In a New York Times opinion piece that appeared last month, Jeff Selingo of The Chronicle of Higher Education lays out ‘urgent needs’ for American colleges and universities. There are many; we are not in a position where coasting along on old assumptions will suffice. But Selingo completely ignores one area where change must come, the physical layouts of our…
A couple of months ago, someone sent me a link to an article from The Washington Post by David Levy called “Do College Professors Work Hard Enough?” It still rankles. Levy writes: Though faculty salaries now mirror those of most upper-middle-class Americans working 40 hours for 50 weeks, they continue to pay for teaching time of nine to 15…
This is a version of a piece I posted six years ago on my own blog, One Flew East. I am offering it again now as a way of introducing myself to the Academe blog: How can we in academia make the case for “academic freedom” to the broader public and move our own understanding…
Inside Higher Ed has a fascinating article about calls for censorship at a Palestinian university because a professor put up political cartoons on his office door, the most offensive of which, apparently, depicts “Islamic Superman” with a beard. President Khalil Hindi of Birzeit University responds to the criticism of his administration’s failure to defend academic…
This is a guest post by Lenore Beaky, a member of the AAUP Committee on Community Colleges. “Santa Monica College—The Shape of Things to Come, or The Future That’s Already Arrived?” What happened at Santa Monica College this spring embodies many of the most urgent threats and challenges facing community colleges in the United States now: vanishing…
About a year ago, the Department of Education released its highly-anticipated “Gainful Employment” rules, which were meant to solve the problem of students spending a lot of money on job-preparedness programs that didn’t actually prepare them for jobs. The basic idea was that if too many of a school’s graduates were left unable to pay…
The University of Virginia board of visitors has voted unanimously to reinstate President Teresa Sullivan following the unprecedented response of students, faculty, and organizations such as the AAUP.
The AAUP has authorized a governance investigation into the situation at the University of Virginia, where the board of visitors demanded the resignation of president Teresa Sullivan. (The AAUP currently has six colleges on its “sanction” list for violations of shared governance.) At its June 16 meeting, the AAUP members passed a resolution criticizing the…
The 2012 AAUP Annual Meeting and conference on higher education occurred this past week, and it was another interesting event. The AAUP censured 3 Louisiana Universities: Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, Northwestern State University and Southeastern Louisiana University. The AAUP also passed a resolution critical of the University of Virginia board for a secret…
Malcolm Kline of Accuracy in Academia (whom I will be debating on Thursday in Washington DC at the Heritage Foundation), has a blog entry today responding to Academe Blog’s coverage of the Norman Finkelstein case at DePaul, and complaining that the AAUP (and I) failed to defend DePaul adjunct Thomas Klocek when he was fired…