Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

The Academic Work Force, 2007

Posted on December 12, 2008 | Comments Off on The Academic Work Force, 2007

Inside Higher Ed: The Academic Work Force, 2007

It’s hard to predict what’s ahead in terms of the economics of higher education — whether a long-term downturn will force colleges and universities to prune their expenditures, their academic and extracurricular offerings, and/or their staffs.

But one thing is for certain: The base from which colleges will be making staffing decisions, if they are forthcoming, has continued its steady expansion, with the number of faculty members and professional staff rising faster than other sorts of campus employees, a new report from the U.S. Education Department shows.

The annual study, “Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2007, and Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Faculty, 2007-08,” comes from the Institute for Education Sciences’ National Center for Education Statistics, and it is the primary source of information about the size, scope and shape of the academic work force.

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Posted in Faculty

The Adjunctification of English

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Comments Off on The Adjunctification of English

Inside Higher Ed: The Adjunctification of English

Without anyone paying much attention, professors have substantially been replaced by part timers and those off the tenure track when it comes to teaching English and writing to undergraduates.

That’s the theme of “Education in the Balance: A Report on the Academic Workforce in English,” issued Wednesday by the Modern Language Association and its Association of Departments of English.

Among the report’s findings:

* Only 42 percent of all faculty members teaching English in four-year colleges and universities and only 24 percent in two-year colleges hold tenured or tenure-track positions.
* Part-time faculty members now make up 40 percent of the faculty teaching English in four-year institutions and 68 percent in two-year institutions. (Part timers are only a subset of those off the tenure track since, for several years now, an increasing share of the adjunct population works full time at a single institution.)
* Huge gaps exist in salaries between tenured and non-tenure track faculty members teaching English, although full-time adjuncts have seen salary growth in recent years. Per-course payments for part-time instructors have been relatively flat over the last eight years.

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Posted in Contingent labor, Faculty

When Ads Enter the Classroom, It’s a Deal With El Diablo

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Comments Off on When Ads Enter the Classroom, It’s a Deal With El Diablo

The Chronicle: When Ads Enter the Classroom, It’s a Deal With El Diablo

First it was the long-distance phone calls. Professors in the history department at the University of Montana at Missoula were told this past spring that the university could no longer foot the bill. Then the annual travel budget was slashed to $350 per person — enough to get as far as Lansing, Mich., but just barely, as the department chairman, Richard Drake, puts it.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

New School Faculty Votes No Confidence in Kerrey

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Comments Off on New School Faculty Votes No Confidence in Kerrey

The New York Times: New School Faculty Votes No Confidence in Kerrey

Bob Kerrey, the Vietnam veteran and former Nebraska governor and senator known for his acerbic tongue and iconoclastic tendencies, was handed an overwhelming vote of no-confidence on Wednesday afternoon by the senior faculty at the New School, the Greenwich Village university he has run since 2001.

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Posted in Administration

New School Faculty Senate Votes No Confidence in President Bob Kerrey

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Comments Off on New School Faculty Senate Votes No Confidence in President Bob Kerrey

The Chronicle News Blog: New School Faculty Senate Votes No Confidence in President Bob Kerrey

In a nearly unanimous vote this afternoon, senior faculty members at the New School approved a motion of no confidence in the institution’s president, Bob Kerrey. The university’s trustees, however, apparently were unmoved by that vote. The trustees also gathered today, at a regularly scheduled meeting, and the university released a statement afterward saying they had unanimously expressed confidence in Mr. Kerrey’s leadership.

The faculty vote took place at an emergency closed-door meeting of the Faculty Senate. According to a summary of the results — released by Jim Miller, a professor of political science who is a co-chair of the senate — 74 faculty members voted for the no-confidence resolution against Mr. Kerrey, two voted no, and one abstained. Faculty members also overwhelmingly voted no confidence in the leadership of the institution’s executive vice president, James Murtha.

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Posted in Administration

Ohio: U of Akron trustee indicted

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Comments Off on Ohio: U of Akron trustee indicted

Akron Beacon Journal: UA trustee is indicted

Attorney Jack Morrison Jr. denies ethical violations in sale of son’s home

University of Akron Trustee Jack Morrison Jr. faces seven counts of allegedly violating Ohio’s ethics laws for his role in the purchase of his son’s home by the university.

Morrison, who is also chairman of the Summit County Board of Elections and a prominent local attorney, was indicted by a Summit County grand jury on the misdemeanors, authorities announced Wednesday.

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Posted in Administration, Legal issues

The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff

Posted on December 10, 2008 | Comments Off on The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff

AlterNet: The Best and the Brightest Have Led America Off a Cliff

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted December 9, 2008.

Don’t expect the so-called experts to fix it either. They can’t. They are loyal to the decaying political and financial systems that empowered them.

The multiple failures that beset the country, from our mismanaged economy to our shredded constitutional rights to our lack of universal health care to our imperial debacles in the Middle East, can be laid at the feet of our elite universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, along with most other elite schools, do a poor job educating students to think. They focus instead, through the filter of standardized tests, enrichment activities, advanced-placement classes, high-priced tutors, swanky private schools and blind deference to all authority, on creating hordes of competent systems managers. The collapse of the country runs in a direct line from the manicured quadrangles and halls in places like Cambridge, Mass., Princeton, N.J., and New Haven, Conn., to the financial and political centers of power.

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Posted in Economics

English Departments Are Increasingly Staffed by Full-Time Lecturers

Posted on December 10, 2008 | Comments Off on English Departments Are Increasingly Staffed by Full-Time Lecturers

The Chronicle News Blog: English Departments Are Increasingly Staffed by Full-Time Lecturers

A rising share of English courses at colleges are taught by full-time, nontenured lecturers who generally lack doctorates, according to a report released today by the Association of Departments of English and the Modern Language Association.

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Posted in Contingent labor, Faculty

TA Strike Called Off at Cal State

Posted on December 10, 2008 | Comments Off on TA Strike Called Off at Cal State

Inside Higher Ed: TA Strike Called Off at Cal State

The union that represents 6,800 teaching assistants at the California State University System late Tuesday called off plans to strike today, agreeing instead to a mediation offer from Darrell Steinberg, president of state’s Senate. Just hours earlier, the union — a United Auto Workers unit — had pledged that a strike would start today, accusing the university system of not bargaining in good faith. The university says that a strike would have been illegal and that the union’s demands are too expensive during a state budget crisis.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Taking One (Percent) for the Team

Posted on December 10, 2008 | Comments Off on Taking One (Percent) for the Team

Inside Higher Ed: Taking One (Percent) for the Team

At Brandeis University, faculty are considering whether to voluntarily forgo 1 percent of their salaries next year to prevent possible layoffs of support staff.

“It’s not painless for us, but it’s not a huge hit to take,” said William Flesch, the Faculty Senate chair and a professor of English literature.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

Harvard freezes faculty salaries, cuts searchers

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Harvard freezes faculty salaries, cuts searchers

The Harvard Crimson: FAS Freezes All Faculty Salaries, Cuts Searches

In letter to department chairs, top FAS deans cite need for extensive cut-backs

A freeze on salary raises for all faculty and non-union staff members as well as a hold on the bulk of current searches for tenure-track and tenured faculty were among the cost-cutting measures announced in a letter circulated to department chairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences yesterday afternoon.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

Brandeis profs asked to take pay cuts

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Brandeis profs asked to take pay cuts

The Justice: Profs could take pay cuts

The Faculty Senate proposed that Arts and Sciences faculty could volunteer to take a 1-percent salary cut in order to prevent two to three other staff layoffs that would have occurred as a result of the projected gaps in the University’s fiscal year 2009 operating budget.

“Some of us felt that given Brandeis’ traditional, historical commitment to social justice, those faculty members whose jobs were secure might want to take a little bit of the burden for balancing the budget off the backs of staff members whose jobs aren’t [secure],” Chair of the Faculty Senate Prof. William Flesch (ENG) wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

Former SUNY Chancellor Is Chosen to Lead Kentucky’s Postsecondary Council

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Former SUNY Chancellor Is Chosen to Lead Kentucky’s Postsecondary Council

The Chronicle News Blog: Former SUNY Chancellor Is Chosen to Lead Kentucky’s Postsecondary Council

Robert L. King, who resigned in 2005 as chancellor of the State University of New York, has been named president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, the state’s coordinating board for higher education.

Mr. King takes over for Richard A. Crofts, who has served as interim president since June, when Brad Cowgill resigned after a little more than eight months on the job. In fact, Mr. Cowgill had been appointed president after eight months as an interim leader, but he stepped down two weeks later amid a dispute over his hiring.

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Posted in Administration

New School Faculty Members May Hold No-Confidence Vote in Bob Kerrey

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on New School Faculty Members May Hold No-Confidence Vote in Bob Kerrey

The Chronicle News Blog: New School Faculty Members May Hold No-Confidence Vote in Bob Kerrey

Senior faculty members at the New School, extremely disturbed by the abrupt departure of the New York institution’s provost, will meet on Wednesday afternoon in a hastily called session of the Faculty Senate, and may hold a vote of no confidence in the president, Bob Kerrey, the former U.S. senator.

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Posted in Administration

Rhode Island: Higher education retirees were offered lucrative incentives

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Rhode Island: Higher education retirees were offered lucrative incentives

Providence Journal: Higher education retirees were offered lucrative incentives

PROVIDENCE — Over the last 25 years, former Rhode Island College President John Nazarian donated hundreds of thousands of dollars — and three baby grand pianos — to the school where he spent his undergraduate years, his 54-year academic career and his adult life.

And when he retired in June at the age of 75, the college gave Nazarian something back: a $205,008 severance check.

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Posted in Administration, Salary/Economic Benefits

Defining Adjunct Rights

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Defining Adjunct Rights

Inside Higher Ed: Defining Adjunct Rights

The American Association of University Professors is best known for its statements on tenure and academic freedom. In recent years, however, the association has asserted that its principles apply to those off the tenure track, and it has adopted specific guidelines about the treatment of adjuncts.

Today, the association will for the first time cite those standards on adjuncts’ right to fair consideration for reappointment to issue a report finding an institution — North Idaho College — in violation of the AAUP standards. The case involves a long-term adjunct who was denied reappointment following the college’s clash with her husband and a controversy in which some of her comments offended conservative students. The AAUP says she was denied appropriate due process in ways that endanger academic freedom.

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Posted in Contingent labor

AAUP Takes Up Case of Part-Time Professor Let Go in Idaho

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on AAUP Takes Up Case of Part-Time Professor Let Go in Idaho

The Chronicle: AAUP Takes Up Case of Part-Time Professor Let Go in Idaho

A report by the American Association of University Professors on the case of a former adjunct instructor of English is based on the organization’s first investigation into alleged violations of its new rules regarding part-time professors.

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Posted in Contingent labor

Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit Over Scholar’s Visa Denial to Proceed

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit Over Scholar’s Visa Denial to Proceed

The Chronicle: Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit Over Scholar’s Visa Denial to Proceed

A federal court in Boston ruled that it has the power to review whether the Bush administration has a valid reason for denying a visa to Adam Habib, a South African political scientist.

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Posted in Government, Legal issues

Wisconsin: UW System faculty pay increase passes regents

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Wisconsin: UW System faculty pay increase passes regents

Badger Herald: UW System faculty pay increase passes regents

The 2.5 percent increase for University of Wisconsin System faculty and academic staff for 2009-11 was approved by the Board of Regents Friday and will now move to the UW Department of Administration for approval.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

California: Video and Forum on Puerto Rican Teachers Union

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on California: Video and Forum on Puerto Rican Teachers Union

IndyBay.org: : Video and Forum on Puerto Rican Teachers Union

The California Peace and Freedom Party is co-sponsoring a special presentation and short video by Puerto Rican film maker Pedro Angel Rivera, who will speak about the struggle of the Puerto Rican teachers’ union (FMPR) to maintain its independence and its right to strike.

Pedro Angel Rivera is a labor film maker in Puerto Rico who won recognition with his films “Operation Bootstrap” and “Plena Is Song, Plena Is Work.” He is now producing labor videos for the FMPR and will screen a short video on the recent teachers’ struggle.

The FMPR teachers union recently defeated an attempt by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to replace them as the bargaining agent for Puerto Rican teachers. This raid followed the decertification of the union by the government of Puerto Rico for conducting an island-wide strike in February against attempts to undermine public education. The Peace and Freedom Party regards the FMPR’s successful resistance to this takeover attempt as an important victory for the working class as a whole.

December 7, 2008 700 PM
522 Valencia St. 3rd Fl (near 16th St.)
San Francisco, CA Donation Requested

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes