large lecture hall with empty seats

Guidance for Reopening Campuses

BY JULIE SCHMID The AAUP has issued the following guidance on the reopening of colleges and universities this fall, consistent with existing AAUP policies and standards. A number of colleges and universities across the country are considering whether to reopen their campuses in the fall. Much of the discussion about reopening has focused on the…

Celebrating Nurses on National Nurses Day

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This year, more than most years, we should be acutely aware of what all healthcare workers, first responders, and essential workers are enduring for the sake of their communities. But nurses have been truly in the front lines. Nurses are dealing with the sickest of the sick for extended shifts and…

Coronavirus

The Academic Freedom Right to Teach Remotely

BY JOHN K. WILSON Like other blog posts by Academe Blog‘s contributing editors and guest bloggers, this blog post represents the opinion of the author and does not represent a policy position of the AAUP. Universities such as Purdue are making plans to re-open this fall, with president Mitch Daniels citing the “close to zero lethal…

Conceptualizing Wealth and Disparities in Wealth

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In one of the most widely read posts that I have made to this blog, I collected videos and images that have attempted to provide visualizations of the enormous differences between a million, a billion, and a trillion dollars. These kinds of almost inconceivable numbers have already become a concern as…

FACCC President: “Calbright Funds Should Go to Health Benefits for Part-Time Faculty”

BY HANK REICHMAN I’ve been posting pieces about California’s ill-conceived all-online community college, Calbright, and faculty resistance to it pretty much since its inception.  You can find those posts here.  Now that all the state’s community colleges, like pretty much all of higher education nationally, are now offering classes only remotely, using online methods, the…

Juxtaposition of the Day

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH     We emphasize to our students that critical thinking is not just an advantage but a necessity in our increasingly complex world. But these sorts of juxtapositions, which have become commonplace online each and every day, really require something much more basic than critical thinking. In fact, discussing them as…

girls with teacher in a classroom

Classroom Responsibility and Academic Freedom

BY AARON BARLOW Why are we professors so scared of having someone look over our shoulders? Do we really believe that having someone peek into our classrooms—or sitting in through a class—is a threat? Is our academic freedom going to disappear simply because someone is watching? When I was being interviewed by a dean for…

Jason Hill’s Ridiculous Lawsuit Against DePaul

BY JOHN K. WILSON Last year, after DePaul philosophy professor Jason Hill published an anti-Palestinian article that drew protests, I wrote a post titled “In Defense of Jason Hill and His Critics” in which I noted that Hill should not be punished for his offensive right-wing views–but also pointing out that Hill, in fact, hadn’t…

Coronavirus

A Petition to Support Higher Education in Crisis

POSTED BY JOAN W. SCOTT A group of academics is calling for a comprehensive policy for public higher education in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They are, rightly I think, suggesting that the various federal stimulus packages have not made higher education a central concern, nor have these packages addressed fundamental issues facing us.  They…