Category Archives: Faculty

Post-Gazette: Dr. Berube: Professor the right loves to hate

Hockey is a bruising sport.

So are the campus culture wars.

It seems oddly appropriate, then, that some of the biggest body blows from the left these days are coming from a Penn State University scholar and amateur hockey player who’s as comfortable slamming a puck into the net as he is dissecting the racial context of a James Baldwin novel.

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Diverse Magazine: Murder, Fear Follow Iraqi Professors On Campus

Violence and lawlessness in Iraq is “dismantling” the country’s higher education system and creating a climate of terror on campuses, according to Iraqi professors who attended the Middle East Studies Association’s conference Sunday.

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St. Petersburg Times: Al-Arian gets more prison time

Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who pleaded guilty last spring to aiding a terrorist group, was found guilty of contempt on Thursday for refusing to testify in another terrorism-related case and could serve as many as 18 additional months in prison, The St. Petersburg Times reported.

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The Boston Globe: MIT neuroscience center head quits

Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa has announced that he will resign as head of the MIT neuroscience center he established, two weeks after a university investigation found that he acted inappropriately when he discouraged a young neuroscientist from accepting a job at MIT because she would be competing with him.

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The Lantern: Bitter faculty

It has long been a common slur for Michigan fans to knock Ohio State for its poor academic rankings. Sure, it was easy, after all, OSU had an open enrollment policy, so it was many people’s safety school. The University of Michigan, however, has been renowned for their high enrollment standards. For the past 10 years, however, OSU has turned things around. OSU’s current freshmen class can boast an average ACT score of 26.4. This criticism of OSU students no longer rings true.

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Inside Higher Ed: “What ever happened to the faculty?”

Mary Burgan, former general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, is not happy about the trends she sees with regard to faculty rights. Traditional governance models are being replaced with strict hierarchies, and too many faculty members have too little influence in crucial decisions, she writes, in What Ever Happened to the Faculty? Drift and Decision in Higher Education, just published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Burgan recently responded to questions about the themes of her book.

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Mail Tribune: SOU faces budget crisis

In the face of “a significant financial challenge,” Southern Oregon University President Mary Cullinan has started a process that could end in cuts in campus programs and faculty.

She made her case for the budget crisis in a campus speech Monday and opened a comment period to determine whether a financial emergency requiring cuts exists

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The Boston Globe: MIT decides not to discipline professor

A Nobel laureate behaved inappropriately when he discouraged a young woman from accepting an MIT job offer, but other professors provoked the neuroscientist’s actions to some extent by excluding him from parts of the hiring process, according to an MIT investigation.

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The Chronicle: Most Scientists at Elite Universities Consider Themselves ‘Spiritual,’ Survey Finds

A survey of scientists at elite universities shows that most consider themselves “spiritual,” and many say that their faith influences their interactions with students and colleagues.

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Akron Beacon Journal: Professor files defamation lawsuit against Ohio University

Ohio University has been sued by a faculty member who was relieved of his role as a graduate adviser as part of an investigation into plagiarism allegations.

The university published and distributed defamatory statements about Bhavin Mehta, a part-time associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, according to a copy of the lawsuit provided by Fred Gittes, Mehta’s attorney in Columbus.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Ohio Court of Claims, seeks damages of more than $25,000.

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Inside Higher Ed: Another study based on a survey of college professors has found that they are, on average, much more liberal than Americans on average. The study — by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research — also found that most professors are reluctant to share opinions that they view as contradicting those of the majority of their colleagues.

The Chronicle: Liberal ‘Groupthink’ Puts Professors at Odds With Most Americans, Report Says

A report released on Wednesday on the political views of faculty members accuses professors of liberal “groupthink,” a stance that the report says puts them at odds with the beliefs of most Americans on national and international issues.

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The Chronicle:

While less religious than most Americans, professors are more religious than might be commonly assumed, according to a new survey. Only 10 percent of professors surveyed said they did not believe in God.

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Inside Higher Ed: Whoa, Dude

“Whoa… dude… Code of Hammurabi. I’ve seen this in … I’ve seen this in a British Museum.” If only these words came from someone goofing off in a high school class. Instead, they were uttered by a lecturer, John Hall, during a class he gave in September to more than 1,000 students taking a business course at the University of Florida.

Within weeks, highlights from the lecture were uploaded onto numerous Web sites, including Break.com, where the video is labeled “Stoned Professor,” and YouTube. And shortly after that, the university placed Hall on paid administrative leave. Another instructor has started teaching the “Principles of Management” course. (Some who have watched assume that the professor was drunk, not stoned.)

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Akron Beacon-Journal: Ohio professor wants Israel to apology for his detention

An Ohio professor who spent 22 days in an Israeli jail on suspicion of spying for Iran and Hezbollah asked colleagues Friday to help him get an apology from Israel.

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Inside Higher Ed: Battle of the Ivy League gossip blogs

Two new blogs have been competing against one another in Ivy League gossip. IvyGate is currently featuring a contest of “Faculty Studs and Tenured Temptresses,” in which six male and six female professors are vying (almost certainly against their will) for those titles. Two of the male contestants have been teaching at their institutions since the 1960s. IvyLeak meanwhile is featuring analysis of why the Yale-Cornell football game has fallen on either Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur in three of the last four years, and has suggested that the match be renamed the “High Holiday Bowl.”

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Inside Higher Ed: Faculty Challenge Loyola’s Leaders

Administrators at Loyola University of New Orleans have had the unenviable task of picking up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina, which shut down the campus last fall. The university didn’t sustain as much structural damage as those institutions located on lower ground, but it has seen a 30 percent decrease in this year’s freshman class and finished the fiscal year that ended in July with a $14 million budget shortfall.

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BoingBoing: Video: apparently-baked biz school prof who was soon fired

He does ramble, but he’s far more entertaining than any of the business school professors I ever sat through.

Toronto Star: Pot-smoking prof lights up a room

For years, University of Toronto Professor Doug Hutchinson smoked pot in his office.
Sometimes he’d hide behind garbage dumpsters or even climb trees to use the drug, which he said he needs to alleviate the pain from an undisclosed medical condition.

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