We at StudentDebtCrisis.org have just launched a new petition on MoveOn.org. It’s in support of Rep. Frederica Wilson’s (D-FL) new bill, H.R. 3892 – The Student Borrowers’ Bill of Rights. Sign the petition here: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/restore-basic-consumer?source=c.url&r_by=5462310 The bill seeks to:
I subscribe to The Hill’s “Overnight” updates on more than a half-dozen areas of legislative concern. Last night’s updates were revealing in many respects. I’ll focus, in particular, on four of the updates. The “Energy” update described how a Senate committee is looking at the implications of the chemical spill that has affected the water…
Kurt Wimmer General Counsel Newspaper Association of America January 28, 2014 Chairman Goodlatte, Chairman Coble, Ranking Member Conyers, and members of the Subcommittee, good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss the scope of “fair use” under the Copyright Act. My name is Kurt Wimmer. I am privileged…
The attempt to punish academic groups that support a boycott of Israel is growing beyond New York, with a bill introduced in the Maryland legislature. The AAUP quickly issued a statement condemning these bills: “Legislative interference in academic decision-making and with the freedom of scholars to associate and exchange views with their peers is even…
This is a guest post by Cecil Canton, a professor of criminal justice at CSU Sacramento. He is also associate vice-president for affirmative action at the California Faculty Association and is on the executive committee of the AAUP-CBC. Every tenure-track faculty member in the Academy, neophyte or seasoned veteran, is responsible for teaching courses, building…
A piece by Nate Kreuter, “More Than Love,” on Inside Higher Ed today alerted me to Miya Tokumitzu’s article “In the Name of Love” for the magazine Jacobin. She writes: There’s little doubt that “do what you love” (DWYL) is now the unofficial work mantra for our time. The problem is that it leads not to salvation,…
A survey of the state of American higher education in 2014 presents a distressing picture. Enrollments are off –in some cases seriously — translating to substantial and unbudgeted revenue shortfalls. Higher education is labor intensive with up to 60 percent of the budget at some colleges tied to labor. Labor costs, along with health care…
In the post to which this post provides an addendum, I reported that the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) had selected “selfie” as the word of the year for 2013, with “twerk” running a close second. The American Dialect Society (ADS) has subsequently announced its word of the year, as well as winners…
The following image has appeared in the progressive blog Political Carnival:
Naomi Novik Novelist January 28, 2014 I’d like to thank the House Judiciary Committee for inviting me to testify about fair use and its role in promoting creativity. I am not a lawyer, but as one of the creators and artists whose work is deeply affected by copyright law, I hope to explain how vital…