Last week’s state elections attracted attention for a variety of causes and elections, most notably the defeat of Ohio’s tough new collective bargaining law and the defeat of the pro-life “personhood amendment” in Mississippi. But for for-profit colleges, the most important election of the night mostly flew under the radar: Democrat Jack Conway was re-elected…
The “Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011” (H.R. 3010/S.1606; the RAA) and the “Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2011” (H.R.10/S. 299; the REINS Act) are two terribly disruptive pieces of legislation. Together, they pose a huge threat to the safeguards that protect the food we eat, the air we breathe, and…
You have to say this for George Mason economics professor Daniel Klein: at least he’s willing to admit a mistake. In the Atlantic, Klein discusses his major mea culpa retracting a study last year that he trumpeted as proof that liberals are stupid about economics. Last year, I wrote a lengthy blog post condemning Klein’s…
On Monday, Eureka (IL) high school teacher Rhett Felix was suspended for showing segments from “The Daily Show” in his government and law class. It’s a reminder of how little freedom K-12 teachers have in America, and how easily a right-wing crusade can silence freedom in the classroom.
In the new issue of Academe, Elizabeth Capaldi, executive vice president and provost at Arizona State University, writes about how her university has handled steep cuts in state funding. She says that while some university activities–for example, a named fund, building, or chair–are supported by dedicated funds, “the state and the students themselves are the…
I can’t quite decide what I find more repulsive: Yale University’s decision to ban “Sex Week” from campus, or the Yale Daily News’ approval of this decision as defending “free speech.” In an astonishing act of repression and lack of respect for student rights, Yale president Richard Levin has banned a student group from holding…
Over 600 University of California at Berkeley faculty have signed this letter in protest of the police violence against the Occupy Cal demonstration: November 11, 2011 Open Letter to Chancellor Birgeneau, the UC Berkeley administration, and the UC Regents: We, the undersigned faculty, lecturers, and graduate student assistants—all of whom teach at Berkeley and are…
This week, more than three million Ohioans went to the polls to vote on a measure that would preserve public employee collective bargaining rights. Those rights were under attack from the state’s governor, John Kasich, who spearheaded the highly controversial Senate Bill 5, which would have essentially ended public employee unions, earlier this year. Supporters…
The Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Faculty Association issued this announcement: The faculty strike at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is over. The SIUC Faculty Association’s Departmental Representative Council (DRC) voted tonight to end the strike after it was presented with a revised administrative proposal will form the basis of a tentative agreement to be…
From the Colorado AAUP: The Colorado Conference of the American Association of University Professors has conducted an investigation into the University of Colorado’s dismissals of two members of its faculty. Phil Mitchell and Ward Churchill represent different sides of the same coin. One is a fundamentalist Christian identified with the political right wing; the other…