By Peter Kirstein DePaul University denied Dr. Norman Finkelstein tenure and promotion to associate professor on Friday, June 8, 2007. I posted on my blog several leaked documents, none from Finkelstein I might add, including College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Chuck Suchar’s infamous non-recommendation for tenure. I was attending the AAUP annual meeting…
New in the AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom: “Academic Freedom in Principle and Practice: The Case of Algeria.” Malika Rebai Maamri describes a great effort by Algeria’s president to improve the quality and availability of higher education. But despite many new institutions, articulation of democratic ideals, and resources to support higher education, things have gone awry.…
The 1920s and 1930s were a period of struggle at the University of Pittsburgh, with no tenure or due process rights for faculty and an autocratic chancellor focused on fundraising. When, in 1934, professor Ralph Turner was abruptly dismissed from his post, AAUP and state investigations ensued and speculation abounded. Was Turner dismissed because of…
The AAUP today released an important new report on the violation of faculty rights at two Louisiana public universities, Northwestern State University and Southeastern Louisiana University (pdf of full report). AAUP Associate General Secretary Jordan Kurland called it, “the worst situation the AAUP has encountered of using cutbacks in funding as an opportunity to select unwanted…
By annetteboardman (annetteboardman is a pseudonym of a college professor who teaches at a university in Missouri). This essay originally appeared on DailyKos. It doesn’t mean that I don’t want to work anymore, that I have permission to never update a class, or get grading done in a timely manner. Perhaps you thought it meant…
The following is a guest post by Michael DeCesare, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Merrimack College. Yet again, the professoriate finds itself under attack from a misguided and misinformed administrator. David Levy, in a March 23 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, asked the very tired question…
Malcolm Kline, executive director of Accuracy in Academia, has responded to my critique yesterday of his essay listing the professors who provide “100 arguments against tenure.” Kline argues that abolishing tenure “is not tantamount to firing.” That’s absolutely true. But Kline is not making a broad argument against the existence of tenure (and there are…
Back in the 1980s, Reed Irvine’s right-wing group Accuracy in Academia (AIA) caused controversy by recruiting students to spy on left-wing professors. With the growth of the internet, AIA can do the spying online, but its attacks on academic freedom continue to this day. One of the most disturbing features on the AIA website is…
The AAUP announced Friday that an investigating committee will visit Louisiana November 12-15 to look into discontinuance of academic programs within the University of Louisiana system and resulting potential termination of tenured appointments. See the letter announcing the visit. See an earlier statement on reports that the university system had embarked on what appeared to be…