BY UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO FACULTY The following open letter from University of Chicago faculty appeared in the Chicago Maroon on Sept. 13. Dear Students of the Class of 2020: As you have undoubtedly noticed, you and your new institution have been in the media spotlight lately. We want to take this opportunity to voice our…
BY MARTIN KICH Writing for New York magazine Jessica Roy reports on the resignation, under threat of termination, of Jason Lieb, a molecular biologist at the University of Chicago. Lieb had been accused of making “unwelcome sexual advances to multiple female grad students,” most notably at an “off-campus retreat,” and of engaging “in sexual activity…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN The adjunct struggle for union rights and human rights is spreading. The National Labour Relations Board (N.L.R.B.) has authorised Loyola University Chicago adjuncts and non-tenure track full-time faculty to conduct an election. Adjuncts at the University of Chicago are organising. The Chicago City Council in October voted unanimously to endorse the…
“Drawing the Right Lessons from Vergara” Sometimes conflict is the starting point on the path to progress. That’s one of two possible ways events could play out in the wake ofVergara v. California, a court case that is driving enormous debate throughout the education world. Brought on behalf of nine public school students, the Vergara case…
The following is an open letter to the City Colleges of Chicago Board of Trustees by Sheldon Liebman of Wright College. Dear Chairperson Wolff, members of the Board of Trustees, and Chancellor Hyman: When I spoke to you last November, my concern in my very brief remarks had to do exclusively with the issue of…
Education ‘reformers,’ whether the business model of higher education is failing or not, have their eyes turned toward American colleges and universities. There’s money to be made there, too, an attraction that the ‘reformers’ and their corporate backers cannot resist. That the profits come at the expense of education itself hasn’t bothered them in their…
Diana Vallera is a Fine Artist and Photography Instructor at Columbia College of Chicago, and President of the Part-Time Faculty Union. In this essay based on a talk given last month at the Illinois AAUP meeting, Vallera analyzes Columbia College of Chicago (which has no connection to Columbia University), and the approach of the administration…
COCAL is the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, a nearly 20 year old network of contingent activists and their organizations that does a conference (now tri-national – USA, CAN (including QBC) , and MEX) every other year, usually in August. It also sponsors a listserv, called ADJ-L, and has an International Advisory Committee and…
“Non-negotiable.” From Texas legislators adding new standardized tests to David Coleman defending his Common Core State Standards, that’s how education “reformers” present their changes. After all, they know better than we do. The problem with American education, they argue, is that too many constituencies have been involved in decision-making, from parents to teachers to school…