Sometime in the last few weeks, a new website has gone up that monitors for-profit education. It’s called ForProfitU, and it’s a project of the Service Employees International Union. According to the website’s About page, “For-Profit U aims to educate students, parents, press and the general public on the dangers of for-profit colleges.” On February 2,…
By James Simeone The Illinois Wesleyan University AAUP reading group met on September 29, 2011 to discuss Matthew Finkin and Robert Post’s For the Common Good: Principles of Academic Freedom (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). The discussion was framed by the censoring, earlier in September, of a student poet in Hansen Student Center. A…
I’m sure plenty of people saw the irony in the New York Times report about the invitation of retired Lt. Gen William G. Boykin to speak at a West Point prayer breakfast, where “civil liberties advocates…called on the Military Academy to rescind the invitation.” Obviously, it is very odd for anyone concerned about civil liberties…
This week, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced a bill to cut back on for-profit exploitation of veterans. I wrote about this problem a few months ago, and it’s great to see a high-ranking member of congress taking action on it (Durbin is the #2 Democrat in the Senate). I’m happy to say that Durbin’s proposal…
By John Hinshaw Professors are often told that higher education should be run more like a business. You might think that I, as the President of the Pennsylvania AAUP, would disagree. But you’d be wrong. Look, even the AAUP is aware that higher ed has to change, and what could be better or more efficient…
The issue of for-profit colleges is a hot political debate, but until now, for-profits haven’t been mentioned in the presidential election (though they were a major issue in last year’s race for attorney general in Kentucky). But now, a leading candidate for the Republican nomination has injected himself into the debate on for-profit costs and…
Daniel Grant writes at Inside Higher Ed about the question of controversial art: “There are no rules of the road to help art instructors and college administrators in this realm.” Actually, there are many rules of the road long established by the art world and the theorists of freedom of speech. It’s very easy: you…
By Jay Sosa Yesterday, graduate students from the University of Chicago handed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) based in Washington DC, asking that they rule on the case of the New York University (NYU) graduate employee union by December 31. Sound confusing? Welcome to NLRB-land, where the board that adjudicates labor…
Glenn Reynolds has a remarkably bad idea for dealing with student loans: Student loans, if they are to continue, should be made dischargeable in bankruptcy after five years — but with the school that received the money on the hook for all or part of the unpaid balance. Up until now, the loan guarantees have…