Today, Rudy Fichtenbaum, AAUP president, and Hank Reichman, first vice-president and chair of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, issued the statement below. Statement on the Case of Professor Steven G. Salaita We have read with concern yesterday’s report on insidehighered.com that the University of Illinois has apparently withdrawn a job offer…
The following is a statement by the Illinois AAUP Committee A on the case of Steven Salaita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: The Illinois Conference Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors supports the honoring of the appointment of Steven G. Salaita in the American Indian…
Guest blogger Phyllis Wentworth is an Associate Professor in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. In a couple of weeks, my 18 year old son will be headed off to his first year of college. Ever the optimist, he tells everyone who inquires that he is…
Rick Perlstein’s new book The Invisible Bridge, is sure to anger some conservatives who think Ronald Reagan qualified for sainthood long ago. And it angered one Reagan lover in particular, Craig Shirley, who runs a PR firm for clients like Ann Coulter and Citizens United, and who wrote a book about Reagan 10 years ago…
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has written a five-page letter to the AAUP (pdf), which is considering an investigation of the institution because it revoked tenure and then dismissed two professors under its new system of re-evaluating faculty every seven years. The letter asks over 30 questions to the AAUP about its procedures…
Last week, Gallup and Inside Higher Ed released a fascinating and troubling survey examining the opinions of CFO’s on the state of American higher education. CFO’s from 438 colleges and universities responded to the survey. Researchers found that two-thirds of CFO’s questioned believe that higher education is facing a financial crisis. While 23 percent of…
One of the pieces of nonsense associated with the Common Core State Standards is the claim that the standards can produce “college ready” high-school graduates–a claim made with almost no consultation with college teachers, the very people students need to be “ready” for. This post, from “Wag the Dog,” provides nice insight into the situation.
Like many of the “education reform” advocates, Campbell Brown is determined to put a benign face on what are persistent attacks on public education and on the public’s confidence in public education. The aim is not “reform” but the elimination of public education. The proponents of privatization have learned from the vilification of Michelle Rhee…
In an article about former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson, Patrick Smith claims, “the only way an American journalist can be a good American is to be a good journalist.” The assumption behind this, that journalism rises above biases such as nationalism, made me think of two things. The first is something James…
Without stretching the imagination, it is easy to envision the college of tomorrow by simply extrapolating from the trends of today. There will remain five basic types of higher-education institutions: Two-year schools. Much as they are today, these will have a dual purpose. First, they will prepare students for ‘hands on’ careers requiring a base…