One Way Ranking with Research Expenditures Slows Scientific Progress

This is a guest post by Joshua M. Pearce, an online contributor to the recent November-December issue of Academe. Pearce is an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Michigan Technological University. Unfortunately, the simplistic thinking that uses “research expenditures” as a proxy…

An Academic Winter Session

This is a guest post by Kelly Price, an online contributor to the recent November-December issue of Academe. Price is a marketing professor at East Tennessee State University. She has served as a college of business and technology faculty senator and is the current faculty advisor to Sigma Kappa Sorority at ETSU.  If you read…

University of Illinois Sued Over Salaita Emails

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) co-counsel in Chicago, Loevy & Loevy, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (PDF) today against the University of Illinois, accusing it of failing to release emails between administration officials and trustees about the dismissal of Steven Salaita. According to the CCR, “The University initially denied the FOIA request…

Writing in a Group Setting

This is a guest post by Eric L. Muller, a contributor to the recent November-December issue of Academe. Muller is the Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor in Jurisprudence and Ethics at the University of North Carolina School of Law, as well as director of the UNC Center for Faculty Excellence, the pan-university faculty development center…

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders in Higher Education

What happens when you get the job? The best college and university presidents start out with an understanding of what they do not know. As candidates, they presented the Search Committee whose members screened them with impressive credentials, demonstrating an ability to communicate and persuade. They seemed to have grasped the need for a vision,…

Confidential Searches for Chief Academic Officers

This is a guest post by Joerg Tiede, a contributor to the recent November-December issue of Academe. Tiede is professor of computer science at Illinois Wesleyan University. He serves as chair of the AAUP’s Assembly of State Conferences, on Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and as chair of the Committee on the History…

Join the AAUP

Joining the AAUP says that you want to help shape the future of our profession. You want a voice in matters such as academic freedom, faculty governance, career issues, tenure, economic security for contingent faculty, and the overuse of contingent appointments. By joining the AAUP, you help shape the future of our profession. In addition, there…

Teaching Evaluation Survey

By Craig Vasey As the new chair of the AAUP’s Committee on Teaching, Research, and Publications, I asked the committee members what we could do this year to be of service to the AAUP and to the profession. One theme that emerged was the impact that teaching evaluations can have on careers; we reviewed the…