BY THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY AAUP CHAPTER From donor influence scandals to Supreme Court boondoggles, there’s never a dull moment at George Mason University (GMU). Now, once again, Mason students and faculty find themselves under attack. This time, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin and his political appointees on Mason’s Board of Visitors are coming for our…
BY JONATHAN REES I read the AAUP’s Redbook from back to front. What I mean by that is that when a problem comes up, I ask myself, “I wonder what the AAUP has to say about this?” then search the index of the Redbook in order to see the collective wisdom of 110-odd years of…
BY DANIEL A. SEGAL At a moment when the Israeli assault on Gaza has destroyed every university that had existed in Gaza, and the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement again calls on academics outside of Palestine to support the nonviolent strategy of institutional academic boycotts, it is time for the AAUP to reconsider…
BY MEGAN DELANEY, GABRIELLE HACKENBERG, AND AMANDA STOJANOV The Faculty Association of Monmouth University (FAMCO) recently finished an extensive reopener with university administration regarding our healthcare costs and plans. We were aware that our members had been overpaying for healthcare for several years and that the administration was diverting costs onto members through the cover…
BY BILL V. MULLEN A dangerous and broadly worded bill making faculty vulnerable to termination for not conforming to a state legislature’s definition of political diversity will likely be voted on by the Indiana state legislature on Tuesday, February 27th. Senate Bill 202 mandates that in order to receive tenure faculty must demonstrate that they…
BY HANK REICHMAN On Monday, February 26, I’ll be talking about the AAUP’s recent special investigation report, “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System,” online with John A. Douglass of the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education. Here’s the Center’s description of the event: In their self-proclaimed “war on…
BY NEIL KRAUS “The public has lost confidence in higher education.” This narrative is everywhere, its ubiquity reminiscent of the failing K–12 schools refrain post–A Nation at Risk. News stories about polling results, opinion pieces advocating increased online education, and consultants seeking to sell a wide range of products remind us of the public’s declining…
BY HANK REICHMAN I’m a historian of Russia by training, but I guess I didn’t realize that there’s apparently no double jeopardy rule, at least with respect to sentencing, in Russia. Turns out that I—and many others—celebrated too soon when back in December we learned of the release of renowned Marxist sociologist and university professor…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY You may remember several years ago a phenomenon called “the last lecture.” It began with the heartbreaking story of Randy Pausch, who was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with cancer and literally gave his last lecture in September 2007. That became a book in 2008…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Last week, the Catholic University of America (CUA) fired psychology professor Melissa Goldberg one week after she invited doula Rachel Carbonneau to address her class, Psychology 379: Lifespan Development. Doulas coach women during the birthing process, and Carbonneau discussed helping “birthing persons” deal with having abortions and assisting transgender men. One…