BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Crain’s Chicago Weekly published a fascinating, head-scratching and troubling opinion piece recently by two professors from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University critical of the “wealth hoarding” of large private research institutions. They note: “In the past few weeks, as faculty at Chicago State University reviewed their…
Here is the opening section of a news report written by Craig Jarvis for the News and Observer in Raleigh: “The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday ruled unconstitutional a state law that phased out job protections for teachers who had already earned them. “The court, in a unanimous decision, said the law, passed by…
BY HANK REICHMAN [UPDATE 4/20: Yesterday an eighth legislator and the first Republican, Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) added his name to the roster of California lawmakers calling for Katehi’s resignation, declaring in a tweet that the University of California exists to educate students, not enrich administrators.] Calls for the resignation or firing of University of…
The following guest post by Christopher Newfield, Professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is reposted from his Remaking the University blog. It is the third in a series on the University of California (UC) system, the nation’s premier public research institution. Previous posts in the series are here and here.…
Here’s a roundup of AAUP events and other academic freedom and higher education-related conferences coming up this year. Feel free to add any events in the comments. Tomorrow is the Illinois AAUP Annual Meeting, Sat. April 16, 9:15am-4pm, Dominican University, Priory Campus, 7200 Division Street, River Forest, Illinois, featuring AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum, plus sessions…
JOHN K. WILSON The AAUP recently issued a draft report on “The History, Uses, and Abuses of Title IX” and requested comments that are due today, April 15 (send comments to titleIX@aaup.org). I’ve been putting off my response because I feared that I would have to write a lengthy critique. But it turns out the…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a unanimous decision issued today (April 14), a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal for the Second District overturned the infamous lower court decision in Vergara v. State of California, which had declared tenure and seniority protections for K-12 teachers enshrined in California’s Education Code unconstitutional. Los Angeles County…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last month I posted a piece to this blog commenting on a recent book and op-ed by two conservative scholars, which argues persuasively that “right-wing hand-wringing about higher education is overblown” and that “conservatives survive and even thrive in one of America’s most progressive professions.” Now comes an essay posted today on…
The following message from Barbara Bowen, President of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), a joint AAUP-AFT union representing faculty and staff at the City University of New York, was sent to all PSC members. It is taken from the PSC website. For previous posts on the PSC’s six-year battle for a fair contract go here.…
BY HANK REICHMAN This is the second in a series examining issues in the University of California (UC) system, the nation’s premier public research university. The first entry in the series, on the UC’s funding challenge, may be found here. On March 5, I began a post on this blog entitled “Corporatizers Gone Wild!” with…