BY MATTHEW BOEDY In Georgia we decided to conduct a small survey of faculty opinions about shared governance. And the results are not merely shocking but show the direct effects from Georgia’s university system gutting tenure in 2021. Using the AAUP’s shared governance survey tool, we asked faculty at a large university to tell us…
BY MARK S. JAMES This week, President Biden announced his most ambitious plan to forgive student loan debt since the US Supreme Court ruled his last sweeping effort unconstitutional last year. I’ve written about my own experience with student loan debt forgiveness and being what I call “post-debt.” The journal that published the article is…
BY THE BERKELEY FACULTY ASSOCIATION It is expected that the University of California Board of Regents will announce the appointment of a new Chancellor of the Berkeley campus on April 10. On April 1, in anticipation of this appointment, the Berkeley Faculty Association posted the following open letter. UPDATE 4/10: The Regents have announced the…
BY AUDREY BERLOWITZ I am a PhD candidate studying undergraduate teaching and learning at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, which serves a predominantly multiracial, multiethnic first-generation student population. Though students have been advised by higher-ups to keep our energies on our studies and our thoughts unsullied by internal university politics, I have juggled both…
On April 17, higher ed unions, AAUP chapters, and student organizations across the U.S. are coming together for a national day of action to fight back against the coordinated assault on teaching and learning, and to mobilize for a system of higher education that serves the public good. Our aim is not just to beat…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On March 27, 2024, Texas governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order compelling “all Texas higher education institutions” to “update free speech policies to address the sharp rise in antisemitic speech and acts on university campuses and establish appropriate punishments, including expulsion from the institution,” ensure that “groups such as the…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Most community college faculty are paid poverty-level wages and so can’t afford the laptops they need to teach, especially when they teach remotely. Even so, neither state lawmakers nor college administrators budget for them. Perhaps, I thought, a national initiative might provide them the technology they need to serve the nation’s most…
BY LAUREN GUTTERMAN AND LISA L. MOORE On February 22nd, 2024, Dr. Paige Schilt, a social worker, author, and former lecturer and staff member at the University of Texas at Austin, was scheduled to give a talk entitled “A Queer Path to Leadership: Finding a Mentor to Help You Succeed in Higher Education.” It was…
We are posting this March 21 letter from the executive committee of the University of Virginia AAUP chapter with the chapter’s permission. James Ryan, UVa President Ian Baucom, UVa Provost Deans, UVa Schools Michael Kennedy, Chair Faculty Senate Amanda Flora, Chair General Faculty Council Dear Colleagues, The University of Virginia (UVa) Chapter of the American…
BY MARK S. JAMES Last August, my colleague wrote about how our university’s leadership has embraced a top-down corporate model as the way of running the university, and he proceeded to describe various instances when they have ignored shared governance and threatened academic freedom. This trend has continued unabated. The most recent example of this…