BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Professor Iymen Chehade, Columbia College Chicago, and I are members of Illinois AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. We are appearing on a panel in Chicago that is sponsored by the United Nations Association as part of their Global Conflicts Resolution series. The panel is April 13 in Chicago’s…
The following piece by Christopher Newfield, Professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is re-posted with permission from his Remaking the University blog. Somewhere Michael Lewis tells the story about what the boss of a trading floor–perhaps John Meriwether–would do when a trader hung on too long to a losing position,…
The following message from California Faculty Association (CFA) President Jennifer Eagan was sent this morning to California State University faculty members: April 8, 2016 Greetings Faculty Colleagues, The CFA Board of Directors, upon recommendation of the Bargaining Team, has recommended that a tentative agreement between CFA and CSU management be submitted to the membership for…
The following media advisory was released this afternoon: MEDIA ADVISORY CFA and CSU To Announce Tentative Agreement What: California Faculty Association and California State University leaders will hold a joint news conference call for news media to announce a tentative agreement on a reopened contract between the university administration and faculty union. The proposed five-day…
BY TOM MCBRIDE Guest blogger Tom McBride is professor emeritus at Beloit College in Wisconsin. In Chicago there’s a sports talk radio station with a couple of afternoon hosts who insist that their callers think critically about the topic at hand. When Patrick Kane, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey star, was accused of sexual assault, callers would…
Today the administration of the California State University (CSU) and the leadership of the California Faculty Association (CFA) released the following statement: Faculty Union & CSU Announce 48-Hour Blackout on Strike Preparations, News & Communication ** Blackout period to allow negotiations to continue without interruption ** (April 6, 2016) —There is hope that talks…
BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of my keynote address at the annual plenary of the University Senate at the University of Pittsburgh on March 30, 2016. Some passages in the text are taken from my essay, “Does Academic Freedom Have a Future?,” published in the November-December 2015 issue of Academe. I am…
BY JOHN K. WILSON John McAdams of Marquette University has written a letter to President Lovell, refusing to go along with the administration’s demands. McAdam’s lengthy letter outlines why he objects to his suspension and dismissal on both procedural and substantive grounds. Unless Marquette backs down, it seems likely that the administration will refuse to let him…
BY JOHN K. WILSON A new Gallup survey released today, sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Newseum Institute, shows that college students support free speech and open debate more than other adults in America, but they often make exceptions to their support for 1st Amendment rights. In the survey’s…
BY MARTIN KICH As a professor, I have led a fairly sedentary life. I would say that I have a reader’s physique, but I suspect that there are many thin readers—people who can read for hours without having bags or bowls of snacks within arm’s reach. Indeed, it might be a fair question to ask…