POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This post might be subtitled: “Or My Retreat from More Broadly Absurd Political Considerations.” In CNN’s Politics Nightcap newsletter for December 22, Eric Bradner reports: The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker and Karen Tumulty had a story this morning about President-elect Donald Trump’s casting call for “the look” — and included this tidbit…
BY MARTIN KICH In 1966, the University of Texas at Austin was the site of America’s first mass shooting on a college campus. Now, 50 years later, students can carry guns on campus. It has created a tense environment, where students and professors alike are not sure who might have a weapon. “Universities are meant to…
BY HANK REICHMAN Slowed down a bit by a lingering cold, and reflecting a bit on the past year, I decided to go back and review my various posts to this blog over the past 365 days. Some of the 229 items I posted to this blog were largely ephemeral; others simply reposts of items…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Sub-Saharan Africa, Part 2 In a March 2015 opinion piece for the Globe and Mail, Busani Ngcaweni and Robert Nkuna address the role of political dissent in the reshaping of South Africa’s universities and of the nation itself. Ngcawenu and Nkuna begin by drawing an unsettling contrast: “Allister Sparks believes apartheid…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In an article in the New York Times titled “A Peek inside the Strange World of Fake Academia,” Kevin Carey has provided much illustrative detail on the burgeoning business in very dubious academic conferences, impostor academic societies, and predatory journals. Beyond some of the illustrative detail that is often as compelling…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH A giant rooster sculpture resembling President-elect Donald J. Trump outside a shopping mall in Taiyuan, China. The statue was built to celebrate the coming Year of the Rooster in the Chinese lunar calendar. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH These three charts created by NPR show how Donald Trump’s Cabinet (nominees) compare to the cabinets of previous presidents.
BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM Rudy Fichtenbaum is AAUP president. As the year draws to a close, here’s a look at what the AAUP has done in 2016 and at what the new year may hold for us. (Not a member yet? Join us!) In 2016, we improved conditions for academic freedom and shared governance. We worked…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On December 1, the AAUP, the College Media Association (CMA), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) released a report, Threats to the Independence of Student Media, shining a light on threats to student media and faculty and staff advisers. The report reaffirms and expands…