Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

Inside Higher Ed: Professors and Politics (Again)

A month after the release of a study hailed by many as a definitive examination of faculty members’ political views, a slew of new research on the topic — some of it updated versions of previous research — will be released today finding (not surprisingly) that professors lean to the left.

Today’s research will be released as part of a day-long conference, “Reforming the Politically Correct University,” being held at the American Enterprise Institute. Two of the papers were released in advance and (judging from paper titles) they appear consistent with the theme of the conference that ideological diversity is in short supply in academe. The papers argue that the political imbalance in humanities and social sciences departments is large, growing and inappropriate. And one paper charges that “groupthink” is at work in ways that limit the opportunities for those who don’t share the leftist views of many other professors.

The Chronicle News Blog: 20% of Canadian Faculty Members Are Stressed Out, Survey Finds

More than 20 percent of Canadian professors say their jobs are making them sick, according to a national survey commissioned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which says it shows very clearly that high levels of stress are a major problem with serious consequences for faculties. About 10 percent of those surveyed were classified as clinically distressed, which would qualify them for long-term disability.

A 42-page report on the survey lays out the variety of faculty stressors, including workload, scheduling, role conflicts, and problems with senior administrators. Professors who tend to be the most stressed are women on the tenure track who are trying to balance work and family.

The survey covered 1,470 people who were randomly selected at 56 universities. The response rate was 27 percent. Over all, 65 percent said they were satisfied with their jobs. —Karen Birchard

Inside Higher Ed: When and Why Professors Retire

Joan Lorden said she noticed something unsettling a few years ago: When she went to events honoring professors for teaching awards, there was too much overlap in those being honored with those whose retirements were being announced at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she is provost. She worried about losing “the backbone of departments,” she said.

The Chronicle: Faculty-Productivity Index Offers Surprises

Third annual ranking gives high marks to some lesser-known programs

Intellectual heft may seem like a tricky thing to measure, but Academic Analytics says it can be done.

The for-profit company, owned in part by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, recently compiled its third annual Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index — a ranking of graduate programs at research universities based on what purports to be the first objective measurement of per-capita scholarly accomplishment. The measurement this year considers several new factors, causing some surprising fluctuations in the rankings.