There is almost no contemporary fiction that I could confidently describe as being universally inoffensive. I mean this without any snideness whatsoever, but I don’t know how English faculty at Christian colleges and universities manage to teach any courses in contemporary literature. I occasionally teach an interdisciplinary Honors seminar called “The Meanings of Rivers,” in…
During the great red scare of the late 1940s and 1950s, many otherwise “liberal” politicians and, sadly, more than a few academics argued that faculty members who were Communists (actually in practice those who declined to publicly state they were not Communists or even those who refused to denounce others) forfeited the right to academic…
The following is a media release issued today by the Rider University (New Jersey) AAUP: The faculty of Rider University is standing in solidarity at the beginning of the fall as contract negotiations, which started in the summer and continue with little progress being made. The administration has put forth draconian proposals that will negatively…
This is a guest post by Tim Shiell, a contributor to the newest issue of the Journal of Academic Freedom. Shiell is a Professor of Philosophy and founder and Associate Director of the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. He primarily teaches ethics courses and researches issues at the intersection of law, ethics and…
California Governor Gerry Brown has appealed a state judge’s horrendous ruling that threw out teacher job protection laws on the ground that they deprived students of their constitutional rights. In a one-page appeal filed yesterday, Brown and California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris argued that a decision of such breadth should be made by a…
In a recent article in Inside Higher Ed, I closed with, “Is there room for cursive writing as we now begin the academic year in the not-so-hallowed halls of academe across America? Sure, but along with this kind of circus-act writing there is room, even more so, for the two-thumb essay.” Thinking about students writing…
On August 27, the Denver Business Journal ran an article on proposed legislation that will dramatically overhaul the application for federal student aid. The article opens with the following two paragraphs: “Several Colorado universities are getting behind a recent bipartisan bill zeroing in on speeding up the financial aid application process. “The bill—proposed by Sens.…
Here is a link to Poorer by Degrees, a new short documentary by Jennifer Shuberth, a former faculty member at Portland State University: http://vimeo.com/95828754. The documentary questions the premise that our economic growth requires a dramatic increase in the number of college graduates. Indeed, it suggests that the increased emphasis on completing degrees may actually…
Dear Chairman Bense and Governor Scott: The battle over FSU’s next President seems to have slowed, except that the FSU Board of Trustees (BOT) has silently “postponed” its Aug. 26th meeting. This meeting was the last chance for Chair Allan Bense to answer the overwhelming call to restructure the Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC) before…
There are currently 119 single-gender colleges and universities in the United States. Mills College in Oakland, California, has become the first of those institutions to admit transgender students. The college’s undergraduate admission policy on “transgender or gender questioning- applicants” now permits “applicants whose gender identity does not match their legally assigned sex” as of the…