CFA Announces Dates of Potential CSU Strike

The following statement was released today by the California Faculty Association (CFA), an AAUP affiliate representing some 26,000 faculty members at all 23 campuses of the California State University system.  Today the California Faculty Association announced that its Board of Directors has set dates of a potential strike on all 23 campuses of the California…

Response to Wilson’s Critique of Peter Wood

BY DAVID RANDALL David Randall, the Director of Communications at the National Association of Scholars, has written a response to John K. Wilson’s critique of Peter Wood’s “The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom.” We’ve decided to put it up as a guest post, since it’s a little long for a blog comment. It’s written in the…

Akron Senate Votes No Confidence in Scarborough

BY MARTIN KICH On Thursday, February 4, the Faculty Senate at the University of Akron voted no confidence in President Scott Scarborough’s administration—by a vote of 50-2. Before the vote was taken, Scarborough had spoken at some length about his plans for the coming year and had answered several questions. He was not, however, present for…

Marco Rubio, Adjunct Professor?

BY HANK REICHMAN Faculty members at Florida International University (FIU) are asking some tough questions about the university’s employment of GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio.  At a Faculty Senate meeting last month senators fired question after question about Rubio’s teaching position to University Provost Ken Furton.  David Park, associate professor in Advertising and Public…

Wisconsin Regents Committee Approves Tenure Changes Without Discussion

BY HANK REICHMAN A controversial set of policies governing tenure at University of Wisconsin System schools that may threaten academic freedom were endorsed without debate Friday by a Board of Regents committee. “I’m stunned,” UW-Madison professor David Vanness, President of the UW-Madison AAUP, said of the swift approval. “I wonder whether due diligence is being…

An Architectural Take on the Collapse of Corinthian Colleges

I just came across the following description of the closing of Corinthian Colleges, written in May 2015 by Lawrence Biemiller for The Week: _________________________ Corinthian Crumbles In classical architecture, Corinthian is the most elaborate of the orders, recognizable by the acanthus leaves carved into column capitals. In higher education, however, Corinthian is a company accused…

Losing Faith in Managerial Government in Michigan

BY MARTIN KICH In a post to this blog in December, I reported on the decision by the Board of Trustees of Eastern Michigan University (EMU) to continue the university’s involvement in the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) that Governor Snyder’s administration created ostensibly to “save” Detroit’s “failing” public school system. That decision was made in…

Peter Wood’s Shaky Architecture of Academic Freedom

BY JOHN K. WILSON Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, has written a detailed 11,000-word theoretical account of what academic freedom means. In response, I want to examine some of his arguments in detail, although I don’t have time and space to address every point. But fundamentally, I think Wood takes academic…

Emerson College Hosts Danny Ledonne

BY MARTIN KICH On January 26, AFEC-AAUP and the Visual and Media Arts department of Emerson College hosted Danny Ledonne, one of Emerson College’s most controversial graduates. Ledonne (‘04) spoke about artistic and academic freedom after a screening of his critically praised documentary film, Playing Columbine, which explores the controversy created by his video game, Super Columbine…