The following are excerpts from an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, published online two days ago: Public colleges should not assume that a generous salary will buy them a president who is adept at raising money, a new study concludes. After accounting for factors like institution size, the researchers, all at Florida State…
Note: I was writing this post before John Wilson posted his reaction to the Wolfe resignation. As should be clear, our perspectives differ. As the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed once more to rule on a case involving the consideration of race in college admissions, a wave of protest against campus racism by minority students…
Tim Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri, resigned this morning under intense pressure. I’m still trying to figure out what Wolfe did wrong. The racism on campus seems no different from a thousand other campuses, or the rest of our society. The response of Wolfe to that racism, with indifference, platitudes, and apologies, also…
Nan Enstad, UW-Madison When I first arrived at UW Madison fourteen years ago, the renowned history professor emeritus (now deceased), Gerda Lerner, said to me in her thick, Austrian accent, “UW Madison is a world-class university. Into any field you venture, any new project you take on, you will find that there is a national…
The following resolution was approved unanimously by the Academic Senate, California State University (ASCSU) at its November 6 plenary meeting in Long Beach, California. On November 3, the AAUP issued its own Statement on Presidential Searches. ACADEMIC SENATE OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY AS-3234-15/EX November 4-5, 2015 PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH PROCESS IN THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY…
Photo: Stephen Kuusisto walking in academic convocation at Syracuse University with his guide dog Nira By Stephen Kuusisto I’m borrowing my title from Liza Featherstone’s new advice column in The Nation which is entitled: “Asking for a Friend: Is It Me or is it Capitalism?” Oh the sang froid of self help! One scarcely knows…
I was a labor historian earlier in my career. Sadly, I hardly ever get to teach that subject anymore because the class never fills. However, the lessons that most of the best labor historians I read during graduate school described in their work have never left me. Indeed, they seem more relevant to my own…
The following is the text of a statement issued on November 5 by the AAUP: On July 20, the AAUP and AFT‐Wisconsin released a joint statement condemning the attacks on tenure and shared governance in higher education that the Wisconsin Legislature included in its annual budget and in Act 55, which Governor Scott Walker signed…
By Stephen Kuusisto “Well what do you want?” asks the ableist. “We have to weigh your request for assistance against all the other non-disabled people’s requests.” The ableist is in her forties, young enough to know better, was educated at a university, must have come into contact with feminism. Surely knows about equality. That’s…
The following essay by Christopher Newfield, Professor of Literature and American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is reposted with permission from Chris’s and Michael Meranze’s Remaking the University blog. We’re many years now into the New Normal for public universities. We’ve known for a while that this means permanent budgetary austerity.…