Forced to the Edge: The City Colleges of Chicago Contract
By Héctor R. Reyes, Associate Professor of Physical Science, Assistant Chapter Chair of AFT Local 1600, Harold Washington College
Nine Ideas for Improving the AAUP
Here’s a list of ideas I have for improving the AAUP that don’t require radical changes in the organization or massive amounts of funding. I think they’re feasible (albeit not always easy) ideas for a more active and effective AAUP.
Requiem for the Twinkie?
Just after the New Year, Hostess Brands, the largest producer of baked goods in the United States, filed for bankruptcy. Formerly called Interstate Bakeries Corporation, the company had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004. It emerged from what became the most protracted bankruptcy process in history in 2009 and renamed itself Hostess Brands. The…
If This Doesn’t Stop in Chicago…
Education ‘reformers,’ whether the business model of higher education is failing or not, have their eyes turned toward American colleges and universities. There’s money to be made there, too, an attraction that the ‘reformers’ and their corporate backers cannot resist. That the profits come at the expense of education itself hasn’t bothered them in their…
AFT Statement in Support of Striking Chicago Teachers Union Members
Washington—Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten in support of striking Chicago Teachers Union members. “For the first time in 25 years, the members of the Chicago Teachers Union are on strike. No one wants to strike, and no one strikes without cause. In this instance, it comes on the heels of numerous steps that left…
Who Should Run the Asylum?
From The New York Times yesterday: Business is booming at ConServe, a debt collection agency in suburban Rochester. The company recently expanded into a neighboring building. The payroll of 420 is expected to double in three years. “There is great opportunity,” said Mark E. Davitt, the company’s president and founder. What’s the opportunity? Collection on Federally…
Redefining Ourselves to Save Ourselves
The experiences of agricultural workers and of industrial workers have illustrated the futility of trying to resist advancements in automation. In 1790, 90% of the American workforce labored on farms. By 1900, the percentage had declined to 28%, and by 1990, it had declined to 2.6%. Likewise, employment in manufacturing in the U.S. peaked at…
Testing: The Parent of Cheating
Henry Levin of Columbia Teachers College writes: Among all of the vehicles for socializing the young, schools are a very powerful one, because students spend considerable time there and schools have specific functions in preparing young people for adulthood. Clearly, knowledge and cognitive functioning are an important goal of schools and provide crucial skills for creating productive workers and…
Restoring the Middle Class by Refashioning the Appeal of Unions
This article appeared in the September 2011 Labor Day issue of the Right Flier, the newsletter of the Wright State University chapter of AAUP. In my previous post to this blog, I suggested that the unions of the future will, by necessity, need to look different and function differently than they do today, and I…
The shadow university.
Yesterday, I found out that my university is the first school in the nation that will accept the completion of a course through the MOOC-provider Udacity for transfer credit. OK, it’s not my university exactly. I work for Colorado State University – Pueblo. That’s a large branch campus in the Colorado State University system located…