The Center for the Future of Higher Education—the “virtual think tank” of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education—has released its first report, Closing the Door, Increasing the Gap: Who’s not going to (community) college. It’s written by Gary Rhoades, former general secretary of the AAUP, and in the report, Rhoadesexplains that more than…
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has issued a new report about California universities based upon false evidence, distorted anecdotes, random online postings, and a series of terrible arguments that are fundamentally contrary to academic freedom and the idea of the university as a place for the free debate of ideas. What the NAS calls…
The following is a guest post by Michael DeCesare, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Merrimack College. Yet again, the professoriate finds itself under attack from a misguided and misinformed administrator. David Levy, in a March 23 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, asked the very tired question…
The debate over for-profit colleges could be coming to a theater near you. Aaron Calafato, an actor who also spent time working for a for-profit college in Ohio, wrote and stars in a new one-man play, For-Profit, about the industry. The play takes a harsh look at the industry, from the perspective of a recruiter talking…
The following guest post is by Jonathan Rees, a professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo and vice president of the Colorado AAUP conference. It is cross-posted at his blog, More or Less Bunk. Somebody call the AAUP! I think I’ve found the academic freedom crisis of the twenty-first century. From IHE: [Lasell College] wants 100…
The happy news this week that University of Illinois President Michael Hogan will resign was followed by two disturbing pieces of information. First, a state appeals court ruling that adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago will not be allowed to be part of the tenure-track faculty union at UIC. Second, the news…
By Tom Suhrbur For the past 18 months, East-West University (EWU) in Chicago has fought a vigorous campaign against the efforts of its part-time faculty to organize a union. In November 2009, adjunct (part-time) Professor Curtis Keyes contacted me about organizing a union. In January, I had my first meeting with the group and, by…
Last week, an Illinois court ruled (pdf) for the first time enforcing Illinois’ law protecting college newspapers (a law passed in the wake of a 7th Circuit ruling against freedom of the student press). The court ruled that former faculty advisor Gerian Steven Moore, who had been fired from his post, must be reinstated. As…
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a new law banning unionization by graduate student research assistants at public colleges. It’s appalling that students are denied their fundamental right to form a union simply because they also happen to be students. Even if you dislike the idea of graduate student unions, you should dislike even more…
The following guest post is by Jean-Louis Hippolyte, an Associate Professor of French and Director of the European Studies program at Rutgers University-Camden. “Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us, to the end, dare…