Image of the Day
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is a photo of student housing at a university in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China: Reuters/Stringer
Global Survey of Academic Freedom Issues in 2015 [Post 13 of a Series]
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The United Kingdom, Part 4: Northern Ireland In October 2015, Mike Larkin contributed a feature article to the Belfast Telegraph that challenged the fundamental logic in the arguments for the corporatization of Northern Ireland’s universities: “When is a university not a university? When it is a business perhaps? The recent episodes…
Now a U.S. Graduate Student Has Been Denied Access to Qatar
BY HANK REICHMAN Regular readers of this blog will recall how last year New York University Professor Andrew Ross was stopped from boarding a flight to Abu Dhabi, where NYU has a campus and where Ross had intended to conduct research. Ross, a vocal critic of the human-rights record of the United Arab Emirates, was…
A Libertarian Defense of "Identity Politics"
BY HANK REICHMAN Last month I posted to this blog Christopher Newfield’s excellent response to the notorious New York Times op-ed by Mark Lilla on “identity politics.” If you haven’t read Chris’s piece, you should. At the time I mentioned that “I still may post more on this topic,” and since then I’ve been collecting…
There Be Dragons
BY JONATHAN REES I’ve been reading a lot of books about the history of maps and mapmaking lately. Apparently, one of the great myths of cartography is that medieval maps would label sections of unexplored territory “There be dragons” in order to discourage people from going to those places. Of course, even had this actually…
Add Your Name to the Professor Watchlist!
BY KELLY HAND Yesterday, the AAUP shared with members a petition inviting them to ask to have their names added to the Professor Watchlist, a website that purports to expose faculty who “advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” To counter these alarmist accusations, we will include the names of all who sign the AAUP petition–open to nonmembers also–in an…
Nothing Good Can Result When Teachers Go Into Hiding
BY AARON BARLOW Orange Coast College professor Olga Perez Stable Cox has taken a powder. For good reason. And all of us, whether we agree with her politically or not, whether we applaud her classroom actions or condemn them, should be appalled and frightened. No ifs, ands or buts… this is insane: The professor, the…
Are Higher Ed Professionals a Resource or Part of "the Swamp"?
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL One of the striking features of the new presidential administration appears to be the difference between fact and perception. On most levels, it seems that optics matter more than words.Facts seem to be afterthoughts to positions floated. Further, it looks like many positions shift regularly depending upon how the outcome is likely…
#SanctuaryCampus!
BY RACHEL BUFF …it means nothing… …it means everything. …It’s purely symbolic… …it will get us in trouble. Rumors swirl about the current movement to adopt sanctuary campus policies in universities and K-12 schools. Emerging from immigrant rights and students of color organizations, the #SanctuaryCampus movement responds to threats made against immigrant and Muslim communities…
Columbia Graduate Students Vote to Unionize
BY HANK REICHMAN A majority of teaching and research assistants at Columbia have voted to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board confirmed today, December 9. Graduate and undergraduate students voted 1602 to 623 in favor of joining Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers Union. University administrators and especially provost John Coatsworth had lobbied vigorously against…