BY HENRY REICHMAN Last month the Professional Staff Congress, a joint AAUP-AFT union representing faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY), reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with the CUNY administration after working six long years without a contract. The union’s executive committee and delegate assembly have voted overwhelmingly in support…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The editors at the Detroit Free Press have published an editorial titled “Like a Sick Joke.” Here are the opening paragraphs: “In the wake of the Flint water crisis, amid profound concerns over an aging oil pipeline under the Great Lakes, with an ongoing, urgent need to decrease pollution and improve air quality and…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH We are inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, researchers, and business leaders working in the technology sector. We are proud that American innovation is the envy of the world, a source of widely-shared prosperity, and a hallmark of our global leadership. We believe in an inclusive country that fosters opportunity, creativity and a…
BY MARTIN KICH Thousands of images taken by ASTER, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, are now available online. Many of the images look like works of art. Consider the following image of an alluvial fan in the semi-arid interior of China:
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH It is very easy to exaggerate the importance of small things. No matter how obsessive one is about details, something can always slip through the proverbial cracks. That said, the following oversight does seem indicative to me of a broader issue. Writing for Esquire, Matt Miller has reported: “Former reality TV…
BY HANK REICHMAN UPDATE: THIS PIECE WAS PUBLISHED SHORTLY BEFORE WORD BEGAN TO SPREAD OF A POSSIBLE MILITARY COUP IN TURKEY. THE POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF SUCH A COUP, SUCCESSFUL OR NOT, FOR THE DEVELOPMENTS DISCUSSED IN THIS POST ARE, OF COURSE, UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME. In March, AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum and I issued a…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Tim Goral published an extremely interesting interview with former president of the Appalachian College Association, Alice Brown, in University Business last month. Ms. Brown’s comments reflected the wisdom of a professional who has served for 15 years leading a consortium of 35 private, liberal arts colleges in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia,…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This “over the transom” piece is from a colleague who has chosen the pseudonym “Thucydides.” It owes a considerable debt—is in many respects an homage–to the legendary Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko. _________________________ Moose McGillicuddy had just opened his tavern on a quiet weekday morning, wanting to do some cleaning before…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This chart has been provided as part of an article by Emily Peck on the factors driving income inequality: In response to my posts on administrative bloat, I have sometimes received complaints that my emphasis on high administrative salaries is beside the point because relatively few upper administrators receive those salaries…
BY HANK REICHMAN For the past three years I have been posting about the ongoing issues regarding accreditation at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and the subsequent disaffection of virtually all of California’s community colleges with their current accreditor, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). This past spring attention focused…