BY GWENDOLYN BRADLEY Save the date for the AAUP 2019 Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education: June 12-16, 2019! Conference highlights include a plenary session on the state of academic freedom, Friday night reception, and an awards and recognition luncheon. In lieu of paper panels this year, we will organize peer-to-peer sessions in which…
BY JULIE SCHMID As we approach the end of the semester, I wanted to share information about some significant wins for the profession and for higher education as a common good that the AAUP has celebrated in recent months. These successes emphasize the power that the national AAUP, the state conferences, and the chapters have…
BY MARTIN KICH As Big Data begins to define our obsessive discussion of politics and our universities respond to the demand for specialists by developing graduate programs in the discipline, it is easy to feel as if we are swimming or, rather, drowning in data—that there is so much data that instead of providing clarity,…
BY KARL ULRICH AND SHANE BORROWMAN The faculty senate of the University of Montana Western (UMW) has regained its right to conduct its periodic review of academic administrators, with the major assistance from the AAUP. Previously, UMW faculty senate abruptly had this long-standing right and responsibility stripped from it, as had other campuses of the…
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…