Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

Ohio: OSU must pay O’Brien nearly $2.5 million, court rules

Posted on September 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Ohio: OSU must pay O’Brien nearly $2.5 million, court rules

Columbus Dispatch: OSU must pay O’Brien nearly $2.5 million, court rules

An appeals court ruled today that a lower court was correct in deciding that Ohio State University owes nearly $2.5 million to former men’s head basketball coach Jim O’Brien.

Comments Off on Ohio: OSU must pay O’Brien nearly $2.5 million, court rules

Posted in Legal issues

UC Irvine chancellor says he ‘bungled’ Chemerinsky firing

Posted on September 21, 2007 | Comments Off on UC Irvine chancellor says he ‘bungled’ Chemerinsky firing

The Los Angeles Times: UC Irvine chancellor says he ‘bungled’ Chemerinsky firing

Embattled UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake acknowledged that he had “bungled” last week in firing Erwin Chemerinsky as dean of the university’s new law school and said he regretted the way he handled the matter.

Comments Off on UC Irvine chancellor says he ‘bungled’ Chemerinsky firing

Posted in Administration

Why Women Leave Academic Medicine

Posted on September 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Why Women Leave Academic Medicine

Inside Higher Ed: Why Women Leave Academic Medicine

Phoebe S. Leboy was, she acknowledges, one of the lucky ones. It’s not that things were easy for female scientists when she came of age as an academic in the 1960s and 1970s; women earned a small fraction of the Ph.D.’s in biology and chemistry at the time, and they were an even rarer presence on medical or dental school faculties (Leboy was the first tenured faculty member at Penn’s dental school).

Comments Off on Why Women Leave Academic Medicine

Posted in Diversity

On the Road to Jena — and Activism

Posted on September 21, 2007 | Comments Off on On the Road to Jena — and Activism

Inside Higher Ed: On the Road to Jena — and Activism

For many students at historically black colleges, this week featured some additions to the syllabus. At Prairie View A&M University, students were turning in an extra essay. At Philander Smith College, students attended a lawyer’s lecture on the “Jena 6″ case as well as lectures on non-violence.

Comments Off on On the Road to Jena — and Activism

Posted in Advocacy, Students

When Research Criticizes an Industry

Posted on September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on When Research Criticizes an Industry

The Chronicle: When Research Criticizes an Industry

A professor says Idaho State U. gave too much deference to mining interests, at his expense; the administration says it did nothing wrong

When Robert W. Van Kirk released a study in January about selenium contamination in trout streams in southeastern Idaho, he expected some flak from the influential phosphate-mining industry. He didn’t expect to feel pressured by the administration of his own institution, Idaho State University, where he is an associate professor of mathematics.

His research, paid for by a local environmental group, indeed raised the hackles of mining interests. Executives of one major mine operator, the J.R. Simplot Company, called the university’s leaders about the study just days after it came out.

Comments Off on When Research Criticizes an Industry

Posted in Academics

Petitioners Urge Anthropologists to Stop Working With Pentagon in Iraq War

Posted on September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Petitioners Urge Anthropologists to Stop Working With Pentagon in Iraq War

The Chronicle News Blog: Petitioners Urge Anthropologists to Stop Working With Pentagon in Iraq War

“Anthropologists should not engage in research and other activities that contribute to counterinsurgency operations in Iraq or in related theaters in the ‘war on terror.’” That is one of the central declarations of a Pledge of Non-Participation in Counterinsurgency that was circulated today by a loosely defined group that refers to itself as the Network of Concerned Anthropologists.

Comments Off on Petitioners Urge Anthropologists to Stop Working With Pentagon in Iraq War

Posted in Academics

Judge: No extra break for lactating exam taker

Posted on September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Judge: No extra break for lactating exam taker

The Boston Globe: Judge: No extra break for lactating exam taker

A Harvard medical student and new mother will not be permitted to take extra break time to pump breast milk during her licensing exam to become a doctor, a judge ruled yesterday.

Comments Off on Judge: No extra break for lactating exam taker

Posted in Ethics

Minnesota: Adding Hunger to the Strike

Posted on September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Minnesota: Adding Hunger to the Strike

Inside Higher Ed: Adding Hunger to the Strike

Two weeks into a workers’ strike at the University of Minnesota, a group of students has jumped on board with a strike of its own — a hunger strike.

On Monday, 13 students, a professor and another supporter of the protest began starving themselves (drinking only water and juice) in solidarity with the strikers, a demonstration which they said they would continue until a settlement is reached between the university and the labor union representing the university’s clerical, technical and health care workers. They were joined on Wednesday by a planned 30 or more students who pledged to fast for a 24-hour period.

Comments Off on Minnesota: Adding Hunger to the Strike

Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes

Shock heard around the world

Posted on September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Shock heard around the world

Inside Higher Ed: Shock Heard Round the World

The video is a YouTube sensation, and the latest argument capturing the public’s fancy is whether the student being filmed wanted it just that way. But the lasting questions to come from the Taser incident that followed Sen. John Kerry’s speech Monday at the University of Florida will most likely be about the conduct of campus police.

Comments Off on Shock heard around the world

Posted in Students

Colleges, Pressed by Spellings and Cuomo, Step Up Scrutiny of Possible Conflicts in Their Business Relationships

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Colleges, Pressed by Spellings and Cuomo, Step Up Scrutiny of Possible Conflicts in Their Business Relationships

The Chronicle: Colleges, Pressed by Spellings and Cuomo, Step Up Scrutiny of Possible Conflicts in Their Business Relationships

Higher-education leaders, under pressure from the secretary of education, are planning a stepped-up examination of all possible conflicts of interest in American colleges’ operations, in light of the continuing student-loan scandal.

Representatives of several college associations and a number of college presidents have been invited to meet with officials of the American Council on Education on Thursday in Washington to review potential areas of legal and ethical vulnerability and possible steps that colleges could take to avoid them.

Comments Off on Colleges, Pressed by Spellings and Cuomo, Step Up Scrutiny of Possible Conflicts in Their Business Relationships

Posted in Corporate University

Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a new report.

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a new report.

Guardian: Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a new report.

Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a report published by the British Council today.

A total of £28bn in 2003-04 was earned from overseas students by a sector ranging from world famous universities to small English language colleges, from independent schools to publishers and broadcasters.

Comments Off on Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a new report.

Posted in Economics

What about Larry?: Compare Chemerinsky’s tale with academia’s bashing of ex-Harvard chief Summers.

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Comments Off on What about Larry?: Compare Chemerinsky’s tale with academia’s bashing of ex-Harvard chief Summers.

Los Angeles Times: Compare Chemerinsky’s tale with academia’s bashing of ex-Harvard chief Summers.

The saga of controversial liberal law professor Erwin Chemerinsky’s on-again, off-again deanship at the new UC Irvine law school was highly unusual in two ways. First, the pressure to enforce political orthodoxy at Chemerinsky’s expense came from the right, not the left, and second, academic freedom and 1st Amendment values won a resounding victory when Chemerinsky was ultimately rehired. A more typicalexample of how academic freedom remains in jeopardy across the country is the UC Board of Regents’ treatment of Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University.

Comments Off on What about Larry?: Compare Chemerinsky’s tale with academia’s bashing of ex-Harvard chief Summers.

Posted in Commentary, Free speech

Appeals Court Upholds Military Recruiting

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Appeals Court Upholds Military Recruiting

Inside Higher Ed: Appeals Court Upholds Military Recruiting

The Solomon Amendment has won another round in court, and the only remaining push against it may have suffered a fatal blow this week when a federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of the controversial measure.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Solomon Amendment did not infringe on the First Amendment rights of law schools that objected to it. The law threatens to withhold federal funds from institutions that limit military recruiters’ access to campuses, which many law schools historically have done to protest the Defense Department’s discriminatory policies toward gay people.

Comments Off on Appeals Court Upholds Military Recruiting

Posted in Government

A Worldwide Test for Higher Education?

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Comments Off on A Worldwide Test for Higher Education?

Inside Higher Ed: A Worldwide Test for Higher Education?

For much of the last year or two, debate has raged among American higher education officials and state and federal policy makers about the wisdom and practicality of creating a system that would allow for public comparison of how successfully individual colleges and/or programs are educating their students. Many college leaders have rejected the push, which has emanated primarily from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education and the U.S. Education Department, on the grounds that the nation’s colleges and universities — two-year and four-year, public and private, exclusive and open enrollment — and their students are far too varied to be responsibly and intelligently measured by any single, standardized measure (or even a suite of them).

But the thirst among politicians and others seeking to hold colleges and universities more accountable for their performance is powerful, and it is not merely an American phenomenon. Proof of that can be found in the fact that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has convened a small group of testing experts and higher education policy makers who have met quietly in recent months to discuss the possibility of creating a common international system to measure the learning outcomes of individual colleges and university systems, along the lines of the well-regarded test that OECD countries now administer to 15-year-olds, the Program for International Student Assessment.

Comments Off on A Worldwide Test for Higher Education?

Posted in Accountability

Outside Audit Urges Swift Steps to Overhaul Management of U. of California

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Outside Audit Urges Swift Steps to Overhaul Management of U. of California

The Chronicle News Blog: Outside Audit Urges Swift Steps to Overhaul Management of U. of California

The University of California must act quickly to restore credibility to its president’s office and to improve governance of the 10-campus system if it is to preserve excellence in teaching and research, according to an external audit that the university commissioned and made public on Friday.

Comments Off on Outside Audit Urges Swift Steps to Overhaul Management of U. of California

Posted in Administration, Governance

Young Professors at Private Institutions Report Greater Overall Level of Job Satisfaction

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Young Professors at Private Institutions Report Greater Overall Level of Job Satisfaction

The Chronicle: Young Professors at Private Institutions Report Greater Overall Level of Job Satisfaction

Young professors at private institutions rated themselves as more satisfied with their jobs than did their counterparts at public colleges, but the path to tenure seemed clearer to those at public institutions, a report released on Monday by researchers at Harvard University says.

Comments Off on Young Professors at Private Institutions Report Greater Overall Level of Job Satisfaction

Posted in Working conditions

Student Tasered at Kerry speech

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Student Tasered at Kerry speech

The Gainesville Sun: Student Tasered at Kerry speech

U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s speech at the University of Florida came to a dramatic close Monday, shortly after a vocal audience member was hauled off by police and shot with a Taser gun.

The audience member was preliminarily identified by UF officials as Andrew Meyer, a UF student in the College of Journalism and Communications.

Toward the conclusion of Kerry’s UF forum, Meyer approached an open microphone at the University Auditorium and demanded Kerry answer his questions. The student claimed that University Police Department officers had already threatened to arrest him, and then proceeded to question Kerry about why he didn’t contest the 2004 presidential election and why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush.

Comments Off on Student Tasered at Kerry speech

Posted in Students

Judge denies Baptist seminary’s request to dismiss woman’s suit

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Judge denies Baptist seminary’s request to dismiss woman’s suit

Dallas Morning News: Judge denies Baptist seminary’s request to dismiss woman’s suit

Comments Off on Judge denies Baptist seminary’s request to dismiss woman’s suit

Posted in Equity, Legal issues

Student Arrested, Tasered at Kerry Event

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Student Arrested, Tasered at Kerry Event

AP: Student Arrested, Tasered at Kerry Event

Video of police Tasering a persistent questioner of Sen. John Kerry became an Internet and TV sensation Tuesday, generating fierce debate about free speech and the motives of the college student involved a known prankster who often posts practical jokes online.

University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Monday’s takedown, in which the student loudly yelled, “Don’t Tase me, bro!” was “regretful.” He asked for a state probe of campus police actions and placed two officers on leave.

The student in the middle of it all, 21-year-old Andrew Meyer, had no comment after he was released on his recognizance on various charges following a night in jail.

Comments Off on Student Arrested, Tasered at Kerry Event

Posted in Students

University of Florida student tasered at John Kerry speech

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Comments Off on University of Florida student tasered at John Kerry speech

Comments Off on University of Florida student tasered at John Kerry speech

Posted in Students