The Chronicle: Anti-Intellectualism Enters Canadian Campaign, but Will It Fly?
Is “professor” a political insult? The Conservative Party in Canada seems to think so. It is portraying its main opponent in next month’s early election, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, as a nerdy, out-of-touch professor.
“I think they’ve spent too much time reading the U.S. Republican playbook,” said James Turk, executor director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
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Posted in Government
WHAS11.com: Felner affair expands into degree scandal: School superintendent John Deasy gets PhD in four months
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Posted in Academics, Administration, Corruption, Legal issues
PageOneKentucky.com: Explosive New Robert Felner Scandal Brewing
WHAS11’s Adam Walser has uncovered a story that many commenters on this site have been stewing about over the past several days.
What’s the skinny? Well… turns out someone tightly connected to Robert Felner received a doctoral degree from the University of Louisville without really stepping foot on campus, while holding down a job as a school superintendent in California… in just four months. Yeah, it’s that scandalous.
John Deasy is the guy in question. One of the individuals he thanks for his rapid rise to power is none other than Robert Felner, who was the chair of his doctoral dissertation committee in 2004. But it gets better.
* He lists the University of New York as a school he attended– but that university doesn’t exist.
* UofL requires 60 hours of credits toward doctoral research. He had a whopping 9.
* The title page of Deasy’s dissertation lists the date of May 2003– seven months before enrolling at UofL.
* During the time he was enrolled at UofL he never missed a bi-monthly school board meeting– in California.
* Deasy was at the University of Rhode Island for five years as a student but for some reason doesn’t list those classes on his resume. Not surprisingly, the Dean at the College of Education there was none other than Robert Felner.
* And Deasy’s school district hired Felner’s National Center on Public Education for a study that cost about $120,000 in 2003.
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Posted in Academics, Administration, Corruption
How Class Works – 2010 Conference at Stony Brook – June 3-5, 2010. The call for papers will go out in late spring next year.
Please also find attached the current call for papers for the 2009 Working Class Studies Association biannual conference “Class Matters” at the University of Pittsburgh June 3 – -6, 2009. Contact co-chairs Nick Coles or Charlie McCollester for the 2009 conference at or .
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Posted in CFPs
Kalamazoo Gazette: Western Michigan University professors press contract talks
KALAMAZOO — Disappointed by the lack of progress in contract talks, Western Michigan University professors voted Friday to allow its union negotiating team to take whatever “job actions” it deems necessary to pressure the administration.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
Burlington Free Press: UVM faculty contract reached
The faculty union at the University of Vermont has reached a tentative agreement with the administration on a new three-year contract for full-time employees.
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Details of the pact were not released pending ratification, according to a news release issued by United Academics. A vote by the members of United Academics’ full-time unit, numbering about 650, will take place in the next several weeks.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
News Journal: UD student wins lawsuit over free speech
Federal judge awards $10 in damages, upholds suspension on other grounds
A University of Delaware student has won his legal argument that his free speech rights were violated by the school when it suspended him for content on his Web page, but he essentially lost his lawsuit seeking damages.
A federal judge ruled that Maciej Murakowski’s Web page of sex jokes, among other topics, was sophomoric and offensive but was protected speech, not a threat to others and not a violation of the school’s policies.
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Posted in Free speech
Providence Journal: Ky. probe spurs URI to review center files
Officials at the University of Rhode Island say they are inspecting the finances of a research center on the Kingston campus founded by a former academic administrator now under federal investigation in Kentucky for fraud.
Robert Felner, former director of URI’s School of Education, has been under investigation by the U.S. Postal Service and the Secret Service since June for alleged misappropriation of federal grants. Federal agents visited the campus on at least two occasions this summer, looking for information on Felner.
URI officials say the investigation has prompted them to review the finances of the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy, which Felner established at URI in the late 1990s. Robert A. Weygand, URI’s vice president of administration, says he hopes to issue a report of the findings at the end of this week.
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Posted in Administration, Corruption, Legal issues
AFP: Zimbabwe teachers strike for better pay: union
The state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper said the government agreed to a pay rise for civil servants backdated to August to cushion the effect of the country’s run-away inflation.
“Negotiators reached an agreement with transport and housing allowances emerging as major points,” the newspaper said.
But Majongwe denounced the measure as “piecemeal”.
“The strike is not about housing and transport allowances. It is about the general welfare of the teachers and their families including their parents who need to be looked after,” he said.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Zimbabwe: Pupils Sent Home as Teachers Strike Continues
Several boarding schools have been forced to send students back home because of the continuing teachers’ strike. Teachers embarked on a ‘work boycott’ when schools opened on Tuesday, demanding salary increases that are commensurate with the hyper-inflationary environment.
As a result of the unstable Zimbabwean dollar, the teachers are asking for a salary equivalent to US$800. Some have said this is too high and is not likely to be met by the bankrupt Mugabe regime.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
WKYC: Students walk out after Newton Falls teachers strike
NEWTON FALLS — Matt Koleszar said he’s been looking forward to his senior year all summer, but said he just couldn’t stay in class Friday morning.
“We all just sat in a room and watched TV, so I came home,” he said.
Koelszar wasn’t alone. Only about a third of Newton Falls’ 1,500 students attended classes after teachers began walking the picket lines.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
MyNorthwest.com: Talks break off in Bellevue teachers’ strike
The union for striking Bellevue teachers says talks broke off Thursday evening and no new negotiations are scheduled.
The strike began Tuesday when no contract agreement was reached before the scheduled start of classes.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
The Independent: Teachers prepare for autumn of discontent
Britain’s biggest teachers’ union is gearing for an autumn of discontent in schools by planning a further national strike over pay later this term.
Leaders of the National Union of Teachers last night unanimously backed a motion calling for a further ballot of its membership in England and Wales on the stoppage.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Ynetnews.com: Gaza Strip: Hamas disperses teachers’ strike
Educators loyal to the Islamic Jihad protest Hamas involvement in academic institutions. Meanwhile Hamas slams doctors’ strike, claims several have died due to lack of medical treatment
Hamas security forces forcefully dispersed a crowd of 150 teachers loyal to the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
The teachers were protesting against Hamas’ involvement in the education system, and the firing of teachers loyal to rival faction Fatah. The Islamic Jihad vehemently denounced the scattering of the demonstration.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Mercer Island Reporter: Bellevue teachers strike
Teachers from across Bellevue gathered behind picket signs today, striking in solidarity for higher wages and a more flexible curriculum. The districtwide strike, which was announced at a teacher union meeting on Sept. 1, left more than 1,600 students without classes on the first scheduled day of school.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Courier-Journal: U of L’s Ramsey apologizes over Felner incident
‘A lot of individuals’ hurt, U of L chief acknowledges
University of Louisville President James Ramsey offered apologies this week to those hurt by former education dean Robert Felner, telling the school’s Faculty Senate that “I should have never let that happen.”
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“I do understand — fully understand — didn’t appreciate it soon enough, but I fully understand that there are a lot of individuals who have been hurt,” Ramsey said during the Wednesday meeting.
The Courier-Journal obtained an audio tape of the meeting through an open-records request.
“There are a lot of individuals who have been deeply scarred, and a lot of individuals who are very disappointed in their university. I am deeply regretful of that, and I alone have to take responsibility for that, and I do. … I should not have ever let that happen, and it did happen,” Ramsey said.
The Faculty Senate, which is composed of 70 members, including a student representative, is the faculty representative body at the university. It is responsible for reviewing policies and documents affecting the faculty and making recommendations to the administration.
Felner, who resigned from U of L on June 30 to become chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, is the focus of a federal investigation that was sparked by his alleged misappropriation of a $694,000 grant at U of L. No charges have been filed.
The investigation was triggered by the university, which handed the matter over to federal investigators.
Felner backed out of the Wisconsin job after the federal investigation became public June 20. U.S. Attorney David Huber has indicated the investigation could continue into October.
The investigation brought to light issues surrounding Felner’s leadership at U of L’s College of Education and Human Development and at other institutions he worked at before coming to Louisville in 2003.
Former faculty, staff, students and alumni have complained that Felner harassed, intimidated and retaliated against those who did not agree with him.
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Posted in Administration, Legal issues, Working conditions
The Chronicle: If Kent State Beats Goals, Professors Will Profit
The university will offer cash bonuses to professors when institutional goals for fund raising, research dollars, and student retention are met.
Kent State University is trying a new and unusual tactic to improve its status, retention rate, and fund raising—paying cash bonuses to faculty members if the university exceeds its goals in those areas.
The bonuses are built into a contract, approved last month, that covers 864 full-time, tenure-track faculty members who teach and do research on the university’s eight campuses. Proposed by Lester A. Lefton, Kent State’s president, the “success bonus pool” will be divided among faculty members if the Ohio institution improves retention rates for first-year students and increases the research dollars it generates and the private money raised through its foundation.
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Posted in Corporate University
Inside Higher Ed: ‘Teach Them to Challenge Authority’
Stanley Fish may be telling academics to keep their opinions to themselves, but Gregory S. Prince Jr. thinks it is time for colleges to stop trying to make their classrooms neutral. Prince, the former president of Hampshire College, argues for professors to take all kinds of positions — as a tool for challenging their students. His new book, Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies (Continuum) outlines this view, and Prince responded via e-mail to questions about the work.
Q: What’s wrong with a neutral stance in the classroom?
A: A neutral stance in the classroom is appropriate as one of many pedagogical approaches. When it becomes the only pedagogical approach, it deprives students of the chance to learn how to challenge those who have power over them — a skill that is essential in any career, that is essential for the health of any institution and that is critical in a democratic society. Higher education should have been very concerned that at a place like Enron, where almost all of its senior departmental and corporate leadership were college educated, only two at most challenged what was taking place.
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Posted in Academics
AP: Ex-Tenn. professor guilty of passing military data
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal jury convicted a retired University of Tennessee professor Wednesday of passing sensitive information from a U.S. Air Force contract to two foreign research assistants from China and Iran.
Jurors deliberated about six hours before finding plasma physics expert J. Reece Roth guilty Wednesday on 18 counts of conspiracy, fraud and violating the Arms Export Control Act.
Prosecutors in the Knoxville trial said Roth gave the two graduate students access to sensitive information while they researched a plasma-guidance system for unmanned aircraft.
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Posted in Legal issues
Kentucky: Courier-Journal calls for UofL Board of Trustees to recant support for UofL’s handling of Felner affair and focus on internal reforms
Courier-Journal: Ramsey’s Apology
Some will feel that University of Louisville President James Ramsey’s apology for his mishandling of the Felner affair is overdue. Only a few weeks ago, Dr. Ramsey dismissed the allegations of impropriety by the former education dean as “anonymous crap.”
However, Dr. Ramsey’s change of heart is a welcome signal that the university is taking seriously the scope of the investigation, which focuses not only on potential misappropriation of federal funds, but also alleged abuses of personnel.
In remarks to the U of L Faculty Senate, Dr. Ramsey and Provost Shirley Willihnganz, who also apologized, embraced a proposal for review of managerial and administrative practices at all of the university’s schools and colleges. The faculty recently sent a letter to the U of L board of trustees proposing such a study.
In addition to the ongoing federal investigation, which is expected to continue into October, the internal grievance procedure at U of L needs attention. The president and provost indicated their support for that review, too.
Now the responsibility shifts to the board of trustees. Only two weeks ago, chairman J. Chester Porter expressed support for the way the Felner affair had been handled. He too needs to recant, and the body he leads needs to focus attention on internal reforms.
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Posted in Administration, Commentary, Legal issues