BY AARON BARLOW When I told my students on Wednesday that we would indeed be moving all of our activities online for the rest of the semester, they groaned. I was a little surprised. I thought they would like the idea that they could finish their classes from home. I believed that they would imagine…
BY BETHANY LETIECQ, TIM GIBSON, AND BETSY DEMULDER This is the first in a series of three George Mason-AAUP Academe Blog posts on lessons learned from the presidential search campaign. Presidential searches conducted at public universities have become secretive processes that exclude most if not all forms of public vetting and engagement. Historically, finalists for…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS A big part of our success in chapter-building and awareness-raising in the Colorado Community College System is a list of facts we publish biennially in a document we call “The Adjunct Index,” modeled on the “Harper’s Index.” The index is an easy format to send to our press contacts, lawmakers, and to…
BY AARON BARLOW When I was in Peace Corps in West Africa, I could always tell where the butcher’s stand was by the vultures circling overhead. Today, I am seeing similar carrion feeders, ones hoping to snatch up the offal from the COVID-19 situation… The COVID-19 college closures are being seized upon by the EdTech…
BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum issued the following statement today on the coronavirus (COVID-19). As we are learning, COVID-19 (the coronavirus) has the potential to present a serious challenge to the health and safety of our campus communities. At this time, campuses in Washington State, New York State, California, Nebraska, and elsewhere have…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following call to action is being distributed by an ad hoc national faculty group, Ad Hoc Committee of Scholars 4 COLA. The Ad Hoc Committee of Scholars 4 COLA Presents: WEEK OF ACTION FOR UC STRIKERS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION EVERYWHERE! March 9-13, 2020 SUPPORT THE STRIKERS, FROM UC TO UCU!…
BY AARON BARLOW “All of my professors are talking about this,” commented the student, “but we’ve heard nothing from the administration.” Across the country, classroom teachers are hearing similar words as they prepare with their students for possible shut-downs sparked by COVID-19 (coronavirus) fears. We’re all doing what we can—which is a lot—with the limited…
BY MICHAEL MERANZE The following is reposted from the Remaking the University blog. Michael Meranze is Professor of History at UCLA and a member of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The labor action that began with the grade strike in Santa Cruz and has now spread throughout the [U]niversity [of California] has…
BY HANK REICHMAN The situation at the University of California at Santa Cruz has escalated. On Friday the university administration announced that 54 graduate students who are withholding fall grades were fired from their spring appointments. This number may in fact be as high as 80, as some students did not get dismissal letters but…
BY JOHN K. WILSON This week, Arizona HB 2238 passed the state house education committee by a vote of 7-4. Stanley Kurtz (the mastermind behind these laws with the help of the Goldwater Institute) calls the Arizona bill the start of a “third wave” of legislation in the name of campus free speech, following earlier…