Your Meeting Is in a Boycotted Hotel. Now What?

The following guest post is by Diane Morrison, a professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Reach her at dmm@uw.edu. It originally appeared on Labor Notes and is reposted here with permission.   In May of last year I answered my phone, at work in Seattle, and found myself talking to a union…

The Mecklin Case

(John M. Mecklin, ca. 1940, Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library) That the AAUP made academic freedom its early focus, which happened largely by accident rather than design, was due to events surrounding its founding. If there was one academic freedom case before the founding that was specifically responsible for setting the course of the Association,…

Odd College Clubs

The Huffington Post recently ran an item listing the “ten weirdest college clubs.” I think that the word “odd” is more appropriate in this case, for “weird” has associations with perversity (though not just sexual perversity) and strange obsessions and these clubs seem, for the most part, to be much more whimsical. The clubs include:…

At the College Founded in Response to the Scopes Trial, the Administration, Faculty, and Students Have Become Embroiled in a Controversy over “Origins”

The motto of Bryan College is “Christ Above All.” The college, which has an enrollment of between 700 and 800, was originally named William Jennings Bryan College, after the thrice unsuccessful presidential candidate who became a special co-counsel for the prosecution in the Scopes Trial. In addition to “Free Silver,” the “Great Commoner,” as Bryan…

Mastering the Transition from College to the Real World

For many non-traditional students, Commencement Day will be a day of celebration on a Saturday or Sunday, followed by back to work on Monday morning. The adult or non-traditional learner has mastered the art of juggling school, family and work, and will look at graduation as an opportunity to take a breath. Fitting classes into…

Colleges Must Rethink How They Finance Their Future

Word is leaking out from the spring meetings of college and university governing boards across the country that the most expensive institutions have now crossed the $60,000 level in their just posted annual comprehensive fees. It’s an important psychological threshold. The comprehensive fee – generally defined as tuition, fees, room and board — is a…