What Will Debt-Free College Mean for Public Colleges?

BY JOHANN N. NEEM Guest blogger Johann N. Neem is Professor of History at Western Washington University and a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. At the Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders argued that the Democrats came together to support debt-free higher education for all students…

More Judicial Appeal of Voter Suppression: Ohio

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In the last several weeks voter suppression measures in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, Kansas, and Michigan have been overturned by Federal Appeals Courts. This week a case on similar measures in Ohio is being heard. Over the last six years, there have been frequent battles in the legislature and in the…

More Presidential Campaign Usage Policing

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This from CNN: “After Hillary Clinton’s controversy over her private email use, running mate Tim Kaine told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that the two would be ‘real transparent’ in the White House. ‘She said it was a mistake,’ Kaine said. ‘I am not presumptuous enough to start thinking about how I’m going…

"Change is Here to Stay" at Union County College

BY MICHAEL DECESARE In June, delegates to the AAUP’s 102nd annual meeting voted to add Union County College (NJ) to the Association’s list of institutions sanctioned for “substantial noncompliance with standards of academic government.” The unanimous vote was based on a scorching report by Robert A. Gorman, former AAUP president and emeritus professor of labor law at…

Controversial Speakers and DePaul U

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH On August 3, the Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune published an editorial titled “DePaul University’s Fear of Words.” This spring, protesters disrupted a talk by Milo Yiannopoulos, sponsored by the university’s Young Republicans. In response to that event, which might have escalated to violence, the university’s president “described the gold…

Oh, the Humanities!

BY AARON BARLOW When I first heard the term “Digital Humanities” a decade ago, it seemed like something brewed up for use by those who want to poison the humanities—still does. It appeared to be nothing more than something developed by those with a little knowledge of C. P. Snow’s The Two Cultures and the…

graphic: I Can't Get a Job Because I Have No EXperience

If Internships Are So Important, Why Aren't More Successful?

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL In an op-ed in the New York Times last month, Ford Foundation president, Darren Walker, speaks to the value of college internships. Walker noted the personal impact: “As a low-income kid from a small town who entered college without an extended network, my internships equipped me with the skills, confidence and relationships…

Court Decisions Make Climate Science E-Mails Public

BY HANK REICHMAN Advocates of academic freedom generally find freedom of information laws beneficial.  Such laws enhance public knowledge and debate on the workings of government agencies, including public universities. But as a 2013 amicus brief filed by the AAUP and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) pointed out, “in evaluating disclosure under FOIA, the public’s right to know…