BY HANK REICHMAN On October 30 I had the great honor and privilege of delivering the 29th annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Academic Freedom Lecture at the University of Michigan. In 1954 the University of Michigan suspended and then terminated Professors H. Chandler Davis and Mark Nickerson, a tenured faculty member, and suspended but then reinstated…
BY STEVE BUTTES Last week the AAUP launched its Faculty Anti-Privatization Network (FAN) week of action and shared new resources to raise awareness and build faculty solidarity around the increasing risks that online programs are posing to the academic freedom, shared governance, educational quality, and reputation of public and private institutions across the country. This…
BY HANK REICHMAN Two years ago state auditors rebuked the University of California (UC) for not following its own policy for outsourcing jobs. Now the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, which represents some 26,000 university employees, has filed six charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board against UC’s…
For its next volume, scheduled for publication in fall 2020, the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom seeks original, scholarly articles exploring the ways the myriad managerial techniques in use on campuses today affect academic freedom and democratic faculty governance. Actuarial concerns about liability result in decisions made beyond the purview of governance bodies and even campus administration. We seek submissions that contemplate professional life and practices of academic freedom in this context, as well as those engaged with the possibility of resistance to these new regimes.
BY HANK REICHMAN When early last month the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees (IHL) appointed Glenn Boyce as the new Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, faculty and students were outraged. Boyce had been hired as a consultant to the search committee for the new chancellor and was never formally submitted as a…
BY AARON BARLOW Old News Department: Selling diplomas as a means to economic success turns them into a commodity—and people find all sorts of ways to pay, if not by work then by cash. When different diplomas are seen as providing different dividends, people angle to get those they believe most valuable, some paying through…
BY MONICA OWENS Happy Halloween! For a real scare, check out the spooky stats from our survey of faculty about their perspectives on online program management companies. This week we launched the Faculty Anti-Privatization Network week of action. It’s a week to raise awareness and build faculty solidarity around the increasing risks that online programs are…
BY AARON BARLOW Second-semester students come into their classrooms as jaded veterans knowing exactly what their status is. They know that the teachers of their core curriculum courses (normally, all that they are taking, this year) are, for the most part, either untried graduate students, adjuncts so harried they have no time for their students,…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Dirty Laundry Week. Tuition Scam Week. Fraud on the Public Week. Tuition Lies Week. Perhaps if national Campus Equity Week had a more descriptive title, it might get the attention of journalists and lawmakers. As it is, October 21–25, 2019 will pass as another week for the nation’s 5,300 wealthy college administrators…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY It’s Campus Equity Week, a week of action from October 21 to 25 when faculty, students, and other advocates on campuses around the country are calling attention to the increasingly precarious nature of academic employment and its negative implications for higher education. Guest blogger Carolyn Betensky focuses here on obstacles to research…