Pantagraph.com: University student graduated against her will, kicked out of dorm
McClatchy Newspapers
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Brenda Councillor admits she was a rabble-rouser on the campus of Haskell Indian Nations University.
But it still came as a shock when she discovered over the holidays that she had had been graduated — and kicked out of her dorm room — against her will.
Albany Times-Union: $36,000 buys criticism for RPI
Amid layoffs, fee to Clinton group spurs questions on $1.1M for Kenya
TROY– Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is defending payments to Bill Clinton’s foundation as new details emerge about its plans to invest far more in an African education collaboration linked to one of the foundation’s ventures.
RPI drew criticism from a faculty leader and an alumnus when the institute surfaced on a long-secret list of foundation contributors that Clinton released in December. Rensselaer later said the money reflected not a donation but $36,000 in “membership fees” to join the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
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Posted in Administration
Tagged Administration, Layoffs
The Chronicle: Downturn Threatens the Faculty’s Role in Running Colleges
Professors are losing their grip. Tough economic times are leading administrators to propose swift changes that short-circuit faculty governance, long a prized principle that gives professors wide-ranging authority over educational matters.
The results, faculty members say, are hastily conceived plans that reorganize academic programs, decrease professors’ roles in shaping the curriculum, and jeopardize tenure applications — all done with little advice from the faculty, in the name of saving money.
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Posted in Governance
Tagged Governance
Tampa Tribune: Embattled Florida House Speaker Steps Down
Controversy-plagued House Speaker Ray Sansom, R-Destin, stepped down as state House speaker today, replaced by Speaker Pro Tem Larry Cretul, R-Ocala.
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Posted in Ethics, Government
Tagged Ethics, Government
Toronto Star: At last! York strike is over
The longest running strike at an English speaking Canadian university has come to an end.
The Liberal government, with the support of the Progressive Conservatives, voted for Bill 145 today, ending the three-month long York University strike.
The vote was 61 for and 8 against. All the nay votes came from members of the New Democratic Party who had vigorously opposed an imposed settlement to the strike.
The bill was introduced by Labour Minister Peter Fonseca. Royal assent – the final stamp of approval to make the bill law – was received at 1 p.m.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
Toronto Star: York U. president denies he was M.I.A.
York University president Mamdouh Shoukri denies he went missing during the longest campus strike in English-speaking Canada, and says he turned down Premier Dalton McGuinty’s personal request this week to return to negotiations because of fears it could put back-to-work legislation at risk.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
Toronto Star: York University strike ends today
Back-to-work bill set to be approved as union withdraws threat of court battle
It’s all over but the voting.
The provincial government will force an end this morning to the three-month strike at York University and allow 45,000 students to resume classes Monday with the expected passage of legislation ordering 3,340 contract professors back to work.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
The National: Strikers ordered back to class
TORONTO // Starting today, Nora Kharouba, a second-year psychology student, and more than 45,000 of her undergraduate peers return to their classes at York University for the first time in nearly three months.
A Nov 6 strike by the union representing 3,400 contract faculty and graduate students closed down Canada’s third-largest university in the city’s north-west.
Efforts by York’s administration and the union to negotiate a new contract did not produce an agreement, leading the province of Ontario on Thursday to legislate the strikers back to campus.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
Globe and Mail: Class on at York
TORONTO — For one week at least, students at Ontario’s York University will be spared tests, exams and demands by professors for overdue assignments.
But that was about the only break waiting for many of the 50,000 students who returned to class Monday to find a compressed school schedule, modified academic plans, the loss of reading week and a school year that extends into the first two days of June.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
The Chronicle News Blog: U. of New Mexico Faculty Will Consider No-Confidence Vote
Professors at the University of New Mexico have obtained enough petition signatures to call a general faculty meeting to consider a vote of no confidence in the university’s president and other leaders, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
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Posted in Administration
Tagged Administration, Faculty
Houston Chronicle: Most of A&M faculty shun cash awards
Faculty members at three Texas A&M University campuses could be $10,000 richer within a few weeks.
But most won’t be. They opted out of a controversial awards program that has drawn national disdain for introducing marketplace economics into the world of academia.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged merit pay, Salary/Economic Benefits
Soldiers of the Fields:The Bracero Program
Gilbert G. Gonzalez and Vivian Price, Co-Directors, Adrian Salinas, Editor, Xochitl Gonzalez, Assistant Editor
Hidden within the historical accounts of minorities, workers and immigrants in American society is the story of the millions of Mexico’s men and women who experienced the temporary contract worker program known as the Bracero Program. Established to replace an alleged wartime labor shortage, the Program was in fact intended to undermine farmworker unionization. Soldiers shows how several million men, in one of the largest state managed migrations in history, were imported from 1942 to 1964 to work as cheap, controlled and disposable workers. The documentary features the men speaking of their experiences, some even moved to tears when discussing their painful exploitation, and addresses what to expect from a new temporary contract worker program
“They’d get us up at four in the morning…then a truck arrived to take us to the fields. They’d put a bucket of water at each end of the field trench and we couldn’t drink water until we finished hoeing the trench. And you couldn’t rest, if you did they’d get after you. And that was everyday.” Alfredo Gutierrez Castaneda, El Modena, California
Soldiers also centers the voices of wives and families who were left behind as an untold number of villages were virtually emptied of men. Villages were forced to adjust as they supplied workers for the largest US agricultural corporations. As the villages emptied of men who left to be contracted (successfully or not), wives and families, not knowing if or when they would return or where they were going to work, were deeply distressed. Family separation became an ongoing periodic experience for many villages, and for many the separation became permanent. Many speak of wives/mothers crying at night, while attempting to hide their loneliness and sadness from their children. In contrast to the dramatic economic improvement the program promised, over the 22 years of the Bracero Program the economy and living standards of the villages remained virtually unchanged
“We stayed with our families alone, with the animals, with the little that we had to work the fields instead of the men in order to survive. Well, we felt very sad and alone… we suffered a lot.” Hilaria Garcia G., Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
The trailer can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/2904353 . Your contribution will help provide the needed funds to complete the editing of the documentary. All contributions should be made out in checks payable to:
Fund for Labor Culture and History, I.D. No. 94 3371542 (501 ( c ) 3)
Send to:
Fund for Labor Culture and History
224 Caselli Avenue,
San Francisco, CA 94114
Tampa Tribune: Embattled Florida House Speaker Steps Down
Controversy-plagued House Speaker Ray Sansom, R-Destin, stepped down as state House speaker today, replaced by Speaker Pro Tem Larry Cretul, R-Ocala.
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Posted in Government
Tagged Ethics, Government
BBC: Huge crowds join French strikes
Huge crowds have taken to the streets in France to protest over the handling of the economic crisis, causing disruption to rail and air services.
Unions said 2.5m workers had rallied to demand action to protect wages and jobs. Police put the total at 1m.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged France, Strikes & Labor Disputes
bnd.com: University of Missouri sues professor over patent
COLUMBIA, Mo. — A long-running dispute between the University of Missouri and one of its professors over intellectual property is headed to federal court.
The university system filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City against chemical engineering professor Galen Suppes. The system claims Suppes won’t release the rights to more than 30 inventions and 11 potential patents it says were developed in his Columbia campus labs.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Legal issues
Orlando Sentinel: UCF dean turns himself in to jail authorities
Jamal Nayfeh, UCF’s College of Engineering associate dean, is accused of charging more than $40,000 for personal items on his university-issued credit card.
The UCF dean accused of purchasing more than $40,000 worth of high-end electronics for personal use with his university-issued credit card has turned himself in to the Orange County Jail.
Jail spokesman Allen Moore said Jamal Nayfeh, 48, is with his lawyer at the jail and is paying his bond, which is set at $3,000, jail officials said. The arrest affidavit shows he faces charges of grand theft, false or misleading statements or supporting documents and fraudulent use of credit cards.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Legal issues
Inside Higher Ed: Museums and Academic Values
Arts advocates have been outraged this week by Brandeis University’s plan to sell all of the art in its museum as a way to raise money for the university. It turns out Brandeis isn’t the only university where critics are questioning the university’s commitment to important values for academic museums — although many may be relieved to know this other controversy does not involve a university selling off a collection. (Update on Brandeis: Its president on Wednesday indicated he might go along with keeping some of the art, but was committed to shutting the museum.)
newunionism.net: Beyond the numbers game
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again… the trade union movement is no longer in decline! Earlier we reported that from 1997 to 2003 it grew in more countries than not*. Since discovering this we have been collecting further data (see below) and measuring the trend and extent of change. Thanks to ongoing help from our readers, we can now update our report of 2007.
Toronto Sun: Cops arrest York U protesters
Four protesters were arrested after repeatedly failing to follow directions from Toronto Police officers. The provincial government has introduced back-to-work legislation to end the lengthy strike at York University. (GREG HENKENHAF/Sun Media)
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
The Canadian Press: York University union preparing for legal battle over back-to-work bill
TORONTO — The union representing striking workers at York University says it’s preparing a legal challenge of provincial legislation that would force teachers back to work.
CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan says the government-backed bill, which is expected to pass Thursday, won’t make the issues at the heart of the strike go away.
He says union lawyers are prepping their case, which can only be launched after the bill is passed.
Premier Dalton McGuinty wouldn’t say whether the government has a plan to deal with the potential roadblock.
Outside the provincial legislature, about 100 students and half-a-dozen parents held a rally calling on the province to get classes resumed quickly.
The spectre of court action didn’t seem to faze the students, many who said they’re confident they’ll be back in class Monday.
Globe and Mail: York University union threatens suit
The union representing striking workers at York University is threatening to launch a legal challenge against the Ontario government’s proposed back-to-work legislation if Premier Dalton McGuinty does not get the two sides back to the bargaining table.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Strikes & Labor Disputes
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