BY KAILEY ADKINS Students and faculty have been clear: George Mason University must begin reviewing all of their future donor agreements for conflicts of interest and make them more transparent to the public. The Provost at George Mason University will be presenting his recommendations to the university’s board to improve gift acceptance policies next Wednesday.…
BY MARTIN KICH In a previous post, I showed in photos the large turnout of Wright State AAUP members at the October meeting of our board of Trustees. I have also posted the remarks made by two of our officers, the president of our Faculty Senate, and a department chair, all advocating for the Board…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL American colleges and universities operate on an unsustainable financial model. They are heavily tuition-dependent at all but the best-endowed institutions. In fact, of the more than 4,000 non-profit colleges and universities, the number that have the flexibility to rely on revenue, whether from endowment drawdowns or other sources, may be less…
BY MARTIN KICH This resolution was passed unanimously by the chapter leaders and members attending this year’s annual meeting in the Columbus suburb of Westerville. Whereas the primary mission of Ohio’s colleges and universities is to educate students, a mission carried out by professors, Whereas more than 90 percent of Ohio AAUP members belong to…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last week The Atlantic magazine announced a year-long reporting project, “The Speech Wars,” exploring questions of American free expression and public discourse. It is funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Fetzer Institute. According to the magazine, “The project will unfold across TheAtlantic.com,…
MICHAEL C. BEHRENT The bold print of UNC-Chapel Hill’s decision earlier this week to build a $5.3 million museum for “Silent Sam,” the controversial Confederate statue, was bad enough. But as people have had time to read the report released by the campus’s Board of Trustees on Monday, December 3, it has become apparent that…
BY MARTIN KICH The Atlantic has released its annual compilation of the top 25 news photos. (Over three days, they are following up with three sets of 25 other photos highlighting news stories from throughout the year.) Five of the 25 photos have a connection to education-related stories. They include a photo of Christine Blasey-Ford being…
BY MICHAEL C. BEHRENT On Monday, December 3, the Chancellor and Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill delivered their formal plan for what to do with “Silent Sam,” the controversial Confederate statue. They managed to formulate a decision that was almost perfect in its absurdity. To lay to rest…
BY MARTIN KICH So writes Richard Vedder, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University, in an article for Forbes. What follows is the opening paragraph, which is essentially an overview of the main points of his argument: A good case can be made that males are discriminated against on college campuses, and the discrimination has…
BY MARTIN KICH One of the biggest issues for just about every AAUP collective-bargaining unit in the country is healthcare costs. Most of our institutions are self-insured, and although good benefits packages have long been one of the salient advantages of public-sector employment in general, many of our institutions have been trying to move employees…