BY AARON BARLOW The traditional classroom is an admittedly questionable structure. It limits learning by confining bodies of knowledge within four walls, scuffed floor and ceiling generally too low. It also keeps things out, particularly a world that should have an impact on every type of learning. It reinforces hierarchy: no matter that teachers try…
BY MARTIN KICH In this series, I have highlighted headlines that are cleverly expressed, making use of puns, irony, figurative language, or unexpected word choices to grab a reader’s attention. Not surprisingly, the Trump administration has so unabashedly flouted all sorts of political conventions that headline writers have felt freer to write headlines that during…
BY MARTIN KICH What follows is an excerpt from Amanda Sakuma’s detailed summary, for Vox, of President Trump’s lengthy speech at the 2019 CPAC meeting: Trump announced plans to issue an executive order for free speech on college campuses At one point, Trump brought on stage Hayden Williams, a conservative activist who was allegedly punched…
BY DAVE NALBONE AND BILL MULLEN Below is the text of a press release issued by the Indiana chapters of the AAUP on February 25. West Lafayette, IN — Indiana chapters of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) won a major victory for students and faculty in Indiana by forcing the online public university,…
BY GERARD O’SULLIVAN with BRIAN C. MITCHELL, co-author Twelve small colleges have closed in Massachusetts in the past five years. They have begun to address the issue, but it’s time for elected state officials to make changes that protect college and university students from the disruptive effects of catastrophic closure. The Governor, Attorney General…
BY DAVID M. RABBAN William Van Alstyne, for decades a major leader in the AAUP and a preeminent scholar of constitutional law, died on January 29, 2019, at the age of eighty-four. He joined the AAUP in 1960, at the beginning of his career as a law professor, and twice served as president of the…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines, upholding the right of students to wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War. The Tinker case established a standard of “substantial disruption” for punishing K-12 students, and it is a landmark case for student…
BY JOHN K. WILSON I was intrigued by a Facebook post yesterday from the National Association of Scholars which announced, “Want a promotion? Too bad; you’re not a union member, says St. Cloud State.” That’s a shocking claim. Or it would be, except that there’s no evidence that it’s true. The post linked to an…
BY ROBERT A. SCOTT Every state requires hairstylists to receive certifications before they serve the public. There are certification programs for hospital trustees and education programs for corporate directors. Yet few states require training for college and university trustees, individuals who are fiduciaries for the more than $1.2 trillion in operating funds and endowments held…
BY MARCO ABEL AND JULIA SCHLECK In our recent Academe article, “Academic Freedom, Radical Hospitality, and the Necessity of Counterspeech,” we revisit the incident on UNL’s campus that led to its censure last June to ask what administrations can do when faced with incidents like this one, in which a student advocating for the establishment…