Category Archives: Faculty

Inside Higher Ed: Accusations and Suicides

For the second time this year, a professor at the University of Iowa has taken his own life after being accused of sexual harassment.

For the university, which also has faced a scandal involving alleged sexual assault by athletes and a devastating flood this year, the latest incident added to an unsettling semester.

On Wednesday, just a week after he was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit, Mark Weiger killed himself. He was a professor of music known for his oboe performances and teaching. A former student and teaching assistant’s lawsuit, filed in federal court against Weiger and the university, charged that he had a romantic relationship with another student, engaged in repeated classroom banter and touching of an inappropriate nature, and created a sexually hostile environment. According to the suit, the university conducted its own investigation of the situation last year, found Weiger had violated policies against sexual harassment, and then resolved the issue “informally.” He was found in his car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, with the garage door at his home closed. Authorities said he left a note.

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The Chronicle: A Second U. of Iowa Professor, Accused of Harassment, Kills Himself

A University of Iowa music professor who was accused in a federal lawsuit last week of sexually harassing one of his students killed himself on Wednesday, according to news reports.

Mark O. Weiger, who had taught oboe and chamber music at the university since 1988, was found dead in his car in his garage, The Des Moines Register reported. The professor left suicide notes, and an autopsy confirmed the cause of death as carbon-monoxide poisoning, police officials in Iowa City told the newspaper.

Mr. Weiger’s death follows that of a political-science professor, Arthur H. Miller, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound less than three months ago, after he was accused of offering better grades to female students in exchange for sexual favors (The Chronicle, August 24).

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Dear all,

I’m a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where I recently finished my Ph.D
on the philosophy of perception.

With a team of people from Stanford University and Cambridge University,
I’ve launched a website, www.academia.edu, which does two things:

– It shows researchers around the world in a ‘tree’ format, organized
according to which institution/department they are affiliated with.
– It enables academics to keep track of the latest news in their field –
the latest people, papers and talks.

We are hoping that Academia.edu will eventually list every academic in the
world — Faculty members, Post-Docs, and Graduate Students. People can add
their departments, and themselves, to the tree by clicking on the arrows.

The site is getting some traction. Over 14,000 academics have joined
Academia.edu in the last two months. Some professors on the site include:

– Richard Dawkins – http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardDawkins
– Stephen Hawking – http://cambridge.academia.edu/StephenHawking
– Paul Krugman – http://princeton.academia.edu/PaulKrugman
– Noam Chomsky – http://mit.academia.edu/NoamChomsky

We’re trying to spread the word about Academia.edu as much as possible. It
would be terrific if you could visit the site, and add yourself to your
department on the tree. If your university is not there, you can add it by
clicking on the arrows coming out of the university boxes.

Independent researchers – if you are a researcher that is not associated
with a university, I encourage you to add yourself to the “Independent
Researchers”

portion of the tree at http://independent.academia.edu

And do spread the word to your friends and colleagues if you can.

Many thanks,

Richard

Dr. Richard Price,
Prize Fellow, All Souls College
http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardPrice

Disclaimer: Academia.edu is not connected in any way with either All Souls
College, or Oxford University.

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The New York Times: Professors’ Liberalism Contagious? Maybe Not

April Kelly-Woessner and Matthew Woessner found teachers do not change students’ politics.

An article of faith among conservative critics of American universities has been that liberal professors politically indoctrinate their students. This conviction not only fueled the culture wars but has also led state lawmakers to consider requiring colleges to submit reports to the government detailing their progress in ensuring “intellectual diversity,” prompted universities to establish faculty positions devoted to conservatism and spurred the creation of a network of volunteer watchdogs to monitor “political correctness” on campuses.

Just a few weeks ago Michael Barone, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, warned in The Washington Times against “the liberal thugocracy,” arguing that today’s liberals seem to be taking “marching orders” from “college and university campuses.”

But a handful of new studies have found such worries to be overwrought. Three sets of researchers recently concluded that professors have virtually no impact on the political views and ideology of their students.

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Ottawa Citizen: E-mail attack on professor sparks U of O privacy debate

OTTAWA – An e-mail suggesting that a newly hired part-time professor had worked as a prostitute was widely circulated to University of Ottawa faculty and members of the media last week, creating a controversy that continues to gather momentum today.

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The Chronicle News Blog: India’s Faculty Shortage Worsens, With 50% of Positions Vacant

New Delhi — Even as India proceeds with plans to open dozens of new higher-education institutions, its faculty shortage seems to have worsened. A new government report says that about 50 percent of positions at federal and state-financed universities are vacant, The Statesman reported on Sunday.

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Commercial Appeal: 115 at University of Memphis will get buyout offer

Faculty, staff eyed in cost-saving effort

In a “novel” move that could save the University of Memphis $1.5 million, the Tennessee Board of Regents unanimously approved a plan Friday to offer voluntary buyouts to some faculty and staff as soon as Monday.

The board voted on the proposal Friday during its quarterly meeting at Dyersburg State Community College.

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South Bend Tribune: IUSB professor sanctioned for his conduct
University won’t say what penalties he faces, but he must do his own grading.

SOUTH BEND — An Indiana University South Bend professor has been sanctioned by the university after an investigation into his professional conduct.

Professor Otis B. Grant faces sanctions as a result of student complaints that he allowed a nonemployee to grade student work and access student academic records, a potential violation of federal privacy laws.

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South Bend Tribune: IUSB professor sanctioned for his conduct
University won’t say what penalties he faces, but he must do his own grading.

SOUTH BEND — An Indiana University South Bend professor has been sanctioned by the university after an investigation into his professional conduct.

Professor Otis B. Grant faces sanctions as a result of student complaints that he allowed a nonemployee to grade student work and access student academic records, a potential violation of federal privacy laws.

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Inside Higher Ed: A Professor Without Her Claimed Degrees

Lan-Lan Wang has had a distinguished career in academic dance. She’s founded dance companies. She was one of the first American modern dancers to perform in China after the Cultural Revolution, and she promoted numerous exchanges with China. She won grants from top foundations. She taught at the University of Iowa and the University of California at Los Angeles and, since 1994, at Connecticut College, serving for much of that time as department chair. She may never have earned a degree — although she claimed two.

And what’s certain is that she did not earn either of the two degrees she claimed — a bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Iowa. As a result, she quit her position as professor and interim chair, Connecticut College announced Monday.

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The Chronicle News Blog: Many Black Women Veer Off Path to Tenure, Researchers Say

Washington — Black women appear to be substantially less likely than other segments of the population to get on and stay on academe’s tenure track, according to a forthcoming report commissioned by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

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The Chronicle: Debate Coach Fired and Team Suspended After Mooning

Fort Hays State University fired a professor and debate coach on Friday, just weeks after video surfaced on YouTube of his dropping his shorts in front of judges at a national tournament. The university also suspended its debate team, one of the best in the country, over concerns that the collegiate-debate circuit had become too uncivilized.

The coach, William Shanahan III, a professor of communication, got into a shouting match with a judge—and at one point briefly dropped his shorts and exposed his underwear—during the national tournament this past spring of the Cross Examination Debate Association.

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Des Moines Register: Police: Body found in park ‘probably’ missing U of I prof

Iowa City, Ia. — A hiker found a body in Iowa City’s Hickory Hill Park early this afternoon.

Police say it’s likely Arthur Miller, a University of Iowa political science professor who disappeared into the park Tuesday with a high-powered rifle. Miller, 66, is facing bribery charges alleging he solicited sexual favors from female students in exchange for better grades.

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