BY AARON BARLOW “Peer review,” cried the provost, “that’s the gold standard.” Sometimes it seems like the only standard. And we are being told to grasp it strongly. Why not? It lets us off the hook. Accepting it without question, we can ignore at least a couple of the urgent concerns regarding Reappointment, Promotion, Tenure…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL The higher education community is noticing with increasing interest and some alarm the growing number of mergers and acquisitions that occurred in American higher education in 2018. Are there lessons that might be learned from these events? Here are some preliminary thoughts: We should not assume that what appears to be…
BY RISA L. LIEBERWITZ The AAUP submitted comments today on amendments proposed by US Department of Education to the regulations governing the implementation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education programs. The AAUP responded, in particular, to a question posed by the education department about “the applicability of the…
BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM It has been an incredible week at Wright State University. The weather has been terrible (temperatures in the single digits followed by snow and freezing rain).But everyday this week, hundreds of faculty have been on the picket line from 8am to 6pm at the four main entrances to the campus. Our faculty…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Earlier today, a Turkish court sentenced an academic, Yonca Demir from Bilgi University, to three years in prison for the crime of signing a peace petition critical of the government. It marked the longest sentence yet given to the 1128 professors who signed a 2016 petition by Academics for Peace that angered…
BY PAMELA A. SCHULZE Pamela A. Schulze, president of the Akron AAUP chapter, submitted the following open letter in support of the faculty at Wright State University, who are striking for quality higher education. I am writing this letter as President of the University of Akron Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL In “Colleges Should Not Allow Students to Pay With a Percentage of Future Earnings”, Forbes contributor Derek Newton got both the intent and purpose of an income share agreement (ISA) wrong. In conversations with higher education leaders across America, my experience indicates that there has been a dramatic shift over the past…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the wake of last year’s exciting wave of teacher strikes that began in West Virginia and quickly spread to Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Colorado — states where public employees lack collective bargaining rights, unions are weak, and voters supported Donald Trump — the current strike by teachers in Los…
Honestly? And the Schrader administration is trying to characterize faculty as not caring enough about our students. One of my colleagues has made this meme: Please sign our petition of support and distribute it to your contact lists and over your social media accounts: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stand-with-wright-state-faculty. Please visit our social media accounts and express your support…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL In our book, How to Run a College: A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Administrators and Policymakers, Dr. Joey King and I argue that colleges project themselves to fail should they continue to use their current operating models. There is a point where the lines cross for net tuition revenue and…