Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

UBC education prof files complaint of racial discrimination

Posted on April 20, 2011 | Comments Off on UBC education prof files complaint of racial discrimination

The Georgia Straight: UBC education prof files complaint of racial discrimination

An associate professor of education at UBC believes that the university discriminated against her because of her race.

Jennifer Chan, a Canadian of Chinese descent, claims that the denial of her application for the prestigious David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education in the faculty of education forms part of a pattern of discrimination against her.

“There was systemic racism all throughout my career,” Chan told the Straight in a phone interview today

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Posted in Diversity, Legal issues

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Professor files complaint against UBC for ‘racial bias’

Posted on April 20, 2011 | Comments Off on Professor files complaint against UBC for ‘racial bias’

Globe and Mail: Professor files complaint against UBC for ‘racial bias’

An associate professor at the University of British Columbia has accused the institution of “racial bias” because she was denied a promotion and her complaint about unfair treatment was later rejected by an internal review.

Jennifer Chan, an associate professor in the department of educational studies, said in a statement released Tuesday that she has now filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.

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Posted in Diversity, Legal issues

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U of L watches closely as Grawemeyer Award winner’s book is challenged

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Comments Off on U of L watches closely as Grawemeyer Award winner’s book is challenged

Courier-Journal: U of L watches closely as Grawemeyer Award winner’s book is challenged

U of L announced last week that it was presenting the award to author Greg Mortenson, just days before the CBS news show aired a segment saying two of his books — “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan” — contained inaccuracies and fabrications.

“The Grawemeyer Awards program has taken author Greg Mortenson at his word, as have millions of readers around the world. Given the impact of his work, we hope these early reports are unfounded but we will be closely watching this situation as it unfolds,” Allan Dittmer, executive director of U of L’s Grawemeyer Awards, said Monday in a statement.

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Posted in Academics

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U. of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Program Awaits Outcome of Allegations Against Prize Winner

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Comments Off on U. of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Program Awaits Outcome of Allegations Against Prize Winner

The Chronicle: U. of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Program Awaits Outcome of Allegations Against Prize Winner

The University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Awards program is monitoring developments regarding allegations against Greg Mortenson, an author and philanthropist who was recently named the winner of the program’s education prize, The Courier-Journal reported. The CBS program 60 Minutes has alleged that two books Mr. Mortenson wrote about his efforts to found schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools, contain inaccuracies and that some of the schools he claims to have founded do not exist. Allan Dittmer, executive director of Grawemeyer Awards, said officials hoped the reports were unfounded and had made no decision about whether to go ahead with the award or rescind it. “At this stage of the game, it is hard to know where this is all going to end up,” he said. The Courier-Journal reported Mr. Mortenson’s selection as the winner last week. The awards program’s Web site states only that an “announcement is pending.”

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Posted in Academics

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NYU Adjuncts Win Pay Increases and Benefits for Summer Work

Posted on April 19, 2011 | Comments Off on NYU Adjuncts Win Pay Increases and Benefits for Summer Work

The Chronicle: NYU Adjuncts Win Pay Increases and Benefits for Summer Work
April 18, 2011, 6:33 pm

New York University’s 2,400 adjunct faculty members will receive substantial pay increases and benefits for the summer hours they work under the terms of a new contract with the private institution. The agreement, ratified last week, is the product of tough negotiations that had left adjunct faculty members poised to go on strike. In an attempt to deal with the earnings gap between adjunct faculty members who teach credit-bearing courses and the lesser-paid adjunct faculty members who teach noncredit courses, the contract calls for all adjunct faculty members’ pay to rise by the same dollar amount, so that the latter group will see its pay climb at a steeper rate. (The $4-per-contact-hour increase in the contract’s first year amounts to about a 3.6 percent raise for those who teach credit-bearing courses and a 6.7 percent increase for those who teach noncredit courses.) The agreement also builds on gains won by adjunct faculty members in their 2004 contract by, for the first time, offering health insurance, job security, and retirement benefits to those who work in the summer.

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Posted in Contingent labor, Salary/Economic Benefits

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Lecturer’s Arrest in the Emirates Stirs Debate Over Academic Freedom in the Middle East

Posted on April 18, 2011 | Comments Off on Lecturer’s Arrest in the Emirates Stirs Debate Over Academic Freedom in the Middle East

The Chronicle: Lecturer’s Arrest in the Emirates Stirs Debate Over Academic Freedom in the Middle East

The recent detention of a Sorbonne lecturer in the United Arab Emirates has rekindled the debate over the nature of academic freedom at Western institutions in the Persian Gulf region and the political impact those institutions, especially the high-profile new campus of New York University in Abu Dhabi, will have.

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Posted in Academic freedom

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12 Organizations Ask U. of Virginia to Safeguard Climate Researcher’s Academic Freedom

Posted on April 14, 2011 | Comments Off on 12 Organizations Ask U. of Virginia to Safeguard Climate Researcher’s Academic Freedom

The Chronicle: 12 Organizations Ask U. of Virginia to Safeguard Climate Researcher’s Academic Freedom
April 14, 2011, 2:56 pm

The Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Association of University Professors, and 10 other organizations are urging the University of Virginia to keep academic freedom in mind as it responds to a conservative think tank’s freedom-of-information request for records related to Michael E. Mann, the climate scientist. The think tank, called the American Tradition Institute, filed a request in January seeking many of the same records that Virginia’s attorney general, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, has also demanded from the university. In addition, the think tank has asked to see records of donations that the university says are paying for its legal challenge to Mr. Cuccinelli’s requests. Mr. Mann left the University of Virginia in 2005 to become director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

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Posted in Academic freedom

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Rouge Forum 2011: Lewis University (Chicago)

Posted on April 14, 2011 | Comments Off on Rouge Forum 2011: Lewis University (Chicago)

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Posted in Conferences

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Crowd lambastes Detroit school closure plan

Posted on April 14, 2011 | Comments Off on Crowd lambastes Detroit school closure plan

The Detroit News: Crowd lambastes Detroit school closure plan
‘These schools mean the world to us,’ says one irate speaker

Detroit— During a contentious meeting interrupted by chants and catcalls Tuesday, students, parents and teachers lambasted a plan to close 14 Detroit schools and convert 45 others to charter schools.

The irate crowd of 300 also objected to the meeting itself, including a one-minute limit on speakers and the announcement that school officials planned only to listen to audience comments and not respond to them.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110413/SCHOOLS/104130367/Crowd-lambastes-Detroit-school-closure-plan#ixzz1JWgYQUdU

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, K-12 issues

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Protesters occupy building on Sacramento campus

Posted on April 14, 2011 | Comments Off on Protesters occupy building on Sacramento campus

San Diego Union-Tribune: Protesters occupy building on Sacramento campus

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 100 faculty members, students and staff have occupied a building at California State University, Sacramento as part of a statewide mobilization against pending cuts to higher education.

An early afternoon rally on Wednesday began with more than 600 protesters, who blamed CSU Chancellor Charles Reed for not doing enough to oppose cuts California lawmakers are using to close the state’s $26.6 billion budget deficit.

Gov. Jerry Brown already signed into law a $1 billion reduction to higher education, but that number could grow if taxes are not increased, as the Democratic governor wants.

The protestors marched from the school’s library quad to an administrative building to present a set of petitions. Law enforcement officials were inside, but it is unclear whether university administrators were prepared for the occupation.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Faculty, Protests, Students

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Human Rights Watch Calls on New York U. to Condemn Arrest of Academic in the United Arab Emirates

Posted on April 14, 2011 | Comments Off on Human Rights Watch Calls on New York U. to Condemn Arrest of Academic in the United Arab Emirates

The Chronicle: Human Rights Watch Calls on New York U. to Condemn Arrest of Academic in the United Arab Emirates

Human Rights Watch is calling on New York University, the Louvre, the Guggenheim Museum, and other institutions that are building branches in the United Arab Emirates to condemn the arrest of an economics lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne. Nasser bin Ghaith, an economics lecturer at the Sorbonne who has been critical of governments in the Gulf region for not making more aggressive political reforms, was detained on Sunday, soon after two other political activists were also arrested.

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Posted in Faculty

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Salary Explorer: See Faculty-Salary Data for More Than 1,300 Colleges

Posted on April 13, 2011 | Comments Off on Salary Explorer: See Faculty-Salary Data for More Than 1,300 Colleges

The Chronicle: Salary Explorer: See Faculty-Salary Data for More Than 1,300 Colleges

Explore an interactive database on faculty salaries in 2009-10, from a national survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

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Faculty Experience Doesn’t Always Pay

Posted on April 13, 2011 | Comments Off on Faculty Experience Doesn’t Always Pay

The Chronicle: Faculty Experience Doesn’t Always Pay

As annual raises lag, professors look askance at salaries for new hires

The paychecks of professors continue to be squeezed by the lingering effects of the recession.

Tight finances on many campuses have led to another year in which average salaries barely increased, exacerbating in­equities facing seasoned faculty members, whose salaries are stagnating while their newly hired peers are compensated at competitive market rates.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

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Maryland Approves In-State Tuition Break for Undocumented Students

Posted on April 12, 2011 | Comments Off on Maryland Approves In-State Tuition Break for Undocumented Students

The Chronicle: Maryland Approves In-State Tuition Break for Undocumented Students

Maryland will become the 11th state to extend in-state college-tuition breaks to illegal immigrants under a measure state legislators approved late Monday, the Baltimore Sun reported. The bill will enable undocumented students who have attended Maryland high schools for at least three years, and whose families pay state taxes, to pay cheaper in-state tuition rates at community colleges. After completing 60 credit hours, students could transfer to a four-year state college, also at the in-state rate. Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to sign the measure into law on Tuesday.

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Posted in Students

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AAUP Appears Ready to Part Ways With Gary Rhoades, Its General Secretary

Posted on April 12, 2011 | Comments Off on AAUP Appears Ready to Part Ways With Gary Rhoades, Its General Secretary

The Chronicle: AAUP Appears Ready to Part Ways With Gary Rhoades, Its General Secretary

After three years as general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, Gary Rhoades may be on his way out, the casualty of personality clashes between him and the organization’s longtime president—Cary Nelson—and its staff members in Washington, according to AAUP sources familiar with the disputes.

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Posted in Unions

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Teachers Beat a Strategic Retreat in Honduras

Posted on April 6, 2011 | Comments Off on Teachers Beat a Strategic Retreat in Honduras

Co-Dev: Teachers Beat a Strategic Retreat in Honduras

After almost 3 weeks of street protests and strikes during which security forces killed two protesters and beat and imprisoned hundreds more, Honduran teachers announced a “strategic retreat” on Monday April 4th.

The teachers, members of the 6 teachers colleges that make up the Federation of Honduran Teachers Organizations (FOMH), have been protesting the seizure of their pension fund and social security institute by the de facto regime of Porfirio Lobo, the destruction of the Teachers´Statute (the law that governs wages and working conditions for education workers), and the off-loading of responsibility for public education to municipal authorities.

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Posted in Strikes

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Appeals Court Hands Big Win to Advocates of Free Faculty Speech in Ruling on Pundit-Professor

Posted on April 6, 2011 | Comments Off on Appeals Court Hands Big Win to Advocates of Free Faculty Speech in Ruling on Pundit-Professor

The Chronicle: The Chronicle: Appeals Court Hands Big Win to Advocates of Free Faculty Speech in Ruling on Pundit-Professor

In a ruling that breaks from other recent federal court decisions chipping away at the speech rights of public colleges’ faculty members, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on Wednesday that the University of North Carolina at Wilmington could not deny a promotion to a faculty member, the prominent conservative commentator Michael S. Adams, based on writings that university administrators had deemed job-related.

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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech

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Presidents Defend Their Pay as Public Colleges Slash Budgets

Posted on April 4, 2011 | Comments Off on Presidents Defend Their Pay as Public Colleges Slash Budgets

The Chronicle: Presidents Defend Their Pay as Public Colleges Slash Budgets

The total cost of employing Francisco G. Cigarroa, chancellor of the U. of Texas system, was $813,892 in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The highest-paid public-college executives, who receive compensation packages in the high six figures and more, walk a difficult political tightrope. They must at once argue that their state budgets have been cut to the bone and need to be restored, while at the same time acknowledging their rarefied personal financial circumstances in states where layoffs, program closures, and pay reductions have been all too common. In making that case, presidents and the trustees who set their salaries have for years argued that, irrespective of economic conditions, those presidential pay levels are fair, necessary, and performance-driven. While that case appears to have been effectively made in many states, some higher-education officials and compensation experts say a prolonged budget crisis could hamstring the wealthiest presidents as they argue that their institutions are deserving of increasingly scarce public resources.

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Posted in Administration, Salary/Economic Benefits

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SUNY Budget Cut by Nearly $300 million

Posted on March 31, 2011 | Comments Off on SUNY Budget Cut by Nearly $300 million

The Chronicle: N.Y. Budget Takes Another Bite Out of SUNY and Omits Most Regulatory Freedoms

New York’s Legislature on Wednesday passed a budget on time for the first time in five years, but lawmakers got little appreciation for their promptness from higher education.

The lawmakers cut an estimated $289-million from the operating budget of the State University of New York. bringing total reductions in the system’s state appropriations to more than $1.4-billion over the past four years, according to system figures.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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‘Academic Freedom’ Offers Little Protection Against New Efforts to Obtain Professors’ E-Mails

Posted on March 30, 2011 | Comments Off on ‘Academic Freedom’ Offers Little Protection Against New Efforts to Obtain Professors’ E-Mails

The Chronicle: ‘Academic Freedom’ Offers Little Protection Against New Efforts to Obtain Professors’ E-Mails

Recent efforts by conservative-leaning groups to obtain the e-mails of Michigan and Wisconsin public-university professors have shed light on this much: Citing a need to protect “academic freedom” is, in itself, unlikely to help the universities avoid complying with requests for e-mails under state open-records laws.

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Posted in Academic freedom

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