Readers of this blog who know Cat Warren from her work as editor of Academe from 2010 to 2012 probably don’t know that, when she wasn’t teaching classes at North Carolina State University or editing the magazine, she could often be found looking for bodies in the North Carolina woods. Solo, Cat’s German shepherd, had…
Business Insider has published a map that graphically illustrates the reality that 50% of the U.S. GDP is generated in just 22 urban areas—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis/St.Paul, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Miami:
According to a “breaking news” story distributed by the Washington Post, at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, a hacker gained entry into a supposedly secure database containing the personal records, dating back to 1998, of 309,079 faculty, staff, and students at the University of Maryland’s College Park and Shady Grove campuses. Among other things, the compromised…
This series will review the employment data for U.S. colleges and universities from 2004 to 2012. That data has been measured against enrollment, by the percentage increase in each category per 1,000 students at the institution. The five categories are: full-time faculty, part-time faculty, upper administration, professional staff, and non-professional staff (with the last three…
Why We’re On Strike The University of Illinois at Chicago faculty union has taken to the picket line. Lennard Davis and Walter Benn Michaels explain why.
This past year, the Oregon state legislature passed into law the “Pay It Forward, Pay It Back” plan intended to lessen the burden of student debt. The plan calls for the tuition of college students who would otherwise have had to take out student loans to be covered out of a designated state fund. The…
The following report comes from Howard Bunsis, Chair of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress: There was an enormous turnout of faculty at UIC today, as picketing took place all over the sprawling campus, and everyone congregated for two large rallies. We had support from students, other unions on campus, as well as local activists, and…
As one who participated in the organizing campaign at the University of Illinois at Chicago two years ago, I have followed the negotiations for the past 18 months with increasing distress. The administration has been recalcitrant and has drawn out the bargaining process unnecessarily. The union’s demands appear to be reasonable, especially with regard to…
UIC faculty are holding a two-day strike on Feb. 18 and 19 to protest the failure of the administration to negotiate in good faith for more than 18 months. Today, Feb. 18, there are rallies planned at 10am and 12:30pm, in addition to picketing and demonstrations. There has been news coverage in the Chicago Reader, Chicago…
I have found Walter Breau’s post, “Big Bang Disruption,” to be extremely thought-provoking. That said, neither I nor anyone else should hold him in any way responsible for anything that follows in this post (or, for that matter, anything that has preceded this paragraph in this post). If one compares the life cycles of gadgets…