The Chronicle: After the Crash, Scholars Say, Higher Education Must Refocus on Its Public Mission
The economic crisis weighed on the minds of the 200 scholars who gathered here last week for a national conference of the Network for Academic Renewal, a project of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. But even as the federal government announced that 660,000 more jobs had been lost in March, several of the speakers here saw—or perhaps grasped for—reasons for hope.
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Posted in Academics
Tagged Academics, Economy, Job market
Baltimore Sun: UM students to screen porn film
Canceled movie leads protesters to plan own showings on campuses
Students at state universities, upset that a screening of a pornographic movie at the University of Maryland, College Park, was canceled, are fighting back: They are organizing their own screenings of the hard-core film as a gesture of protest.
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Posted in Students
Tagged porn, Protests, U of Maryland
The Chronicle News Blog: Ward Churchill’s $1 Damage Award Said to Have Been Product of Jury Compromise
Thursday’s jury verdict in Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado has given rise to a mystery: How is it that a jury could rule that the university had acted illegally in firing Mr. Churchill, and yet still award him only $1 in damages?
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Academic fraud, Academic freedom, Free speech, Legal issues, Tenure & Promotion, Ward Churchill
The New York Times: Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired
DENVER — A jury found on Thursday that the University of Colorado had wrongfully dismissed a professor who drew national attention for an essay in which he called some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks “little Eichmanns.”
Ward Churchill, who was a tenured professor at the University of Colorado, left, walked with his lead attorney David Lane out of the courtroom after a jury ruled that he was wrongly fired by school administrators, on Thursday.
But the jury, which deliberated for a day and a half, awarded only $1 in damages to the former professor, Ward L. Churchill, a tenured faculty member at the university’s campus in Boulder since 1991 who was chairman of the ethnic studies department.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Academic freedom, Free speech, Legal issues, Plagiarism, Tenure & Promotion, Ward Churchill
The Chronicle: Amid Talk of High Ideals, Arguments Close in Ward Churchill’s Lawsuit
The trial in Ward Churchill’s wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the University of Colorado drew to a close on Wednesday with the embattled professor’s lawyer telling jurors that nothing less than the fate of the Constitution rested in their hands.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged 9/11, Colorado, Legal issues, Plagiarism, Tenure & Promotion, Ward Churchill
Inside Higher Ed: Following the Money in New Mexico
At the University of New Mexico, the salary budget for upper administrators and associated professional positions, including directors, grew by 71 percent – in raw numbers an increase of more than $4 million – from 2002 to 2008. Compensation just for those positions above the level of dean (i.e. associate vice presidents and above) grew 42.1 percent between 2002 and 2007, and another 12.3 percent by 2008.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged Administration, New Mexico, no confidence vote, Salary/Economic Benefits
Chicago Tribune: Chicago State University: Faculty, students criticize 2 finalists for president as political insiders
Disappointed staff, students call them political insiders
When Chicago State University President Elnora Daniel stepped down last year, faculty and students hoped a new president would bring a fresh start to the troubled university.
Instead many on the South Side campus are criticizing the two finalists as political insiders: Wayne Watson, chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, and Carol Adams, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services. Some students plan to wear black in protest when the finalists visit the campus for meetings this month.
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Posted in Administration
Tagged Chicago, Job searches, no confidence vote, Politics, Students, University presidents
The Denver Post: Churchill jury returns today
A Denver jury will continue deliberating the fate of Ward Churchill’s civil case against the University of Colorado today after meeting for a half-day Wednesday without reaching a verdict.
The four women and two men listened to the case for four weeks and heard 45 witnesses testify in the courtroom of Denver Chief District Judge Larry J. Naves. Two male alternates were sent home after closing arguments Tuesday.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged 9/11, Colorado, Faculty, Legal issues, Plagiarism, Tenure & Promotion, Ward Churchill
Enterprise Record: Chico State University President Zingg injured in assault
CHICO — Chico State University President Paul Zingg suffered minor injuries when he was assaulted by a man at about 10:20 a.m. Wednesday in his office in Kendall Hall.
The alleged assailant, identified as Chico resident Abe Baxter Stutts Jr., 42, reportedly entered Zingg’s office suite and asked an employee if he could “speak with the person in charge.”
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Posted in Administration
Tagged assualts, crime, University presidents
Inside Higher Ed: New Strategy at Wisconsin
The University of Wisconsin at Madison might be called a victim of its own successes. The state’s flagship institution has recruited prominent faculty, but has been forced to enter bidding wars with wealthy private institutions just to retain them. On top of that challenge, budget cuts and cost increases have made it difficult for the university to fill positions vacated by retiring baby boomers, leaving faculty lines open and forcing the university to cut course offerings.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Faculty
The Chronicle News Blog: Employees Revolt Over Layoffs at U. of New Mexico Press
Employees at the University of New Mexico Press learned yesterday that three of their colleagues would be let go at the end of April and that nine more positions — in order fulfillment and customer service — might soon be outsourced. That kind of news is all too common these days. More unusual is what happened next: This afternoon, the employees issued their own press release, alleging that the press’s director, Luther Wilson, was partly to blame for the situation. They also questioned whether outsourcing could solve the press’s financial woes.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged Layoffs, outsourcing, Protests, University presses
Los Angeles Times: UC San Diego sends wrong e-mail to rejected students
UC San Diego Admissions Director Mae Brown said this morning that an “administrative error” was responsible for a bogus e-mail that went out to 28,000 students congratulating them on their admission and welcoming them to the campus.
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Posted in Administration, Students
Tagged Admissions, Students
Boston Globe: BC won’t air Ayers lecture by satellite
Decision frustrates student organizers
Boston College, citing pressure from Brighton residents and Boston police officers, refused to allow former radical William Ayers to deliver a student-sponsored lecture via satellite yesterday, frustrating student organizers who accused the college of sacrificing academic ideals to assuage public anger.
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Posted in Free speech
Tagged Bill Ayers, Boston College, Free speech
The Olympian: 7,000 jobs could be axed to close $9 billion budget gap
Education takes a big hit in plan from Senate Democrats
The Senate Democrats’ budget plan outlined Monday would cut more than $3 billion from state programs, including big slices from public schools, universities and health care over the next two years.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Government, Job cuts
Seattle Times: 6,000 UW workers’ personal information at risk
About 6,000 University of Washington employees were notified this week that their names and Social Security numbers were on a parking-management computer system that was hacked.
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Posted in Safety & Security
Tagged privacy
Star-Telegram: Colleges line up against allowing guns on campuses
AUSTIN — Texas universities are firing back against a bill that would permit students to carry handguns on campus.
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Posted in Working conditions
Tagged Government, Guns, Texas
The Sunday Telegraph: Broke Australian university students marrying for money
STRUGGLING Australian university students are getting married for money, exploiting a legal loophole to qualify for government assistance to survive.
Tertiary students have become so desperate for financial support that some as young as 19 are resorting to marrying flatmates, friends and ex-partners so they can be classed as an independent and receive Youth Allowance.
The New York Times: In Scotland, New Leadership Crumbles Old Barrier
THIS quiet town on the North Sea is the home of golf and the storied Royal and Ancient club, which makes the rules for the sport but does not admit women as members. For the 255 years since the club’s founding this was not a problem. It is now, however, since another of the town’s renowned institutions, the University of St. Andrews, named Louise Richardson, an Irish-American, as its president; her two immediate predecessors had been made honorary members of the golf club.
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Posted in Administration
Tagged University presidents
Mercury News: New UC admissions policy gives white students a better chance, angers Asian-American community
A new University of California admissions policy, adopted to increase campus diversity, could actually increase the number of white students on campuses while driving down the Asian population.
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Posted in Students
Tagged Admissions, Race, University of California
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Higher Education’s Coming Leadership Crisis
The Chronicle: Higher Education’s Coming Leadership Crisis
By ARJUN APPADURAI
What the current recession, with its associated fears, frauds, and free falls, will ultimately mean for American higher education is still uncertain. Yet some things are clear: Many colleges and universities are seeing drops in applications, and several are reconsidering tenure and other forms of long-term faculty autonomy and job security. Many are freezing salaries and stopping or slowing new hires. Others are scaling back plans to build new facilities or invest in expensive programs. Still others are taking drastic steps, such as the sale of their art collections, to deal with shortfalls in their operating budgets.
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Posted in Commentary
Tagged Administration, Commentary, leadership