BY AARON BARLOW The crisis is upon us. It has been building—the pressure on a fault line—for at least 45 years, certainly since the Powell Memo of 1971. By soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, it includes this: One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates,…
BY JOHN K. WILSON I have not previously spoken out in defense of Melissa Click, the University of Missouri professor who was loudly denounced for supporting a student protest by keeping out student journalists. Like many others, I strongly opposed her actions, and despite many threats against her and calls for her dismissal, she was…
BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this week, Robert Quinn, the executive director of Scholars at Risk, an international network of higher education institutions in 39 countries with headquarters at New York University, published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post entitled “The War on Education.” The attack last week at Pakistan’s Bacha Khan University that killed 22 and…
BY MARTIN KICH In “The Path to Debt Free College: More School Choice,” an article written for U.S. News and World Report, Wesley Coopersmith argues that “to solve the debt crisis in higher education, lawmakers should let students have many more options.” Brushing aside proposals to increase Pell Grants, to reduce interest rates on student…
BY AARON BARLOW On January 26, I posted Professor Rob Latham’s statement concerning his possible firing to the University of California Board of Regents. Though tenured, he was fired. There has been great interest in Latham’s statement (as can be seen in the comments). In response, and after what I’ve heard was a contentious meeting,…
BY ANNA PEAK Suggest that contingent faculty deserve equal pay, and someone is sure to tell you, in smugly reasonable tones, that while contingent faculty deserve better pay they do not deserve equal pay because, after all, tenure-stream professors are contractually obligated to publish, serve, and teach advanced courses, while contingent professors — those lucky…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Loyola University Chicago adjuncts voted January 27 to unionise by a vote of 142-82, They will be represented by the Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.) Local 73. Unlike other Roman Catholic Universities such as Manhattan College, Saint Xavier and Duquesne, the Loyola University administration, while opposing it, used tools of persuasion such…
BY MARTIN KICH COCAL is the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, a nearly 20 year old network of contingent activists and their organizations that does a conference (now tri-national – USA, CAN (including QBC), and MEX) every other year, usually in August. It also sponsors a listserv, called ADJ-L, and has an International Advisory Committee…
BY KELLY HAND In his article “Steven Salaita, the Media, and the Struggle for Academic Freedom” in the January-February 2016 issue of Academe, Peter N. Kirstein writes about media coverage of the controversy surrounding Steven Salaita’s dismissal by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The issue’s special focus on media and the faculty was inspired…
BY CONNOR GIBSON New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer’s new book Dark Money includes details that bolster concerns publicized by UnKoch My Campus, and students and professors across the United States who have blown the whistle on Charles Koch’s cooptation of higher education programs. Universities are at the heart of Charles Koch’s lobbying model, which after…