Bowling Green Newspaper Editor Fired over Gun-Related Editorial

I recently did a post on an Ohio gun group’s criticism of BGSU faculty and staff who contacted their legislators to oppose campus-carry legislation that has passed the Ohio House and is now being considered by the Ohio Senate: https://academeblog.org/2015/12/01/ohio-gun-group-castigates-bgsu-faculty-for-expressing-opposition-to-campus-carry-legislation/ In a very related story, the editor of the local newspaper, the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune,…

Updates on the Detention of Chinese Labor Activists

I recently re-posted a piece by Paul Garver on the detention of labor activists in China. Paul edits the Talking Union blog of the Democratic Socialists of America, and I included the re-post of his piece in a somewhat broader article on labor activism in China: https://academeblog.org/2015/12/10/supporting-the-emerging-chinese-labor-movement-on-international-human-rights-day/. That post was then re-posted on the Facebook…

Why Would Academia Be an A-Hole-Free Zone?

This is an addendum to Aaron’s critique of Ranii Neutill’s piece on Salon, “Sixteen Years in Academia Made Me an A-Hole.” Before I was in graduate school and found a library job in the summer to supplement my grad-teaching stipend, I must have had 30 to 40 jobs–everything from being a dishwasher, a soda-jerk, and a…

Sixteen Years, What Do You Get?

One of the advantages of starting an academic career late in life is the understanding of the workplace and of people one brings into the new activities. One of the advantages, also, is that one is unlikely to have grandiose visions of a life in the ivied towers of a research institution. Unless one is…

“Right to Work” by the Numbers: Part 12: Unemployment Rates in Mid-December 2015

The “right-to-work” states are indicated in red, and the pro-labor states in white:   Compare that map with this map indicating the state unemployment rates reported on December 18, 2015:   In the Ohio House, legislation has been introduced to impose “right-to-work” restrictions on private-sector unions, with the primary argument for the measure being the…

Big Data versus the Faculty (and Close Reading)

A colleague of mine went on a public tirade this fall against the use of numbers of citations in decisions on tenure and promotion. Hers may have been an intentionally self-serving rant, but she has a point. The amount of attention a paper or book brings—or even its usefulness to other scholars—has little to do…

ACCJC On the Defensive at NACIQI

This week I had the honor and privilege to join more than 30 California community college faculty, students, staff, trustees and community allies attending a meeting of the National Advisory Commission for Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) in Alexandria, Virginia.  NACIQI advises the U.S. Department of Education with regard to federal recognition of accrediting agencies…

Rutgers Faculty Opposes Use of “Big Data” in Academic and Employment Decisions: Resolution Raises Concerns over Mistakes and Narrowing Scholarship

Use of a proprietary database that purports to show the publications, citations, books and grants awarded to a professor provides far too limited a perspective on faculty achievement and creates the potential for career-ending errors, according to David M. Hughes, professor of anthropology and president of the faculty union AAUP-AFT at Rutgers. The same data…

Corruption and College Athletics

Chicago Tribune sportswriter Shannon Ryan has an important column today attacking the efforts of Missouri legislators to punish activist student athletes who boycott games (and fine coaches who support them): “This is another attempt to control athletes, silence them and pigeonhole them as solely money-makers for the university.” Even if I don’t think football players should…