Against Grants

BY AARON BARLOW A decade or so ago, I applied for a travel grant to examine papers of Carlos Salzedo, a twentieth-century French/American harpist. The request was turned down, the result of a scathing evaluation by someone who was incensed that I had not mentioned the other important French/American harpist of the time, Marcel Grandjany.…

UC Regents Make a Muddle of Academic Freedom

Here is another excellent perspective on the University of California Board of Regents consideration of a proposed “intolerance policy” by UCLA History Professor Michael Meranze, posted originally on his Remaking the University blog.  This Wednesday the Regents Committee on Educational Policy will be taking up the Final Report of the Regents Working Group on Principles…

UC Faculty Groups Challenge Proposed “Intolerance” Policy

On Wednesday of this week, the University of California Board of Regents will meet to consider a number of controversial proposals, among them a revised version of a proposed “intolerance policy.” The policy, which was prompted initially by allegations of harassment of Jewish students, had met with wide criticism when first proposed last Fall from advocates…

Chancellor White Turns Back on Faculty

BY HANK REICHMAN Last week shortly before I left for Washington, D.C. to attend meetings of the AAUP Foundation Board and the AAUP Executive Committee, I learned that California State University (CSU) Chancellor Timothy White would be addressing a breakfast there hosted by the California State Society, “a social networking organization” serving Californians in the…

ACCJC On the Ropes

Recent developments in the continuing controversy surrounding the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and the California community college system suggest that the commission may be heading out of business, at least in California if not nationally. Tomorrow, March 21, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges will consider a resolution…

“March Madness” Is Big Business

Here are some statistics from Erik Sherman’s April 2015 article for Fortune “College Basketball Coaches and Their Slam Dunk Salaries” [http://fortune.com/2015/03/21/college-basketball-coaches-and-their-slam-dunk-salaries/]. (Billy Donovan has since moved on from the University of Florida to the NBA.)   Duke University Coach: Mike Krzyzewski Total pay: $9,682,032 Maximum bonus: N/A University president pay: Richard H. Brodhead, $1.1 million Basketball…

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Horror Show Edition

BY RACHEL BUFF POST-ACT 55 WISCONSIN, THE FIRST DAY OF UWM SPRING BREAK: less than a week out from the March 10 adoption by the state Board of Regents of new, Act 55-compliant policy that threatens the much-vaunted Wisconsin Idea. The new policy riddles the academic freedom and university democracy consecrated in the Wisconsin Idea…

A Conservative Defense of Academia

BY HANK REICHMAN It has become a commonplace assumption that conservatives are a vanishing breed in academia and that American colleges and universities are inherently hostile to right-leaning political views.  This assumption fuels not only the often tiresome complaints from the right about “political correctness” on campus, but also the increasingly destructive assault by Republican-controlled…