolyn Stefanco recently remarked. “Change is really hard for people, and higher education is changing in pretty dramatic ways.” As reported by the Chronicle, the…
The following is taken from an email sent to AAUP members on December 10: Today, the AAUP is releasing an investigative report on the University of Iowa’s 2015 presidential search. The investigation found that the search was nothing less than a crude exercise of naked power by the Iowa Board of Regents. Notably, In contrast…
Academic Analytics, a private database contracted to measure faculty productivity at Rutgers, may undermine our tenure process, while narrowing the range of scholarship. If you belong to SASNB [School of Arts and Sciences—New Brunswick], please attend the School’s faculty meeting on Monday, 14 December from 2:00-4:00 p.m. in Voorhees 105 (College Ave.) to vote on…
The following is a brief new item published on the website of WATE-16 [http://wjhl.com/2015/12/07/university-of-tennessee-faculty-support-cheek-hall-on-workplace-holiday-party-guidelines/]: “While lawmakers are calling for Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and Vice Chancellor Rickey Hall to resign amid controversy over University of Tennessee Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s workplace holiday party guidelines, the faculty senate said they support the chancellor and vice chancellor.…