BY MICHAEL BÉRUBÉ AND MICHAEL DECESARE In September, the AAUP announced an investigation of the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the pandemic. The investigation’s initial focus was on seven institutions; the following month, an eighth was added to the list. Never before in the Association’s 106-year history has a governance…
BY JONATHAN PORITZ AND JONATHAN REES When we wrote about “Academic Freedom in Online Education” for the winter 2021 Academe released this month, we tried hard not to focus too much on the pandemic. While many faculty members have only come to online education because COVID-19 has made it unsafe to teach in any physical…
BY BILL BERGMAN The differences between first-year college students and seniors were more pronounced than ever during the fall semester. I had a firsthand glimpse while teaching both a first-year seminar and upper-level marketing classes on campus. While I could never really see the mask-covered faces of first-year students in my classes, their eyes sparkled…
BY JOHN K. WILSON In December, the Northwestern University AAUP chapter released a “Report of the Committee on Northwestern University’s COVID-19 Response,” which was endorsed by the chapter members and more than 100 faculty. Tomorrow, the authors of the report will discuss it in an online session on Tues. Feb. 16 at 5-6pm Central time…
BY JULIE SCHMID It’s time for a reckoning. So said Representative Ayanna Pressley at the campaign launch of the New Deal for Higher Education on Wednesday. In a rousing kickoff, Pressley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and other panelists talked about dreams achieved through higher education, but also the darker side of dreams deferred and a system…
BY HELEN SCOTT During this year of crisis, faculty and staff have mustered all our strength and resolve to ensure that the University of Vermont continues to fulfill its central academic and public interest mission. But the university administration is undermining these efforts as they pursue a short-sighted and reckless restructuring plan, justified by an…
POSTED BY SARAH MINK Winter 2021 | Vol. 107, No. 1 This issue of Academe examines several “preexisting conditions” within higher education that the pandemic has thrown into sharp relief. These long-standing problems—blind spots, inequities, deficiencies in policies and practices—have been exacerbated during the present crisis, but they require more than short-term fixes. Follow the links in…
BY AAUP-Penn The following column by the new University of Pennsylvania chapter of the AAUP, appeared in the Daily Pennsylvanian last week. We are proud to announce the formation of the University of Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP–Penn). As scholars and teachers of all ranks, we have come together because…
BY KANSAS AND MISSOURI AAUP CHAPTERS In the following petition directed at state and local politicians, Kansas and Missouri AAUP chapters demand equal prioritization for Kansas and Missouri post-secondary workers as their pre-K-12 counterparts: namely, that Kansas post-secondary workers be included in vaccine Phase 2 and Missouri workers in Phase 1b, Tier 3. Seventy-two percent…
BY JANET BOWDAN Here in Massachusetts, my university just posted a coronavirus update that notes, in passing, that “higher education is not part of Phase I and II of the vaccination plan.” Wait. Why aren’t higher education faculty and staff at least in Phase II? Obviously (at least to me), health care workers and first…