U of Chicago Faculty Member Accused of Sexual Misconduct, Resigns

BY MARTIN KICH Writing for New York magazine Jessica Roy reports on the resignation, under threat of termination, of Jason Lieb, a molecular biologist at the University of Chicago. Lieb had been accused of making “unwelcome sexual advances to multiple female grad students,” most notably at an “off-campus retreat,” and of engaging “in sexual activity…

Lawsuit Filed in Teresa Buchanan Case

BY HENRY REICHMAN Teresa Buchanan, the Louisiana State University (LSU) education professor terminated over strong objections from a faculty review committee and the Faculty Senate, last week filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against the  president of LSU and other top administrators for violating her free speech and due process rights by firing her last…

Florida State Settles with Jameis Winston’s Accuser

BY MARTIN KICH Trying to find and provide any sort of coherent explanation for how all of the threads of this story can be concurrently accurate would be like trying to pull apart a 500-pound ball of scotch tape: “Florida State University has settled a lawsuit filed by Erica Kinsman, the woman who accused Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston of rape back in…

Whose Crisis Is It?: Framing the History—the Facts–of the Flint Water Crisis

In his state-of-the-state address, Gov. Rick Snyder referenced a timeline of the Flint water crisis prepared by his office. Here is that timeline: The progressive blog The Daily Kos has provided the following list of significant dates missing from Gov. Snyder’s timeline: April 2011: Reports of partially treated sewage leaking into the Flint River. This is one…

Contemplating the Friedrichs Case

Yesterday’s troubling oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association has prompted a flurry of doom-and-gloom stories in the media about the potentially devastating consequences for the union movement of a decision by the high court to overturn 40 years of precedent and outlaw “agency fee” payments…

ACCJC’s Appeals are Denied!

If you’ve been following my frequent posts on the controversies involved the Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges (ACCJC) and the City College of San Francisco (CCSF), you’ll recall that last month I reported at length on a meeting of the National Advisory Commission for Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) attended by California community…

ACCJC On the Defensive at NACIQI

This week I had the honor and privilege to join more than 30 California community college faculty, students, staff, trustees and community allies attending a meeting of the National Advisory Commission for Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) in Alexandria, Virginia.  NACIQI advises the U.S. Department of Education with regard to federal recognition of accrediting agencies…

Duncan: For-Profit College Chain Guilty of Lying to DoE about Deceptive Recruiting Practices but Students Not Deceived by Those Practices

As if anyone needed further proof that Arne Duncan could not care less about students, consider his logic on the settlement reached with Education Management, the for-profit college corporation. What follows is taken from a Huffington Post article by Shahien Nasiripour: “A trio of Senate Democrats on Monday sharply rebuked outgoing Education Secretary Arne Duncan…