Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

Iraqi teachers’ struggle

Posted on March 30, 2009 | Comments Off on Iraqi teachers’ struggle

Unionbook.org: Update on Iraqi teachers’ struggle

The Iraqi teachers Union (ITU) held its second national protest on 28 March 2009 with over 500 protesters. The ITU protest attracted Iraqi media, and support from Iraqi trade unions and civil society organisations such as the Association of Political Prisoners (victims of former regime).

The ITU protest carried the following slogans:

*Respect the Iraqi constitution.

*The ITU reject the Iraqi government interference in the internal affairs of the union and call on it to cease its undemocratic attempts to take control of the ITU.

*The union shall hold elections only under its internal rules and in the presence of judge

*Support civil society organisations. Allow them to do their job to strength democracy.

The ITU (please see statement below) is struggling along side the people of Iraq and other Iraqi sister unions to consolidate the principles foundation of democratic culture and thus is working to galvanizing and shape Iraqi public opinion against any breach or deviation from the Iraqi constitution and the rule of law. The union will stand firm against all attempts to turn the unions into tools in the hands of the executive and the ruling political power which are inspired from the culture of authoritarian regime that is still rooted in the heart and mind of the ‘champions’ of the current crisis facing the ITU.

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Posted in K-12 issues

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Take that Jim Calhoun!

Posted on March 30, 2009 | Comments Off on Take that Jim Calhoun!

The Chronicle Review: March Money Madness: The Coaches vs. the Professors

Commentary

Thomas Cottle: In March Money Madness, It’s Coaches vs. Professors

College basketball’s March Madness has come at a time when one prominent coach’s salary has been held up for inspection. Apparently, the fact that the $1.6-million annual income of the University of Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun makes him the highest-paid public employee in his state has rankled some people. Or are they more upset that he was caught off guard at a postgame news conference and appeared somewhat haughty?

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Posted in Commentary

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UK: Pay boost for university leaders

Posted on March 29, 2009 | Comments Off on UK: Pay boost for university leaders

World University News: UK: Pay boost for university leaders

Many British vice-chancellors are paid as much if not more than the Prime Minister. But not, of course, as much as Premier League footballers – or failed bankers. Latest figures collated and audited by accountants Grant Thornton on behalf of Times Higher Education show the average university head earned £193,970 (US$282,000) (including benefits but not pension contributions) in 2007-08, a 9% increase on the previous year, and a steeper rise than in the previous two years. Gordon Brown was paid £194,250 last year for running the country.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

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CHINA: Imprisoned historian released but refused travel

Posted on March 29, 2009 | Comments Off on CHINA: Imprisoned historian released but refused travel

World University News: CHINA: Imprisoned historian released but refused travel

Tohti Tunyaz, a Uighur historian and writer from China, was released last month after spending 11 years in prison. Tohti was sentenced for “illegally acquiring state secrets” after receiving a copy of a list of documents relating to the second East Turkestan Independence Movement and pre-1949 Xinjiang history. He was also convicted of “instigating national disunity” after allegedly publishing a book in Japan titled The Inside Story of the Silk Road that was claimed to promote ethnic separatism.

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Posted in Academic freedom

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FRANCE: Strikes continue despite teacher-training concession

Posted on March 29, 2009 | Comments Off on FRANCE: Strikes continue despite teacher-training concession

World University News: FRANCE: Strikes continue despite teacher-training concession

Striking lecturers and researchers are continuing their eight-week stoppage, despite a further concession by Education Minister Xavier Darcos over teacher-training reform. The biggest higher education union also rejected an amended decree modifying academics’ job status at a meeting with Higher Education and Research Minister Valérie Pécresse.

Up to 30,000 protesting lecturers, researchers and students – joined by two university presidents – demonstrated on Tuesday in Paris and other major towns, while during the week individual institutions continued organising protest actions such as holding lectures in public places, local demonstrations and boycotting administrative duties.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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Kentucky: Court hears Felner’s interview

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Comments Off on Kentucky: Court hears Felner’s interview

Courier-Journal: Court hears Felner’s interview
Defense seeks to block its use

During a six-hour-plus interview with federal investigators last summer, former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner went from being described as confident by investigators and a colleague to saying he was “freaked” and asking if he could go to jail.

“I’m starting to feel like I’m getting thrown under the bus,” Felner said in a tape-recorded conversation with investigators that was played in court today during a hearing to decide if comments he made during the interview can be used against him in a criminal trial.

Felner, 58, faces 10 counts of mail fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and income-tax evasion after a federal grand jury indicted him in October.

A colleague, Thomas Schroeder, 51, of Port Byron, Ill., also is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

The indictment accuses the two of fraudulently obtaining nearly $2.3million in grant and contract money from UofL and the University of Rhode Island. Both pleaded not guilty in October and were released on unsecured bonds.

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Posted in Legal issues

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Adelphi pays $300G to settle sex discrimination suit

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Comments Off on Adelphi pays $300G to settle sex discrimination suit

Newsday: Adelphi pays $300G to settle sex discrimination suit

Adelphi University has agreed to salary hikes and payments totaling more than $300,000 to several female professors as part of a settlement of a federal gender discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Tuesday.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

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SU president’s contract not renewed

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Comments Off on SU president’s contract not renewed

Advocate: SU president’s contract not renewed

The Southern University Board of Supervisors voted 11-5 not to renew Southern President Ralph Slaughter’s contract. Though the board found Slaughter’s job performance satisfactory, they decided to meet again on April 15 to determine if he would be put on administrative leave until his contract expires on June 30.

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Posted in Administration

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One Man’s War on the Taliban

Posted on March 27, 2009 | 1 comment

The Chronicle: One Man’s War on the Taliban

A retired Canadian judge announced last month that he was “retaliating” against the Taliban by seeking to prevent students of “Islamic background” from receiving scholarships endowed in his name.

Paul I.B. Staniszewski told the television network CTV that he had asked the University of Windsor and York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School to make such students ineligible for his scholarships.

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Posted in Politics

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Economic Downturn Limits Conference Travel

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Comments Off on Economic Downturn Limits Conference Travel

The Chronicle: Economic Downturn Limits Conference Travel

Attendance is down at many academic and professional conferences in higher education this year, and next year’s numbers are expected to be far worse, as campus budgets take further beatings. With many colleges limiting travel to professors or administrators who are speaking at events they’re attending, will anyone be left in the audience?

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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British Columbia: Ogden Case Settled, CAUT Ends Inquiry

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Comments Off on British Columbia: Ogden Case Settled, CAUT Ends Inquiry

CAUT Bulletin: Ogden Case Settled, CAUT Ends Inquiry

CAUT’s inquiry in the case of criminologist Russel Ogden of Kwantlen Polytechnic University came to an end in January when a mutually agreeable settlement was reached by Ogden, the university and the Kwantlen faculty association.

CAUT set up a special committee of inquiry last June after the university notified Ogden that he was to stop his research on suicide and assisted suicide, even though the re­search had been approved by Kwantlen’s research ethics board. Ogden was told not to engage “in any illegal activity, including attending at an assisted death.” Ogden disputed the claim that his research involved illegal conduct.

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Posted in Academic freedom

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Settlement in Dispute on Academic Freedom and Assisted Suicide

Posted on March 27, 2009 | 1 comment

Inside Higher Ed: Settlement in Dispute on Academic Freedom and Assisted Suicide

Russel Ogden will be able to resume his research on assisted suicide, according to a settlement announced by the Canadian Association of University Teachers. Ogden, a sociologist at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, has written about assisted suicides and observed many of them. An ethics review board at his university had approved the research, but Kwantlen ordered him to stop any studies that involved observing suicides. While suicide is not illegal in Canada, assisting a suicide is illegal, and the university has equated Ogden’s proposal to observe assisted suicides with assisting suicides himself. Many professors in Canada backed him, arguing that observing something is not the same as endorsing or participating in it — and noting that many sociology studies involve observing illegal activities. The Canadian Association of University Teachers set up a committee to study the matter last year. The association’s announcement of a settlement in the case said that Ogden is now permitted to engage in the research approved by the university’s ethics review board.

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Posted in Academic freedom

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Universities Are Betraying Their Central Mission

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Universities Are Betraying Their Central Mission


This poster for Israeli Apartheid Week was taken down by staff at Carleton University & the University of Ottawa.

CAUT Bulletin: Universities Are Betraying Their Central Mission

Over the past few weeks, CAUT has become aware of a number of disturbing cases in which university administrations have limited or suppressed debate on controversial issues. Whether it is banning posters or noisy demonstrations, we believe such heavy-handed actions constitute a clear threat to the purpose of post-secondary education.

Not surprisingly, the failures involve bitterly contentious issues. One is Middle East politics. Last month Carleton University and the University of Ottawa banned a student organization poster for Israeli Apartheid Week because the universities felt it too provocative. The poster, by noted political cartoonist Carlos Latuff, shows a stylized Israeli warplane firing a missile at a child holding a teddy bear and standing on ground emblazoned with the word “Gaza.” York University has gone even farther, invoking a noise policy to justify handing club suspensions and fines to student organizations that held counter-protests for and against Israeli

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Posted in Free speech

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What if all the students dry up? The economy, climate change and virtual learning could leave university buildings standing empty

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on What if all the students dry up? The economy, climate change and virtual learning could leave university buildings standing empty

The Guardian: What if all the students dry up?

The economy, climate change and virtual learning could leave university buildings standing empty

Let us suppose that instead of the UK being a net importer of students, this situation were reversed. What would happen to our universities over the next 20 years if the flow of young people coming to study from overseas dried up and increasing numbers of home students chose to go abroad for their higher education?

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Posted in Students

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Graduate students hoping for tenure-track positions face bleak prospects as universities cut budgets and freeze hiring

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Graduate students hoping for tenure-track positions face bleak prospects as universities cut budgets and freeze hiring

Globe and Mail: Black days for those dreaming of the ivory tower

Graduate students hoping for tenure-track positions face bleak prospects as universities cut budgets and freeze hiring

McGill graduate student Ashley Burgoyne has one word to sum up the outlook this spring for freshly minted PhDs with dreams of getting on the tenure track. Scary.
McGill graduate student Ashley Burgoyne, an expert in music technology, worries that he won’t find full-time work at a university. (John Morstad for The Globe and Mail)

McGill graduate student Ashley Burgoyne, an expert in music technology, worries that he won’t find full-time work at a university.

The economic crisis that has gripped the globe is hitting campuses across the country. Universities are cutting budgets, and for many schools that means putting hiring plans into deep freeze. Add to that federal cuts to research funding, a new reluctance by senior faculty to retire, and dwindling endowment funds to support scholars, and the picture grows grim.

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Posted in Job market

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Michigan: Bill Ayers protested at Oakland University event

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Michigan: Bill Ayers protested at Oakland University event

Detroit News: Bill Ayers protested at Oakland University event
Co-founder of group that bombed federal buildings shares education reform views.

ROCHESTER — Bill Ayers came to Michigan to talk about the future of education reform in the United States, but the anti-war activist, who participated in a campaign of bombing public buildings during the 1960s and ’70s, could not escape his past.

A line of 20 protesters with signs filled the back wall of a lecture hall at Oakland University on Tuesday as Ayers gave a brief talk on democracy and education.

Some booed when Ayers entered the room, while about 170 OU students, faculty and alumni applauded the college professor who discussed what he termed “savage inequities” in education that affect minorities, women and gays.

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Posted in Protests

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Having kids costly for educated moms

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Having kids costly for educated moms

Globe and Mail: Having kids costly for educated moms

Highly educated women face a much more severe loss of earning power when they have children compared to mothers with less education, says a report published yesterday by Statistics Canada.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

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Anti-abortion activists defy university

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Anti-abortion activists defy university

The Calgary Sun: Anti-abortion activists defy university

Potential new trespassing charges didn’t scare away anti-abortion crusaders who are back at the University of Calgary campus with their controversial display.

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Posted in Free speech

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Mid-Level Administrator Pay Up 3.5%

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Mid-Level Administrator Pay Up 3.5%

Inside Higher Ed: Mid-Level Administrator Pay Up 3.5%

The median salary increase for mid-level administrative positions in higher education for 2008-9 is 3.5 percent, according to data being released today by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Increases are larger at private than at public institutions, and smaller at doctoral universities than in other sectors of higher education.

Because the Consumer Price Index increased by about 3.8 percent during this period, median salaries for these positions did not keep pace with inflation. And that may be understating things. The CUPA-HR data were based on salaries in place on October 15, 2008 — which is before many colleges and universities announced some combination of furloughs, pay cuts, pay freezes and layoffs that have cut significantly into the take-home pay of many college and university employees. CUPA-HR releases a series of salary reports each year around this time — and has already reported that the median increase for faculty members at four-year colleges and universities this year is 3.7 percent and that the median increase for senior administrators is 4.0 percent.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

The Chronicle: Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

Virginia Tech has come under criticism from some outside groups for a set of new guidelines that, the critics say, appear to require faculty members to show a commitment to diversity as part of their bids for tenure and promotion.

The critics, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, say the guidelines establish a “loyalty oath” that violates professors’ academic freedom.

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Posted in Tenure & Promotion

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