Critics of our current political system have frequently complained about the “revolving door” through which former legislators and other government officials pass on their way to K Street—to earning riches as lobbyists. But there are some indications that another revolving door may be opening, to the presidential mansions on university campuses. Three U.S. presidents served…
“The truth is that I could have had gotten more money or more prestigious places.” So says David Patraeus, who has diffused a controversy about his pay for teaching a couple of courses (with numerous teaching assistants) at a City University of New York campus by refusing compensation of possibly $200,000 in favor of a…
Having some awareness of the concept and history of tragedy in the theater may be somewhat helpful, I think, in responding to an out-sized current event such as the George Zimmerman murder trial. Most people would assume that if the word “tragedy” were to be applied at all to this murder case, it would have…
There are excellent philosophical arguments about why universities are expressions of the public good. They are accurate, time-honored and true. But the best demonstration – and the most closely watched – is how a university responds to its environment. Before local budgets tightened in the 1990s, there was something sacrosanct about town/gown relations. Colleges were…
InsideHigherEd reports on the case of Jared Lisonbee, a tenure-track professor at Weber State in Utah who was fired after only two years, and who had criticized the decision to name a center at Weber State after a prominent Mormon leader.
In the non-stop, intensive media attention to the George Zimmerman murder trial, you may have missed another court decision, one with perhaps equally broad, if not as deadly, implications for ordinary Americans. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld a dentist’s decision to fire his dental hygienist because she was so attractive as to be “irresistible” and…
Cultural Representations of Higher Ed, No. 5 I am working backwards through this list. Here are films 151 to 200. The rankings are my own and in most cases somewhat arbitrary. The descriptions of the films are paraphrases of summaries found in a half-dozen print and online film guides. I compiled the list about a…
The situation at CCSF continues to be unsettled. The college will appeal the decision of ACCJC. The deadline for submitting such an appeal is July 31. In the meantime, Brice Harris, Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, has announced that he will seek — and surely will receive — authorization from his Board of Governors…
This is actually a follow-up to two of my previous posts, “The Deepening Caste System in Higher Education” and “The Business Model for Higher Education.” In the first of those two posts, I describe the sweet deal that Richard Herman, the former president of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received after he was forced…
Shortly after I made yesterday’s post, I received an e-mail from the group trying to galvanize broader support for higher pay for workers at McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants: http://lowpayisnotok.org/mcdonalds/?utm_campaign=LowPay&utm_medium=email&utm_source=McDonalds. At the center of the page is a link to a video at the McDonald’s corporate website, ostensibly provided as a service to their employees…