Recent Graduate Testifies before Ohio Senate on Voter-Suppression Measure Affecting College Students

In an earlier post, “Please Sign Petitions Supporting the Voting Rights of College Students in Ohio and North Carolina” [https://academeblog.org/2013/05/11/please-sign-petitions-supporting-the-voting-rights-of-college-students-in-ohio-and-north-carolina/], I asked readers to sign a petition protesting against an attempt to discourage more than 32,000 out-of-state students attending Ohio universities from casting their ballots in Ohio. What follows is the testimony of Stuart McIntyre,…

The Mirror Is a Harsh Mistress

Want to do something to show that faculty can come together? Contact colleagues at the City University of New York and ask them to vote “no confidence” in the Pathways curriculum initiative, the abrogation of shared governance foisted upon the system by a central administration with no interest in working with–and no respect for–the faculty.…

Sexual Assaults on Campus

In a very recent post on guns on campus, I selectively surveyed the statistics on violent crime in the 2012 report on crimes reported on college campuses. I cited the statistics on sexual assaults but noted that those crimes have apparently been very under-reported, at least on some campuses. Female students on four campuses in…

The Truth about the IRS “Scandal”

The IRS scrutiny and delays aimed at Tea Party nonprofit groups has received enormous media and political attention. There’s nothing illegal, or scandalous, about these disturbing investigations of political groups. It’s been IRS policy and practice to do so for a long time, and more often targeted against liberal groups (and with much less justification).…

Talking Points: No. 1

As our chapters and conferences confront major issues, we often create “toolkits” that include sample letters to other constituencies within our institutions (administrators, staff, and especially students), to groups that may be potential allies, to legislators, and to newspapers and other online media sites. But, beyond those salient issues, there is typically a multitude of…

The Kent/Jackson Massacres and the Coming Discontent

May 14 marks the 43rd anniversary of the bloody massacre at Jackson State University. On this day in 1970, Mississippi cops fired a deadly barrage of over 450 bullets at unarmed black students in a women’s dormitory. Two were left dead and at least 12 wounded. The murdered Jackson students were Phillip Gibbs, the son…

Guns on Campus, Discouraging News

Although guns may not be allowed on Montana campuses (See “Several Indications of Common Sense on Guns on Campus,” https://academeblog.org/2013/05/13/several-indications-of-common-sense-related-to-guns-on-campus/#more-3089), five state universities in Pennsylvania are now allowing guns to be carried on their campuses. The five universities are Edinboro University, Kutztown University, Millersville  University, Shippensburg University, and Slippery Rock University. One wonders what statistics…

Further Reasons for Misgivings about Fracking

Media outlets cannot be held accountable for every advertiser that buys space from them. For instance, very occasionally, Far-Right groups do advertise on MSNBC (though the ads always do leave me scratching my head over how they could possibly be worth the expense). But, given how political ideologies, corporate interests, advocacy on socio-economic and environmental…

Survey Says . . . College Presidents Look to the Future

Gallup, Inc. and the Chronicle of Higher Education released two surveys this month on what college presidents think. The results are fascinating.  They speak volumes about the strength and weakness of American higher education leadership. Gallup conducted a web survey focusing on US college and university presidents to track their views on topics and issues…