hammer with dark wooden handle and steel head lying on lighter wood surface

The Hammer by Hamilton Nolan

BY JONATHAN REES I spent a couple of days over spring break in New Orleans checking out museums. As is my tendency, I also walked a few blocks away from the French Quarter to visit an independent book store. Baldwin & Co. is great, but that’s a post for another blog. What I want to…

Open Letter from Jewish Faculty to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On Wednesday, April 17 when faculty members nationwide will be observing a National Day of Action for Higher Education, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is scheduled to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee.  On December 5, that committee heard testimony from the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University…

The Impact of Gutting Tenure in Georgia

BY MATTHEW BOEDY In Georgia we decided to conduct a small survey of faculty opinions about shared governance. And the results are not merely shocking but show the direct effects from Georgia’s university system gutting tenure in 2021.  Using the AAUP’s shared governance survey tool, we asked faculty at a large university to tell us…

blackboard with wooden frame, propped up next to a stack of books, with "Student Loan Forgiveness" written in white chalk

On Being Post-debt

BY MARK S. JAMES This week, President Biden announced his most ambitious plan to forgive student loan debt since the US Supreme Court ruled his last sweeping effort unconstitutional last year. I’ve written about my own experience with student loan debt forgiveness and being what I call “post-debt.” The journal that published the article is…

An Open Letter to the New Chancellor of UC Berkeley

BY THE BERKELEY FACULTY ASSOCIATION It is expected that the University of California Board of Regents will announce the appointment of a new Chancellor of the Berkeley campus on April 10.  On April 1, in anticipation of this appointment, the Berkeley Faculty Association posted the following open letter. UPDATE 4/10: The Regents have announced the…

flock of birds in gray sky over grassy hill

Austerity Speedups Eclipse New Horizons for Higher Education

BY AUDREY BERLOWITZ  I am a PhD candidate studying undergraduate teaching and learning at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, which serves a predominantly multiracial, multiethnic first-generation student population. Though students have been advised by higher-ups to keep our energies on our studies and our thoughts unsullied by internal university politics, I have juggled both…