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…
BY AARON BARLOW
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH I have somewhat lost track of this series and two other series of posts and will try to complete them before the end of this year and the beginning of the new year makes them less relevant. The United Kingdom: Scotland Legislation that would overhaul higher education provoked immediate and enduring…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following is from the Daily Kos’s daily newsletter Elections Digest for Saturday, December 10; this edition of the newsletter is subtitled “Voting Rights Roundup”: “Michigan: Without warning last week, Michigan Republicans began talking about introducing a strict voter ID law, and now the state House has passed the measure over Democratic opposition. Odds…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In a recent post, Hank Reichman provided a post-election playlist that did a great deal to mitigate my post-election despondency. That playlist could not have included this just released video of Fiona Apple singing a Christmas standard reworked for this particular holiday season: Whether you enjoy the song or not, Fiona…
BY AARON BARLOW When I read Nicholas Kristof’s “The Dangers of Echo Chambers on Campus” last night, I knew I would have to write in response. Drive-by commentary of this sort can’t be ignored by those of us who really are members of college communities. Fortunately for me, John K. Wilson posted even before I…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times today jumps up on his high horse to inform us all that the real problem in America today is not that a bigoted, lying, idiotic right-wing conspiracy nut will soon be president; no, the real problem is that liberals are outraged about it…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is excerpted from a story in Pensions and Investments online and reposted on the blog of the UCLA Faculty Association under the above title. University of California gives CIO $841,000 bonus despite year of negative returns By Randy Diamond | December 9, 2016 The University of California Regents approved…
BY HANK REICHMAN Charles Reed, former head of the now-dismantled Florida state university system and for sixteen years (1996-2012) Chancellor of the twenty-three-campus California State University (CSU), died this week at the age of 75. Known to friend and foe alike as just “Charlie,” Reed was a highly controversial leader whose brusque, even bullying style…
BY HANK REICHMAN Most Californians believe the overall affordability of the state’s public colleges and universities is a big problem, while few say the same about the quality of education. These are among the key findings of a survey of public opinion on the state’s public higher education system released December 8 by the Public…