University of Washington Campus

BY ANN MESCHER The following is a guest post by Ann Mescher, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle.  Please join this urgent request from faculty members and students at the University of Washington. If you agree, please add your name to our petition linked below, and forward to your colleagues, family…

Scholars at Risk Conference Livestream

Today is the start of the Scholars at Risk 2016 Global Congress, “Universities in a Dangerous World: Defending Higher Education Communities and Values” at McGill University in Montreal. If you are not fortunate enough to be in Montreal in person with us, you can watch a livestream of all the events beginning today at 1pm…

Remembering Jordan Kurland

BY HANK REICHMAN On June 4, following Committee A’s annual spring meeting, present and former AAUP leaders, activists, and staff members gathered in Washington to join family members and friends in honoring the memory of Jordan E. Kurland, who passed away in January at the age of 87, still actively employed by the AAUP.  Jordan…

Questions about One BoT Appointment Reflect Broader Issues

  The editor of the Toledo Blade just published an editorial titled “A Bauble for a Buddy,” questioning both the appropriateness and the efficacy of John Kasich’s appointment of Richard Ross, a former state school superintendent, to the Bowling Green State University board of trustees. The appointment needs to be approved by the State Senate,…

Akron-AAUP Response to Scarborough Resignation

  Some of you may have seen the item in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Scott Scarborough’s resignation as President of the university of Akron [http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/akrons-controversial-president-will-step-down-immediately/111739?cid=pm&utm]. That article includes the official statement released by the university’s Board of Trustees. A follow-up article, “U of Akron Chief’s Resignation Ends a Rocky Presidency,” is available at:…

Review – Galileo's Middle Finger

BY PATRICIA S. BOWNE There’s been a lot posted here about Alice Dreger, but I don’t see any review of her book. Here’s one I wrote back in March 2015, when it was hot off the presses (this review previously appeared on The Royal Academy at Osyth blog). ———————– It’s been a while since I…

Against monoculture.

BY JONATHAN REES Last week, the learning management system (LMS) at the University of California – Davis went down right before finals week. It didn’t take too long for the vendor to restore it, but this kind of message from the administration there, quoted by Phil Hill at the blog e-Literate, probably didn’t inspire very…

Mismanagement and No Meaningful Oversight [Item 1]

This succinct item has been published today by the Dayton Daily News:   Wright State Reserves Shrink from $162M to Estimated $40M by 2018 By Josh Sweigart Staff Writer “Wright State University trustees today approved a plan to raise tuition, cut expenses, reduce staff through attrition and dip into reserves to shore up a budget shortfall…