The November-December issue of Academe looks at faculty service. It is perhaps the most ambiguous of the traditional triad along with teaching and research, and the articles in this issue seek to describe the different ways that faculty conceive of service, and the different ways that service is (or is not) recognized. Read the issue…
McSweeney’s has published a wonderful parody of John Steinbeck’s most famous novel. Called The Grapes of Mitt, the parody imagines how things might have been different if Tom Joad had been born Mitt Romney. In the following passage, Tom Joad’s climactic speech about his commitment to the long fight for basic workers’ rights and human…
As I prepared to take over my duties as president, I sought the advice of a distinguished senior colleague who had experience outside academia and who was used to managing staff as a successful sitting president. I inquired about how best to proceed as I prepared to assume the leadership of an institution. His recommendation…
November 30, 2012 is the deadline for proposals for the 2013 AAUP Annual Conference on higher education in DC, June 12-14, 2013. Here are the details:
The idea of shared governance proceeds from the notion that faculty are uniquely qualified to participate in the decision-making process with respect to academic matters. Since just about everything at a university affects academic matters, a healthy campus would solicit faculty input on just about everything. However, with respect to decisions about awarding credit, you’d…
The following email was sent to members of the Queensborough Community College English Department late this morning: Colleagues— It is my decision to accept the recommendation forwarded by the English Department for Dr. David Humphries to serve as its Chairperson, effective November 14, 2012. In a lengthy meeting with Dr. Humphries yesterday, he expressed his…
Below is a letter responding to the actions of Diane Call, President of Queensborough Community College (QCC) of the City University of New York (CUNY). We have posted two earlier letters (here and here) dealing with this same situation: Dear Colleagues, Many of you have heard that administrative intimidation of the English Department continues at…
Yesterday, I posted on the ‘digital badges’ that some think may point the way toward an alternative form of educational certification. I don’t think that’s a good idea, but I didn’t really explain why (saying I would later get to why that’s not the same as a college degree). This morning, I saw a link…
“Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” That, from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, of course, is all I could think of on reading Kevin Carey’s New York Times piece “Show Me Your Badge” a few days before the election. I hope most…
More than four months after Northeastern Illinois University shut down the student-run radio station WZRD and banned the students from broadcasting, the lockout continues. On November 6, acting director of Student Leadership Development Veronica Rodriguez wrote a memo announcing her decision about the fate of WZRD. Rodriguez declared that WZRD could be restored to an…