Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

CU to ‘vigorously challenge’ Churchill’s reinstatement

Daily Camera: CU to ‘vigorously challenge’ Churchill’s reinstatement

BOULDER, Colo. — The University of Colorado will “vigorously challenge” Ward Churchill’s effort to get his job back in the school’s ethnic studies department, a CU spokesman said Thursday.

Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for the CU system, said the university is relying on its findings that Churchill engaged in repeated and flagrant academic misconduct to support its stance that having the controversial former professor back on the Boulder campus is a “bad idea.”

Professor’s Dismissal for ‘Malicious Gossip’ Leads to AAUP Rebuke of Stillman College

The Chronicle: Professor’s Dismissal for ‘Malicious Gossip’ Leads to AAUP Rebuke of Stillman College

The American Association of University Professors says in a report being issued today that administrators at Stillman College, in Alabama, created a climate hostile to academic freedom and shared academic governance.

The private, historically black college’s president, Ernest McNealey, responded to the report Thursday with a written statement characterizing it as “a fictional account” based on foregone conclusions. He called the report the culmination of an effort to “intimidate and defame.”

Age-Discrimination Lawsuit in North Dakota Sent Back to Trial Court

The Chronicle News Blog: Age-Discrimination Lawsuit in North Dakota Sent Back to Trial Court

The North Dakota Supreme Court yesterday reversed a decision for the plaintiff in an age-discrimination suit involving North Dakota State University and sent the case back to trial court.
A new trial was needed, a majority of the judges said, because the district-court judge had used the wrong procedure in the original trial.

Wellesley College cuts 80 non-faculty jobs

Boston Globe: Wellesley College cuts 80 non-faculty jobs

Wellesley College is cutting its workforce by 80 employees through layoffs and early retirements, becoming the latest institution of higher education forced to make significant cuts in the dismal economy.

Kentucky: Felner said he used grants to build up company

Courier-Journal: Felner said he used grants to build up company
Ex-dean spoke to investigators

Former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner told federal investigators last summer that he and an Illinois colleague used federal grant money to invest in properties around the country because they were trying to build up a nonprofit company that they had created for educational research, according to a 320-page transcript of the interview.

Felner and his colleague, Thomas Schroeder of Port Byron, Ill., both have pleaded not guilty to federal charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.

AAUP Council Backs Churchill’s Reinstatement

Inside Higher Ed: AAUP Council Backs Churchill’s Reinstatement

The National Council of the American Association of University Professors has issued a statement calling for the reinstatement of Ward Churchill by the University of Colorado. The statement, in its entirety, is this: “We believe the disputes over Ward Churchill’s publications should have been allowed to work themselves out in traditional scholarly venues, not referred to disciplinary hearings. We believe Churchill should be reinstated to his faculty position at the University of Colorado.” A Colorado jury last week found that the University of Colorado did not fire Churchill as an ethnic studies professor on the Boulder campus for legitimate reasons, but for his political views. A judge will later determine whether Churchill can return to his tenured job. Typically, AAUP’s academic freedom committee issues findings about cases involving claims of wrongful termination, but Nelson noted that the National Council from time to time speaks out on its own, as it did in this case. Churchill was fired after the university found that he had engaged in numerous instances of scholarly misconduct.

You’re Nobody ’til You’re Snubbed

Inside Higher Ed: You’re Nobody ’til You’re Snubbed

What started as one professor’s spat with an esteemed medical journal has transformed into something of a branding opportunity for a fledgling medical school in Harrogate, Tenn.

The Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine opened its doors less than two years ago, but in recent weeks it has been getting press in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times. The articles concern a Lincoln Memorial professor who exposed conflicts of interest in an article published by the The Journal of the American Medical Association and subsequently provoked the wrath of JAMA’s editors for spreading his story to the media and another journal. Charges that the editors sought to intimidate Lincoln Memorial officials have prompted an investigation by the American Medical Association’s oversight committee, and the university has

Scrutiny and Standards for Branch Campuses

Inside Higher Ed: Scrutiny and Standards for Branch Campuses

The growing trend of North American colleges creating branches abroad threatens to erode the quality of higher education and to undercut the rights of faculty members, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the American Association of University Professors and the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

Controversial Tenure Case at Columbia U. May Be Over

The Chronicle News Blog: Controversial Tenure Case at Columbia U. May Be Over

It isn’t official, but word around Columbia University is that the controversial Palestinian scholar Joseph A. Massad will be awarded tenure.

Sudipta Kaviraj, chairman of the department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures, said in a telephone interview this afternoon that the proceedings involving Mr. Massad’s tenure case have not formally concluded. “When it is finished, the university writes to the department and writes to the individual concerned,” he said. “That hasn’t happened yet.”

Historically Black College Sued for Discriminating Against White Instructors

The Chronicle News Blog: Historically Black College Sued for Discriminating Against White Instructors

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued a historically black college on behalf of three white faculty members who said they were denied jobs or let go because of their race.

Federal officials today simultaneously announced the lawsuit and an agreement between the EEOC and Benedict College to settle the case. The institution said it would pay $55,000 to each of the instructors. The college also agreed to remind staff about its employment policies prohibiting discrimination, train administrators and faculty members, and make periodic reports to the EEOC.

AAUP Urges Faculty Role in Protecting Workers’ Rights at Overseas Campuses

The Chronicle: AAUP Urges Faculty Role in Protecting Workers’ Rights at Overseas Campuses

The American Association of University Professors and its Canadian counterpart jointly issued a statement on Wednesday calling on colleges with campuses abroad to protect the rights of overseas workers and give their faculty more say in planning foreign programs.

Princeton Slashes Its Budget Again and Freezes Salaries

The Chronicle News Blog: Princeton Slashes Its Budget Again and Freezes Salaries

Facing endowment losses more severe than anticipated, Princeton University will freeze salaries for tenured faculty members and staff members who earn more than $75,000 and slash its budget for the 2011 fiscal year by $80-million, the university’s president, Shirley M. Tilghman, announced this week.

Moldova Says Universities Will Pay for Protesters’ Damage to Government Buildings

mosnews.com: Students to pay for the mess in Chisinau, president says

Money to rebuild the pillaged parliament and presidential office buildings in Chisinau will come from funds earmarked for institutions of higher education, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has stated. A student protest against the Communist victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections spilled over into violence and the sacking of those facilities. More than 270 injuries also resulted from the unrest.

Professor Loses Discrimination Case Against Montana State U.

Bozeman Daily Chronicle: MSU prevails in gender discrimination lawsuit

A jury of eight women and four men ruled against a female Montana State University professor in Gallatin County District Court Friday after a ten-day trial in which the university’s promotion and pay policies were challenged based on allegations that the engineering professor was paid less than her male counterparts.

The jury was asked to determine whether tenured engineering professor Aleksandra Vinogradov was discriminated against because she is a woman and the discrimination was retaliation for complaining about her pay. Vinogradov was the first woman to be granted a tenured professorship in the university’s engineering department and was the only female professor there for several years.

Md. Lawmakers Vote to Require Reports on University Porn Policies

Washington Post: Md. Lawmakers Vote to Require Reports on University Porn Policies

Budget negotiators from the Maryland General Assembly agreed this afternoon to require reports from public universities about their policies on displaying or screening pornographic films. But the provision adopted by lawmakers does not make university funding contingent on the report.

French students hold university president

Press Association: Students hold university president

Students protesting proposed reforms have stormed the offices of a university in the French city of Rennes and are holding its president.

Officials said dozens of people stormed the office of the president of Rennes 2 University on Monday afternoon.

French Student Protesters Disrupt Paris’s Academic Core and Seize Presidents’ Offices Elsewhere

The Chronicle News Blog: French Student Protesters Disrupt Paris’s Academic Core and Seize Presidents’ Offices Elsewhere

On the eve of the two-week Easter holiday, French university students and academic staff members staged another mass demonstration in Paris today, blocking a major boulevard in the Latin Quarter, the historic core of academic life in the city, and shouting slogans evoking the mass protests that convulsed the country in May 1968, the news agency Reuters reported. Elsewhere in France, protesters this week appeared to step up their tactics, occupying administrative offices at two universities and “sequestering” their presidents.

Globe and Mail: Tuition attrition? Reposition

At Guelph, students are protesting because the university has cut women’s studies and ecology. At the University of Toronto, they’re outraged because the downtown campus is about to charge full-time fees for lighter course loads. York University has just survived a brutal strike by teaching assistants and contract faculty. And as everyone freezes hiring, PhDs have become a glut on the market.

This is just a taste of things to come. As endowment and pension funds shrivel up, Canada’s universities are facing a challenge they haven’t had since the mid-1990s: budget cuts. “It’s a perfect storm,” says education consultant Alex Usher, who figures that endowment funds alone have taken a $2-billion hit.

For the past few years, the postsecondary sector has enjoyed automatic funding increases of 5 per cent to 10 per cent a year. Now, some places will have to cut back 15 per cent over the next three years.

Tuition backers vow to press on in Colorado

Denver Post: Tuition backers vow to press on

The fight over whether to allow in-state tuition for high school students whose parents came to the United States illegally isn’t over; it’s just beginning.

Free-tuition proposal advances in Texas Legislature

Star-Telegram: Free-tuition proposal advances in Texas Legislature

AUSTIN — The House approved an amendment to a bill Tuesday that would give free tuition to children of military personnel when one or both of their parents are deployed in combat overseas.