The University of Phoenix has announced that it is eliminating the positions of 470 of its 6,000 employees as part of its “five-year transition plan.” What follows is the letter sent by University of Phoenix president Timothy P. Slottow to the “company leaders”: Dear Colleagues, As ever, I want to thank you for your enthusiasm around and belief in…
Huffington Post has published an article by Tyler Kingkade with the headline: “Tennessee Lawmakers Consider Bill That Could Chill Free Speech.” It is not an especially shocking headline because we have now become very used to the reality that the Far Right sees no hypocrisy in defining unlimited corporate political contributions as the exercise of…
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…