The Decline of the For-Profit Colleges Continues
Forbes September 7, 2015 issue will contain an article “Black Arts: The $800 Million Family Selling Art Degrees and False Hopes” by Katia Savchuk. It’s about the for-profit Academy of Art University, another of such colleges that expanded greatly over the last couple of decades. Since 1992, its “enrollment has skyrocketed from 2,200 to 16,000,…
The 2015 Official UW-System Faculty Exodus Update Part 3: The “ Why Everyone’s Leaving” Edition
The other morning I opened my email, as I do every morning, to find this lovely message: “I saw online that you are leaving UW because of working conditions. I had a look at your ‘areas of expertise’ and I have to say I am delighted you are leaving. People with your ‘areas of expertise’…
Professional Status and Academic Freedom: Bridging the Gaps (Once Again)
Discussion, at least via social media, is growing relating to the evolving caste system in higher education and the real meaning (that is, the actual impact) of academic freedom. Many of the basics—the shrinking tenure-track/tenured faculty, the contractual limitations to codified academic freedom—have been bandied about so much that they are now almost clichés. The…
The Funniest Observation to Date about the Presidential Campaign
Bill Maher responded to Scott Walker’s performance in the first Republican debate by asking, “Scott Walker! What’s wrong with your face? You look like the kid who is carrying a dead bird in his pocket!”
“Aspirational Incapacitation” May Account for Much of Donald Trump’s Appeal
“Joe the Plumber” came to national attention during the 2008 presidential election because he was very willing to denounce the economic “safety net” programs from which he was then actually benefiting in order to argue for the lowest possible taxes on the wealth that he was certain that he would eventually earn. The last that…
Media Coverage of the Ongoing Investigation at Wright State University
Yesterday, I made an initial post on these issues and included the university president’s statement on them to the university community. This is a follow-up post that provides an list of the media coverage of the investigation. Since Joerg Tiede asked about an ambiguous element of the situation in response to yesterday’s post, I will…
Popularity of Unions on the Rise
The American Prospect, a liberal periodical, distributes a weekly e-newsletter, The Labor Prospect, highlighting the best reporting and latest developments in the labor movement. The latest missive reports, among other stories, that “more and more Americans are recognizing that unions are a crucial component in the workplace, according to a new Gallup poll. Rising five percentage points…
Murder Is Our Peculiar Pastime: Fifty Notable American Crime Novels: 9-10
Chandler, Raymond. The Long Goodbye. Boston: Houghton, 1954. In creating Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler followed the model that Dashiell Hammett provided in Sam Spade. Both are hardboiled detectives who expect the worst of most people and are seldom proven to be overly pessimistic. Both operate on the dangerous ground between the criminal underworld and…
Provost and Others Removed from Administrative Positions at Wright State University
While attending the Summer Institute, I was asked fairly frequently to comment on a video that had just been released by Wright State that was linked to in brief articles in both the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. The video featured statements by both the university president, David Hopkins, and Michael Bridges,…