Last weekend I had the honor and privilege of attending the annual Council meeting of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) in Ottawa, where I spoke on academic freedom issues in the U.S. and the work of AAUP’s Committee A. Canadian law is far more favorable to higher education faculty collective bargaining rights than…
From Donald Trump at a campaign rally in New Hampshire: “You look at the kind of salaries paid to the heads of the colleges — it’s like they’re running a business, a real business.” Maybe this suggests something about this bullying blowhard’s appeal. For in just one sentence he manages to summarize two important truths…
Guest blogger Jonathan Marks teaches political philosophy at Ursinus College. Corey Robin, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, concludes a recent piece in Salon by imagining how Princeton might distance itself from its former president, Woodrow Wilson. The Black Justice League there demands that the university “publicly acknowledge the racist legacy of Woodrow…
I have posted to this blog several items on the “campus-carry legislation passed very rapidly through the Ohio House and now being considered in the Ohio Senate. The website of the Buckeye Firearms Association has just posted a long item on the e-mails sent from faculty and staff at Bowling Green State University to legislators…
Dr. Everett Piper, the President of Oklahoma Wesleyan, has brought a great deal of attention to himself and to his institution because of a blog post that he wrote to students. The most widely quoted portion of the post has been its closing: “At OKWU, we teach you to be selfless rather than self-centered. We…
Why do I not like Thomas Jefferson and why should you care that I don’t like him? First let’s get some things out of the way. Thomas Jefferson held slaves. They were property. And there’s evidence he may have fathered children with Sally Hemings who was chattel, and who had no consent. While there…
By Elena Levy-Navarro The three chapters of the AAUP — UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Whitewater — have sent to the Board of Regents Tenure Policy Task Force (TPTF) annotated copies of the two policy documents that were written by the chair’s staff. When I consider all of the actions of the Board’s TPTF, I remind myself…
This item, written by Lucy Sweeney, is from ABC News in Australia (no connection to the ABC television network in the U.S.): “Vermin Supreme filed his paperwork for the New Hampshire presidential primary ballot on the last day before applications closed. . . . “The bearded eccentric, who regularly sports a boot on his head,…
In an article for the Buffalo News, Jay Tokasz has reported yet another example of how our institutions are spending exorbitant sums to subsidize intercollegiate athletics—at the expense of academic programs and students. Here are the opening paragraphs from Tokasz article, “Small Crowds, Big Subsidy for UB Sports”: “The price of pursuing athletic glory…
The following op-ed was written by John McNay, the President of the Ohio Conference, and was published yesterday in the Cincinnati Enquirer [http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/11/29/prof-guns-campus-dangerous-proposal/76535598/]: “Ohio House Bill 48, the “Guns Everywhere” bill, would allow concealed-carry permit holders to carry handguns in currently restricted places such as airports, day cares and college campuses. “As university and…