Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

SUNY-Binghamton President Will Retire After Year of Controversy

Posted on January 14, 2010 | Comments Off on SUNY-Binghamton President Will Retire After Year of Controversy

The Chronicle: SUNY-Binghamton President Will Retire After Year of Controversy

Lois B. DeFleur announced today that she would step down as president of Binghamton University in July, after 20 years in office. Ms. DeFleur cited personal reasons for her retirement, including her coming marriage and her mother’s fragile health. But in the last year, Ms. DeFleur’s presidency and Binghamton have been plagued with controversy. A female fund raiser sued the university last summer, alleging that senior officials in the athletics department had tried to use her as a sexual “plaything” to help solicit contributions from donors. Last fall the university terminated an adjunct who complained she had been pressured to pass basketball players who skipped classes. The university later reinstated her. But at the same time the university dismissed six basketball players, including one who had been arrested for selling crack cocaine, and it reassigned its athletics director. Nancy L. Zimpher, the State University of New York system’s chancellor, also announced that an outside auditor would examine the basketball program.

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Posted in Administration

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AAUP Report Slams Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

Posted on January 14, 2010 | Comments Off on AAUP Report Slams Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

The Chronicle: AAUP Report Slams Clark Atlanta U. Over Faculty Layoffs

The American Association of University Professors issued a report today accusing Clark Atlanta University of numerous violations of faculty rights in connection with its dismissal of about a fourth of its faculty members last year.

The report, by an AAUP investigative committee, concludes that the university’s administration declared a nonexistent “enrollment emergency” last February as a pretext for firing about 55 full-time faculty members without due process.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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UK: Cash-starved universities will have huge classes, says union

Posted on January 13, 2010 | Comments Off on UK: Cash-starved universities will have huge classes, says union

The Guardian: Cash-starved universities will have huge classes, says union

Lecturers claim savage government cuts will close universities and send 14,000 academics to the dole queue

Universities in the UK will be among the most overcrowded in the world within three years if savage government cuts to higher education go ahead, academics warned today.

The lecturers’ union, UCU, said more than £900m of cuts announced last month would fill lecture halls with “some of the biggest class sizes in the world” by 2013.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Working conditions

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Outsourcing push roils Boston College

Posted on January 13, 2010 | Comments Off on Outsourcing push roils Boston College

The Boston Globe: Outsourcing push roils BC

Many students, faculty join workers fighting cost-cutting proposal

Custodians, groundskeepers, and other workers at Boston College have long felt a part of the BC family. When employees reach their 25th anniversary, maintenance staff and professors alike are treated to an elegant banquet honoring their longtime service and given a commemorative clock. Workers’ children, if qualified to gain admission, receive free tuition.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Contingent labor, Faculty, Working conditions

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Tehran Students Say Professor Killed in Bombing Was Opponent of Regime

Posted on January 13, 2010 | Comments Off on Tehran Students Say Professor Killed in Bombing Was Opponent of Regime

The Chronicle: Tehran Students Say Professor Killed in Bombing Was Opponent of Regime

A University of Tehran professor who was killed in a bomb blast outside his home in the Iranian capital this morning was an outspoken supporter of the opposition politician Mir Hossein Moussavi who had encouraged students in their recent antigovernment protests, a student at the university said in an e-mail message from Tehran.

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Posted in Faculty, Safety & Security

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Sweden to abolish gender-based affirmative action at universities

Posted on January 13, 2010 | Comments Off on Sweden to abolish gender-based affirmative action at universities

Javno: Sweden to abolish affirmative action

The Swedish government said Tuesday it would abolish affirmative action at universities since the practice has resulted in unjust advantage.

STOCKHOLM, January 12, 2010 (AFP) – The Swedish government said Tuesday it would abolish affirmative action at universities since the practice has resulted in male students being given admissions priority for several popular programmes.

“The education system should open doors — not slam them in the face of motivated young women,” Higher Education Minister Tobias Krantz wrote in an article in Sweden’s leading daily Dagens Nyheter.

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Posted in Diversity

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After years of negotiations U of Florida and faculty union reach contract agreement

Posted on January 13, 2010 | Comments Off on After years of negotiations U of Florida and faculty union reach contract agreement

Gainesville Sun: UF and faculty union reach contract agreement

The University of Florida’s faculty union has reached agreement on a new contract, after years of negotiations and recent weeks in which a last-ditch deal threatened to fall apart.

United Faculty of Florida and administration negotiators reached agreement late Monday. Union members and UF’s Board of Trustees must still approve the three-year contract, but union chapter president John Biro said it was “almost certain” that would happen

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts

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Contract Fight at U. of Hawaii Knocks Down Faculty Morale

Posted on January 11, 2010 | Comments Off on Contract Fight at U. of Hawaii Knocks Down Faculty Morale

The Chronicle: Contract Fight at U. of Hawaii Knocks Down Faculty Morale
Disheartened by a pay cut that they say violates their agreement, some professors look for jobs elsewhere

Discouraged by stalled contract negotiations and their employer’s decision last month to cut their pay, faculty members at the University of Hawaii made their way back to class this week. Although talks are slated to resume, their future is hazy. A few professors—set on leaving the system and its troubles behind—are poised to look for work elsewhere in a job market that is grim for most.

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts, Unions

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U of North Carolina cuts strings on golden parachutes for top administrators

Posted on January 11, 2010 | Comments Off on U of North Carolina cuts strings on golden parachutes for top administrators

Charlotte Observer: UNC system clamps down on leave pay

Chancellors had been taking long leaves at full salary, and then retiring or taking new jobs.

CHAPEL HILL The UNC Board of Governors has revised a policy that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on UNC administrators who were supposed to return to teaching but instead retired, took other jobs or were eased out of their jobs.

Campus chancellors – and the UNC system president – will now get a six-month leave after stepping down at a salary comparable to what other faculty members in their academic departments earn. Previously, the “retreat rights” policy allowed a year of leave at the full administrative salary.

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Posted in Administration, Salary/Economic Benefits

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National AAUP Joins Criticism of Provost on Nike Board

Posted on January 11, 2010 | Comments Off on National AAUP Joins Criticism of Provost on Nike Board

Inside Higher Ed: National AAUP Joins Criticism of Provost on Nike Board

The national American Association of University Professors is today joining criticism by its University of Washington branch of the decision of Provost Phyllis Wise to join the board of Nike — a decision that has become increasingly controversial. Wise has said that she will help encourage responsible corporate governance, but faculty critics have said that her role is problematic, given that the university has contracts with the company and many on the campus want more scrutiny of Nike’s labor practice. The national AAUP statement says: “We agree that recusing herself from board discussion of Nike’s contractual relations with the university does not provide a sufficient firewall between the provost and the ethical and political implications of Nike’s international financial and labor practices. And we agree that a chilling effect on faculty research into Nike’s practices is entirely possible if the university’s chief academic officer is identified with Nike’s board.”

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Posted in Administration, Corporate University

Protest at History Meeting

Posted on January 11, 2010 | Comments Off on Protest at History Meeting

Inside Higher Ed: Protest at History Meeting

SAN DIEGO — “Boycott the Hyatt. Check Out Now.” With that chant, about 200 protesters shouted their anger Saturday afternoon at the decision of the American Historical Association to have its headquarters and many sessions in the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel here.

In an unusual scene for a scholarly meeting, protesters rallied for an hour outside the hotel, and marched around it twice. While most of the rhetoric was against the hotel’s owner, the organizers carried a sign that said “What will history say about the American Historical Association.”

Gay and labor organizations in San Diego have organized a boycott of the hotel, noting that Doug Manchester, the owner of the hotel, was a major financial donor to the campaign to end gay marriage in California and that union leaders consider him hostile to organized labor. The history association, like most disciplinary associations that have large annual meetings, signs contracts with venues years in advance, in this case well before California’s gay marriage vote.

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Posted in Protests

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Former U of L dean Robert Felner agrees to plead guilty to fraud, tax evasion—Will serve 63 months in prison; pay $2 million restitution; forfeit real property to feds

Posted on January 8, 2010 | Comments Off on Former U of L dean Robert Felner agrees to plead guilty to fraud, tax evasion—Will serve 63 months in prison; pay $2 million restitution; forfeit real property to feds

Courier-Journal: Former U of L dean agrees to plead guilty to fraud, tax evasion

Former University of Louisville Education Dean Robert Felner agreed Friday to plead guilty to nine federal charges, including income tax evasion, and to serve 63 months in prison in connection with defrauding U of L and another college out of $2.3 million.

He also agreed to pay restitution of $510,000 to U of L and $1.64 million to the University of Rhode Island as well as to the forfeiture to the federal government of real property he owned in Florida and in Illinois as well as bank accounts of undisclosed value.

U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson III said he will review the plea agreement before deciding whether to accept it. He also held out the possibility of imposing additional fines of up to $2.25 million on Felner.

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Posted in Legal issues

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Hawaii Faculty Union Asks Court to Block Pay Cuts and Order Arbitration

Posted on January 8, 2010 | Comments Off on Hawaii Faculty Union Asks Court to Block Pay Cuts and Order Arbitration

The Chronicle: Hawaii Faculty Union Asks Court to Block Pay Cuts and Order Arbitration

The union for faculty members at the University of Hawaii filed a motion today asking a state court to block pay cuts recently announced by the system’s president, M.R.C. Greenwood. Ms. Greenwood has agreed to personally join in a mediation session with the union over stalled contract talks, but she has rejected a union grievance demanding that she retract the salary cuts, which would show up in checks issued January 15. The union now wants the court to temporarily halt the cuts and order arbitration of its demands.

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Posted in Legal issues, Salary/Economic Benefits, Unions

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Mass. college Reverses Veil Ban

Posted on January 8, 2010 | Comments Off on Mass. college Reverses Veil Ban

Inside Higher Ed: College Reverses Veil Ban

After days of news media scrutiny and a federal civil liberties complaint, a Massachusetts college backed down Thursday from its security policy that seemed to be the nation’s first ban on the veils worn by some Muslim women.

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences announced that its identification rule requiring students to wear their ID cards and barring “any head covering that obscures a student’s face … either on campus or at clinical sites” — which went into effect on January 1 — has been amended to permit students to wear face-obscuring coverings for religious reasons.

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Posted in Safety & Security

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Universities Pledge to Train Thousands More Math and Science Teachers by 2015

Posted on January 7, 2010 | Comments Off on Universities Pledge to Train Thousands More Math and Science Teachers by 2015

The Chronicle: Universities Pledge to Train Thousands More Math and Science Teachers by 2015

President Obama announced on Wednesday a partnership between federal agencies and public universities to train thousands more mathematics and science teachers each year, part of the administration’s effort to make American students more competitive globally in science, technology, engineering, and math.

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Posted in Academics, K-12 issues

Potential Boon for California Higher Ed

Posted on January 7, 2010 | Comments Off on Potential Boon for California Higher Ed

Inside Higher Ed: Potential Boon for California Higher Ed

California’s public colleges have had a brutal couple of years. It’d be ridiculously premature to say that things are turning around — but Wednesday brought them at the very least a symbolic boost, in the form of a proposal that could lead to more of what they really want: a greater share of state funds.

In a State of the State speech that elevated education, and higher education in particular, above some competing state priorities, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed amending the state’s Constitution to ensure that the state’s two major public university systems receive no less than 10 percent of the state’s operating funds each year. The additional funds would come by cutting spiraling state spending on prisons, the governor said.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

Best and Worst Jobs 2010

Posted on January 7, 2010 | Comments Off on Best and Worst Jobs 2010

Wall Street Journal: Best and Worst Jobs 2010

The 200 best and worst jobs in the U.S. in 2009 based on five criteria — environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress — according to a newly released study from job site CareerCast.com. Read about the methodology.

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Posted in Working conditions

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Merging departments at U of Winnipeg postponed

Posted on January 6, 2010 | Comments Off on Merging departments at U of Winnipeg postponed

Winnipeg Free Press: THE University of Winnipeg has postponed a controversial plan to amalgamate its philosophy, classics and religious studies departments.

Dean of arts David Fitzpatrick said he takes responsibility for misunderstandings and misconceptions that quickly developed on campus when he announced a plan in mid-November to merge the three into a new humanities department. Fitzpatrick said all three departments would remain as separate units, each chaired by a member of its department, at least for the current school year.

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Posted in Academics

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MA College Bans Certain Head Coverings

Posted on January 6, 2010 | Comments Off on MA College Bans Certain Head Coverings

The New York Times: College Bans Certain Head Coverings

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts pharmacy college instituted a ban on clothing that obscures the face, including face veils and burqas, weeks after a Muslim alumnus who is also the son of a professor was charged with plotting terror strikes.

The policy change at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services, announced in a campus-wide e-mail last month, went into effect Friday.

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Posted in Safety & Security

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For-Profit Colleges Capitalize on Pell Grant Revenue

Posted on January 6, 2010 | Comments Off on For-Profit Colleges Capitalize on Pell Grant Revenue

The Chronicle: For-Profit Colleges Capitalize on Pell Grant Revenue

Proprietary colleges top a list of postsecondary institutions whose students received the most Pell Grants in 2008-9.

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Posted in Corporate University

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