The AAUP has posted a call for proposals for its Annual Conference on Higher Education, which will be held in Washington, DC, June 13 –17, 2012 at the Mayflower Renaissance: Do you have something to say about current challenges to academic freedom? Online education? Pedagogical techniques that really work? Strategies for improving working conditions or…
Back in the 1980s, Reed Irvine’s right-wing group Accuracy in Academia (AIA) caused controversy by recruiting students to spy on left-wing professors. With the growth of the internet, AIA can do the spying online, but its attacks on academic freedom continue to this day. One of the most disturbing features on the AIA website is…
Every two years, faculty and allies across the United States and Canada take part in Campus Equity Week, a week of events calling attention to the prevalence and working conditions of faculty in contingent appointments. This year’s Campus Equity Week will be held from October 24 to 30. (In Canada and some US states, it…
In a victory for free speech, the University of Wisconsin at Stout has reversed its earlier decision censoring posters put up by professor James Miller. FIRE, which led the crusade against the censorship, announced the reversal today and posted the letter from leading administrators: UW-Stout has reconsidered its decision to remove the two posters from…
The AAUP announced Friday that an investigating committee will visit Louisiana November 12-15 to look into discontinuance of academic programs within the University of Louisiana system and resulting potential termination of tenured appointments. See the letter announcing the visit. See an earlier statement on reports that the university system had embarked on what appeared to be…
In my last post, I examined “Education Start,” a deceptive site run by a company called Vantage Media. Education Start asks students which colleges they are interested in applying to, and promises it will give them information about applying. In reality, it gives their contact information to for-profit recruiters which are paying for leads. In…
Jane Mayer has an important article in the New Yorker about the influence of millionaire Art Pope in North Carolina politics and higher education. Pope funds the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, where director of research George Leef has been one of the loudest voices calling for the defunding of higher education…
My essay on due process violations at Northwestern University in the cases of David Protess and Michael Bailey appears at InsideHigherEd today. You can read more about the Protess case at my blog College Freedom. Peter Kirstein wrote about academic freedom and the Bailey case at his blog. While the two cases are very different…
Vanderbilt University has been under attack from FIRE and other conservatives for requiring all student groups to follow the campus non-discrimination policy in their constitutions. The Christian Legal Society, which imposes a Statement of Faith on all campus student leaders, has objected. I can never get anyone to answer my question about what I see…
By Joe Berry Some updates from the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. Bowling Green U (Ohio) condemn admin role in crafting bill to outlaw outlaw collective bargaining. Eastern Michigan U contract for new adjuncts union (AFT) approved. Adjunct exploited at Plymouth State U (NH). Good article on massive healthcare strike in CA (biggest in…