Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

Call for manuscripts: Critical Education

Posted on September 11, 2009 | Comments Off on Call for manuscripts: Critical Education

Critical Education is an international peer-reviewed journal, which seeks manuscripts that critically examine contemporary education contexts and practices. Critical Education is interested in theoretical and empirical research as well as articles that advance educational practices that challenge the existing state of affairs in society, schools, and informal education.

Critical Education is an open access journal, launching in early 2010. The journal home is criticaleducation.org

Critical Education is hosted by the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and edited by Sandra Mathison (UBC), E. Wayne Ross (UBC) and Adam Renner (Bellarmine University) along with collective of 30 scholars in education that includes:

Faith Ann Agostinone, Aurora University
Wayne Au, California State University, Fullerton
Marc Bousquet, Santa Clara University
Joe Cronin, Antioch University
Antonia Darder, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
George Dei, OISE/University of Toronto
Stephen C. Fleury, Le Moyne College
Kent den Heyer, University of Alberta
Nirmala Erevelles, University of Alabama
Michelle Fine, City University of New York
Gustavo Fischman, Arizona State University
Melissa Freeman, University of Georgia
David Gabbard, East Carolina University
Rich Gibson, San Diego State University
Dave Hill, University of Northampton
Nathalia E. Jaramillo, Purdue University
Saville Kushner, University of West England
Zeus Leonardo, University of California, Berkeley
Pauline Lipman, University of Illinois, Chicago
Lisa Loutzenheiser, University of British Columbia
Marvin Lynn, University of Illinois, Chicago
Sheila Macrine, Montclair State University
Perry M. Marker, Sonoma State University
Rebecca Martusewicz, Eastern Michigan University
Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles
Stephen Petrina, University of British Columbia
Stuart R. Poyntz, Simon Fraser University
Patrick Shannon, Penn State University
Kevin D. Vinson, University of the West Indies
John F. Welsh, Louisville, KY

Online submission and author guidelines can be found here.

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Posted in Academics, CFPs

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New U. of I. board eliminates preferential admissions

Posted on September 11, 2009 | Comments Off on New U. of I. board eliminates preferential admissions

Chicago Tribune: New U. of I. board eliminates preferential admissions

URBANA – — Hoping to end a “sorry chapter” in University of Illinois’ history, new board chair Christopher Kennedy and other trustees voted Thursday to eliminate all preferential admissions practices that led to a massive scandal at the state’s most prestigious campus.

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Posted in Administration

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U. of California Regents to Consider 32% Increase in Tuition

Posted on September 11, 2009 | Comments Off on U. of California Regents to Consider 32% Increase in Tuition

The Chronicle: U. of California Regents to Consider 32% Increase in Tuition

The University of California may raise its undergraduate tuition by 32 percent by the fall of 2010 to replace sharply declining state support. The tuition proposal, which the system’s Board of Regents plans to discuss at a meeting next week, would raise resident undergraduate student fees by $585 in the spring semester of this academic year and by an additional $1,344 next fall. The university’s professional schools may also turn to unusually large tuition increases to make up for state budget reductions.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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An Activist Adjunct Shoulders the Weight of a New Advocacy Group

Posted on September 10, 2009 | Comments Off on An Activist Adjunct Shoulders the Weight of a New Advocacy Group

The Chronicle: An Activist Adjunct Shoulders the Weight of a New Advocacy Group

There was a time when Maria C. Maisto didn’t know much about the struggles of adjunct professors. She didn’t know that teaching six courses could still pay less than $20,000. She didn’t know that adjuncts are likely to be on the outskirts of faculty governance. She didn’t know that adjuncts can’t count on unemployment checks to fill in the gap when they’re not able to teach. But four years after teaching her first English-composition class at the University of Akron, Ms. Maisto knows all of that. In fact, now she thinks about the plight of adjuncts all the time.

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Posted in Unions

UK: Students get marks just for turning up

Posted on September 10, 2009 | Comments Off on UK: Students get marks just for turning up

Times Higher Education: Students get marks just for turning up

Universities accused of “bribing” undergraduates. Rebecca Attwood reports

Universities have been accused of “bribing” students with marks simply for attending seminars, a move critics say encourages them to adopt casual and cynical attitudes to academic work.

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Posted in Academics

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Friending a Strike…Oakland U strike on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Posted on September 10, 2009 | Comments Off on Friending a Strike…Oakland U strike on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Inside Higher Ed: Friending a Strike

When Oakland University, in Michigan, and the union that represents 600 of its faculty members failed to reach labor agreement last week, the professors went on strike and the university shut down — while representatives from the opposing sides went behind closed doors in downtown Detroit to negotiate. At the same time, a much larger and more eclectic group began discussing the issue in a space that had no doors — just walls.

Facebook walls, that is. Faculty officers from the Association of American University Professors (AAUP) created a group on the popular social networking site and began posting updates on the negotiations. They also started using the union’s Facebook fan page to post fliers, press releases, and links to media coverage of the strike. Supporters began leaving messages on the page’s comment wall. Others started chattering on the wall of the university’s official fan page. Soon, a student group devoted to the strike appeared on the social networking site and quickly acquired more than 300 members. Then a Twitter hash tag. Then another. Then a Flickr account. Then a YouTube channel.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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Strike Settled, Oakland U. Professors Return to the Classroom

Posted on September 10, 2009 | Comments Off on Strike Settled, Oakland U. Professors Return to the Classroom

The Chronicle: Strike Settled, Oakland U. Professors Return to the Classroom

Professors at Oakland University are back in front of their classrooms, after round-the-clock negotiations between faculty members and the Michigan institution resulted in agreement on a tentative three-year contract early this morning.

Faculty members at the college had been on strike since last Thursday, the first day of the fall semester. The agreement came about after a judge ordered the faculty union and Oakland administrators to return to the bargaining table or face a hearing in which the university sought an injunction forcing faculty members to go back to work.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Judge orders Oakland University, union back to table

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Judge orders Oakland University, union back to table

Detroit Free Press: Judge orders Oakland University, union back to table

An Oakland County Circuit Court judge has ordered round-the-clock negotiations between Oakland University and the American Association of University Professors.

If the sides can’t reach an agreement by 10 a.m. Thursday, Judge Edward Sosnick said, he will hold a court hearing on the university’s request for a preliminary injunction. The university has called the strike by its faculty “illegal” and said it has caused “irreparable harm” to students and parents.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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The Experience of Working Class Students at a Research I University

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on The Experience of Working Class Students at a Research I University

From Michael Zweig at SUNY Stony Brook:

Please see a new study, “The Experience of Working Class Students at a Research I University,” by Veronica Gonzalez, a recent intern at the Center for Study of Working Class Life. Gonzalez compares the academic experiences of students from working class families with those from middle class famllies who entered the State University of New York at Stony Brook between 2001 and 2003.

Go to the study from the link at the upper right of the Center’s home page

http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass/publications/VGonzalez09.pdf

or go directly to the .pdf at

http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass/publications/VGonzalez09.pdf

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Posted in Students

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Oakland University, union meet with judge on strike

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Oakland University, union meet with judge on strike

Detroit Free Press: Oakland University, union meet with judge on strike

Representatives for Oakland University and the American Association of University Professors are talking with Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Edward Sosnick behind closed doors this morning in an attempt to settle the labor dispute that has now canceled classes for a fourth day.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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Oakland U. to Ask Judge to Order Striking Professors Back to Work

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Oakland U. to Ask Judge to Order Striking Professors Back to Work

The Chronicle: Oakland U. to Ask Judge to Order Striking Professors Back to Work

Administrators at Oakland University, the Michigan institution where classes have been canceled since
Thursday because of a faculty strike, plan to ask a state judge to order professors back to work. The university’s chapter of the American Association of University professors said on its Web site that, a few hours before dawn today, talks held over the Labor Day weekend yielded a settlement agreement that the union’s bargaining team has “no authority to sign.” Negotiators for both sides will meet with a state mediator this afternoon.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.

AP: Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A decision by the University of Wyoming to name a new center for international students for former Vice President Dick Cheney is drawing criticism from people who say Cheney’s support for the Iraq war and harsh interrogation techniques should disqualify him from the distinction.

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Posted in Protests

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UW-Whitewater cannot collect from ex-dean

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on UW-Whitewater cannot collect from ex-dean

State Journal: Judge: UW-Whitewater cannot collect from ex-dean

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater cannot sue a former dean accused of misusing school money because it waited too long and failed to prove any purchases were for his personal benefit, a judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller last week threw out the university’s countersuit against former College of Letters and Sciences Dean Howard Ross. The judge ordered a trial on Ross’ claims that he was singled out by a racist auditor and later demoted because he is black.

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Posted in Uncategorized

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Rutgers University faculty union approves pay raise delay to avoid layoffs, cuts

Posted on September 9, 2009 | Comments Off on Rutgers University faculty union approves pay raise delay to avoid layoffs, cuts

Star-Ledger: Rutgers University faculty union approves pay raise delay to avoid layoffs, cuts

The Rutgers University faculty union approved an agreement with school officials Friday that staves off layoffs and other deep cuts by delaying two previously negotiated raises.

By slowing down wage increases for 4,200 union members, including professors and teaching assistants, Rutgers will spend $20 million less than initially thought over the next two years. That should help the university ride out the recession without shedding jobs. Without the deal, according to vice president of budgeting Nancy Winterbauer, the number of full-time faculty and staff positions would have fallen by 270 — 3.6 percent of the state-funded workforce. And about 450 fewer part-time lecturers would be appointed, she wrote in an e-mail.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Salary/Economic Benefits

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Canada’s top court refuses to hear B.C. unions’ appeals about one-day strikes

Posted on September 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Canada’s top court refuses to hear B.C. unions’ appeals about one-day strikes

Canadian Press: Canada’s top court refuses to hear B.C. unions’ appeals about one-day strikes

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Two prominent British Columbia unions have lost their bid to have the Supreme Court of Canada decide whether a pair of one-day walkouts were Charter-protected political protests or illegal strikes.

The teachers’ and health-workers’ unions staged separate walkouts in 2002 and 2003 to protest a provincial law that stripped their collective agreements – walkouts the province’s Labour Relations Board ruled were illegal.

The B.C. Teachers’ Union and the Hospital Employees Union had challenged the board’s definition of a strike, but the top court’s decision not to hear the case upholds a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that the walkouts were strikes even if they lasted for just a day.

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Posted in Legal issues, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions

UK: Professor in exam scandal quits

Posted on September 8, 2009 | Comments Off on UK: Professor in exam scandal quits

Manchester Evening News: Professor in exam scandal quits

THE professor at the centre of an exam marking scandal has quit after being found guilty of gross misconduct.

Annmarie Surprenant was a top lecturer at Manchester University and a world-leading expert in researching new drugs.

But she resigned from her job, which commanded a six-figure salary, after an internal inquiry looked at accusations she had faked the signatures of colleagues.

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Posted in Scandals

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Rethinking Tenure for the Next Generation

Posted on September 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Rethinking Tenure for the Next Generation

The Chronicle Review: Rethinking Tenure for the Next Generation

Is higher education in the same position as health care—ripe for reform by the federal government? Both sectors certainly face similar challenges to the established protocol: higher costs, diminished resources, uneven access, inconsistent quality, inadequate means of defining and evaluating results, greater demands, and expensive technology.

We must voluntarily initiate substantial changes. One central piece of the puzzle concerns the tenure system, hatched in another era by a

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Posted in Tenure & Promotion

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Howard U. Students and Union Workers Protest Over Aid Delays, Labor Practices

Posted on September 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Howard U. Students and Union Workers Protest Over Aid Delays, Labor Practices

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Student advocacy director Corey Briscoe, in white T-shirt, addresses some of the 350 protesters. (By Gerald Martineau — The Washington Post)

Washington Post: Howard U. Students and Union Workers Protest Over Aid Delays, Labor Practices

About 350 students and union workers crowded the plaza outside Howard University’s administration building Friday morning, protesting a long list of grievances — including problems with on-campus housing, delays in financial aid payments and labor practices — and at one point threatening a sit-in before they were turned away from the building’s doors.

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Posted in Administration, Protests

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Former Texas Tech regents say gov pushed them out

Posted on September 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Former Texas Tech regents say gov pushed them out

Austin American-Statesman: Two former regents say Perry allies pressured them to resign
Both cite their support of Perry opponent, Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Two former Texas Tech University System regents said Friday that allies of Gov. Rick Perry’s pressured them to resign after their support for Perry’s political rival — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — became public.

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Posted in Governance, Government

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UC Faculty Walkout 9/24

Posted on September 7, 2009 | Comments Off on UC Faculty Walkout 9/24

UC Faculty Walkout 9/24
Update: AAUP Endorses Walkout

To support this action, please send your name and affiliation to this addresss: ucfacultywalkout@gmail.com

Hundreds of UC professors, from all divisions and campuses, wrote in support of the 9/24 walkout during the first two days of the call. With that support, and more that is now pouring in, the letter posted below will be recirculated to faculty throughout the UC system shortly. Student organizations throughout the UC system have begun mobilizing in solidarity.

* The AAUP (American Association of University Professors) has endorsed this call for collective action: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/newsroom/2009PRS/ucwalkout.htm

* UPTE, representing over 10,000 University Professional and Technical Employees, will strike on 9/24 in solidarity with faculty: http://www.upte.org/publication-mm/2009-08-31.html

* SAVE, a faculty organization at UC Berkeley, has called for a “Day of Education” on 9/24 in solidarity with the walkout:
http://ucfacultywalkout.wordpress.com/

* Article in the Daily Californian:http://www.dailycal.org/article/106486/uc_faculty_plan_walkout_to_protest_recent_budget_c

* STUDENTS: Berkeley Professor Catherine Cole’s open letter to UC students has been posted with the call for a faculty walkout here: http://berkeleycuts.org/

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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