BY JASON ELIAS Faculty members at the University of New Mexico have been talking to their colleagues for the past two years about the possibility of organizing a union to strengthen their voice on campus. A clear majority of the 1,600 faculty members support this move, and the United Academics of the University of New…
BY CHRISTOPHER NEWFIELD The following is reposted with permission from the Remaking the University blog. Christopher Newfield is professor of literature and American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. As it enters week 3, the promising new series Operation Varsity Blues is running out of gas. The story of wealthy white folks…
BY SHANNON DEA Shannon Dea is associate professor of philosophy and vice-president of the faculty association at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The following is re-posted with permission from University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires (universityaffairs.ca). Last month I had the privilege and honor of participating in and speaking at the triennial Harry Crowe Conference, sponsored by…
BY BETHANY LETIECQ, BETSY DEMULDER, AND TIM GIBSON On August 24, 2018, George Mason University (GMU) President Ángel Cabrera floated an idea during our faculty convocation. In order to serve more students, especially those who cannot easily access and afford a brick-and-mortar university experience, such as single mothers, full-time workers, and veterans, he was exploring…
BY JOHN K. WILSON At 4:07pm ET today, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order imposing “free inquiry” on college campuses. In reality, this hypocritical order by an open enemy of free expression is nothing but a political tool that Trump wants to use to silence his ideological opponents. The Executive Order requires public colleges to…
BY AARON BARLOW The City University of New York is quietly floating the idea of consolidating majors across its campuses. Rather than a Physics major at City College, Hunter, Baruch, my own New York City College of Technology and all the rest, students would be funneled into one CUNY campus. This, I suspect, is seen…
BY WJU FACULTY Below is the text of a statement issued by Wheeling Jesuit University faculty on March 18. In response to Wheeling Jesuit University’s recent declaration of financial exigency, on Friday, March 15, 2019, the WJU faculty passed a Resolution requesting that the administration prioritize and commit publicly to providing for the educational needs…
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF Politically progressive faculty at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, have begun organizing more actively at their workplace. Most recently, a number of them have come together to run a slate in the upcoming campus union chapter elections, setting forth a vision of building a vibrant chapter grounded in rank-and-file activism. As these…
BY DAVE NALBONE Recently, Purdue University Global (PUG) announced that it would abide by federal laws prohibiting the use of forced arbitration to resolve disputes by its students, which until then had been a requirement of its students in order to enroll. This predatory practice dated to PUG’s former iteration, the for-profit and predatory Kaplan…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Last month, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reported that international graduate enrollment and applications at U.S. institutions have declined for the second year in a row. As Lily Jackson reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “In the fall of 2018, the final application count for prospective international graduate students…