POSTED BY MARTIN KICH What follows is a group statement from this coalition of AAUP chapters. As educators committed to the public good, we recognize our responsibility—on campus and off—to advocate for students and fellow workers made even more vulnerable during the pandemic. The global pandemic is aggravating deep, endemic inequities and racial disparities, including…
BY THE AAUP The AAUP’s Committee on Contingency and the Profession today issued the following principles and recommendations: Our world is today engulfed in the global COVID-19 pandemic, with enormous loss of life. The unemployment rate was 10.2 percent in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many higher education institutions are preparing to…
BY HANK REICHMAN Early today the following tweet from Professor Stephen Gavazzi, who teaches in the education school at Ohio State, came up on my Twitter timeline: A bit flattered to be asked my opinion, I quickly read the essay and concluded that given the restrictions of the Twitter format any response on that medium…
BY IRENE MULVEY AAUP president Irene Mulvey issued the following statement today: The coronavirus pandemic has impacted us all—as teachers, as researchers, as workers, and as individuals. But one thing remains constant: the public good that higher education faculty provide. AAUP clinical, medical research, nursing, and health professions faculty, along with staff and students, have…
BY MARTIN KICH The current situation at the University of Akron is extreme but nonetheless illustrative of the situations developing at many of our college and university campuses across the state of Ohio and the nation. At Akron, the administration and Board are attempting to use a force majeure clause in the faculty contract to…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following video press conference featured faculty members from AAUP chapters in the Midwest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3NIwdQDsk&feature=youtu.be. This coalition of AAUP chapter’s has a website at https://midwestaaupdocs.wordpress.com/about/. That website prominently includes the following statement on “Protecting Lives, Promoting Education: Principles for Reopening Campuses”: We are a coalition of American Association of University Professors…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Several weeks ago, Tom Rooney, the treasurer of the Wright State chapter, spoke at an event inaugurating the UD Solidarity effort at the University of Dayton, which is focused on insuring that the university carefully weighs the pros and cons of re-opening. Tom made the following remarks: As I stand before…
BY THE WAYNE COLLEGE REDUCTION IN FORCE (RIF) FACULTY HIT LIST On July 15, 2020, the Board of Trustees, in consultation with the administration, at the University of Akron (UA) chose to eliminate ninety-six bargaining unit faculty. Those of us on that list of cut faculty call ourselves the Hit List. Although there are satellite…
BY EVONN WELTON In 2011, The University of Akron received an award from the American Psychological Association for being a healthy workplace environment. What a profound and sad irony that in less than ten years, it has become a place of financial hardship, possible injustices, fear, anxiety, and pitting faculty against faculty. It has become…
BY HARRY R. LEWIS Harry Lewis is Gordon McKay Research Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, and former Dean of Harvard College. This essay is reposted from his blog. I used to visit Hong Kong regularly, and also made a few trips to mainland China. One of those trips put me in a provincial…