I usually try to limit my posts on this blog to issues directly involving higher education. But as AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum has pointed out, “the attack on higher education as a public good is a political attack” that “requires us to respond by entering the arena of politics.” And today, via Paul Krugman’s blog,…
Yesterday’s NLRB’s decision on the collective-bargaining rights of employees hired through “temp” agencies has meant that very little attention has been paid to a decision handed down yesterday by an NLRB Administrative Law Judge. Although the change in how contingent employees are defined has potentially broad direct ramifications and signals an important, fundamental shift in…
I’ve had a strange fascination with an education start-up called Minerva for some time now. They’re a Silicon-Valley inspired online operation that has actually enrolled students now. Yet unlike so many other for-profit education ventures they’ve always aspired to be highly selective – the first “Online Ivy.” I think the source of my fascination stems…
In an e-mail from Professor Steven Salaita’s attorneys, the fired academic from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign addresses the issue of document destruction and concealment: “The revelation that top administrators at the University of Illinois destroyed evidence is disheartening. The wonderful students and scholars at the university have a right to expect transparency and…
When I was in graduate school at Lehigh University, Darryl Dawkins was playing professional basketball for the Philadelphia 76ers. He was part of the team assembled around Julius Erving and coached by Billy Cunningham, and they were among the best teams in the league year after year, in a few instances coming tantalizing close to…
By Andrew Scheinman The fallout at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) continues unabated: the Chancellor and Provost have both “stepped down,” and Steven Salaita’s legal team’s added destruction of evidence claims to their lawsuit. Here in Urbana-Champaign we’re having a “red soybeans” moment, what with the show-trials and blood sports already occurring and, no…
As faculty who engage South Asia in our research and teaching, we write to express our concerns about the uncritical fanfare being generated over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley to promote “Digital India” on September 27, 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley highlights the role of a country that…
James Barrett, an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Illinois and Urbana-Champaign, wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the local News-Gazette, “2 Faculty Members Have Weakened UI.” The two are Nick Burbules and Joyce Tolliver, both of whom were involved in the ‘off-server’ email conversations of ex-Chancellor Phyllis Wise. Barrett writes: administrators relied upon this ad hoc consultation…
In its daily “Sentences” newsletter, Vox has provided the following list of items on today’s NLRB ruling: –The National Labor Relations Board ruled today that a business that uses a contractor to provide workers — but has control over hiring, firing and other HR decisions — can be considered a “joint employer” even if it…
The Yes Men — whose slogan is “impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them, and otherwise giving journalists excuses to cover important issues” — delivered a satirical speech yesterday at the Iowa City Public Library wherein they posed as representatives of the Iowa Regents, as well as the private consulting firm that is doing the…