BY EVA CHERNIAVSKY As we enter a fourth decade of life in the neoliberal university, where permanent austerity rules everywhere except in the swelling ranks of upper administration; where the pretense of shared governance has all but collapsed; where tenure lines are vanishing (particularly in the humanities and social sciences), and the faculty continues to…
BY JONATHAN FEINGOLD Earlier this month, President Biden delivered the COVID-19 speech we needed. As the Delta variant surges, Biden offered concrete policy and commanding leadership. He announced wide-ranging initiatives to maximize vaccinations, curb transmission, and protect our kids. He was also unifying but blunt, calling out “elected officials actively working to undermine the fight…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY It’s been a long week here in Georgia. I write at the end of weeklong, statewide protests about our university system’s poor COVID-19 policies. You might have seen media coverage splashed across many platforms and networks. It’s also been a long month here as our hospitals are overrun and our campuses saw…
BY PETER LAURENCE In May 2021, fifteen South Carolina state representatives introduced a bill into the SC General Assembly to condemn and prevent the teaching of critical race theory. Now with twenty sponsors, H. 4325 resides in the House Committee on Education and Public Works, awaiting further discussion. Expansive in its attack on educators and…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY Earlier this month, I wrote of the conditions faculty were facing in COVID-denialist states. Here is an update on recent developments in one of them. At the University of Florida, members of the Faculty Senate are polling campus stakeholders (faculty members, staff, and graduate assistants) regarding a proposed vote of no confidence…
BY MARY ELLEN JUNDA, JEFFREY OGBAR, AND MICHAEL BAILEY Mandatory Vaccination Policy The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected all facets of our world in a range of ways. Higher education was forced to fundamentally shift over the last year and a half, making many campuses empty of students, staff and faculty, while we pivoted to…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY Fall classes started for me on Monday. Since then I have done several media interviews about the first days amid our scary COVID-19 surge here in Georgia. The reporters have asked me about the COVID-deafness of our state and university system leaders. Faculty and local administrators have pleaded with those in charge…
BY AMIT BAISHYA, MICHAEL GIVEL, AND JULIE ANN WARD Last week, the University of Oklahoma (OU) AAUP chapter wrote an Open Letter to University Decision-Makers, published on our website and promoted on social media with over four hundred signatures from faculty, staff, students, and community members, to address OU decision-makers’ inadequate and deeply disappointing response…
BY AARON ROUSSELL The article below appeared in the most recent Member News of PSU-AAUP (Portland State’s AAUP chapter for faculty and academic professionals). Drawing shamelessly on Anna Kornbluh’s adaptation of Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, it alerts our members to the weaponization of the covid-19 crisis. We are fortunate to be unionized and able…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY Could we have a winner in the administrative malfeasance contest, COVID-19 division? I think we may! Of course, it’s too early to say. The entries keep rolling in. But this one is a contender. National University is requiring faculty to attend graduation at the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park in downtown San…