AP: Iranian-American academic detained in Tehran
NEW YORK (AP) — An Iranian-American scholar whom Iran once accused of fomenting political unrest has been arrested by authorities there for the second time in two years, his family said Friday.
Security forces arrested Kian Tajbakhsh late Thursday, a family member told The Associated Press. The relative was in contact with Tajbakhsh’s wife, who witnessed the arrest in Tehran.
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Posted in Faculty, Free speech, Government
Tagged Faculty, Free speech, Iran, political unrest, professors detained
The Chronicle News Blog: Georgia State U. Accused of Retaliating Against Professor Who Alleged Anti-Muslim Bias
A professor at Georgia State University has resigned as director of its Middle East Institute and filed a federal discrimination complaint because, she alleges, the university failed to adequately deal with incidents of anti-Muslim bias and retaliated against her and a student for pressing it to act.
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Posted in Diversity, Equity, Ethics, Faculty
Tagged anti-Muslim bias, Georgia State U, retailiation
Daily Camera: Decision on Ward Churchill reinstatement next week
Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves broke court for the day and asked the lawyers to submit final papers in the case on Thursday.
He said he would likely have a final ruling on whether Ward Churchill gets his job back by early next week.
Before court ended, Churchill attorney David Lane cross-examined CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano on the stand.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Faculty
Tagged University of Colorado, Ward Churchill
The Chronicle: Sartorial Study Suggests Professors Should Wear What They Want
How academics dress for a lecture doesn’t affect how students perceive them — at least in the long run.
The Chronicle: Britain’s Title Wave
With its lords and ladies, ancient honorifics, and titles both inherited and earned, Britain is a status-conscious realm. The halls of academe are no exception.
At most British universities, the title of professor has traditionally been awarded only at the culmination of an academic journey beginning as a lecturer, progressing through senior and principal lecturer, and, finally, reaching reader. But some universities have remained aloof from common practice, conferring professorships with relative rarity.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Faculty, professors, ranks, Tenure & Promotion, titles, UK
The Chronicle: Adjunct and Tenure-Track Professors Need One Another, Say Speakers at AAUP Meeting
Washington — Tenure-track faculty members and their adjunct brethren don’t have to be enemies, according to a paper presented here today during a conference held concurrently with the American Association of University Professors’ annual meeting.
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Tagged AAUP, adjuncts, Contingent labor, Organizing, Unions
Seattle Times: WWU drama professor provocative, or an abusive bully?
Over the years, Western Washington University professor Perry Mills has referred to an overweight student as a “400-pound canary who warbles nothingness”; slapped the nickname “Precious” on a male colleague he believed to be gay; and called a female colleague a “bimbo” and “slut” to her face.
Those remarks were just for starters, according to university records.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged abusive language, bullying, faculty discipline, Legal issues, Western Washington U
The Chronicle: Bucking the Trend, St. John’s U. Converts Instructors Into Tenure-Track Professors
Scholars who teach composition, a staple on the schedule of many a college freshman, often wind up stringing together a series of adjunct teaching jobs while keeping an eye out for that first step on the golden track to tenure. So it is easy to see why Roseanne Gatto marvels at her good fortune. She is not quite finished working on her dissertation but has almost finished her first year as an assistant professor of writing at St. John’s University. “This was huge for me,” says Ms. Gatto.
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Posted in Contingent labor, Faculty
Tagged adjuncts, Contingent labor, St John's U, tenure
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Zinkhan’s body found in grave he dug
Police searched two days near elementary school
Fugitive murder suspect George Martin Zinkhan III dug his own grave and covered himself with debris before firing a single bullet into his head, investigators said Saturday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ state crime lab confirmed early Saturday evening that the body discovered earlier that day in the woods outside Athens was Zinkhan.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged murder, University of Georgia
Inside Higher Ed: Bowdoin Punishes Professor who provoked
The president of Bowdoin College has endorsed a faculty committee’s finding that an economist engaged in misconduct in research — research that he continues to maintain the college examined only because it made Bowdoin look bad.
The complicated and contested history of Jonathan P. Goldstein’s dispute with Bowdoin was examined in an article on Inside Higher Ed two weeks ago. The gist of it is that Goldstein wrote a scholarly article that, he said, showed that Bowdoin overemphasized athletics; ran afoul of the college’s dean and other administrators when he sought to distribute it to parents and prospective students (interrupting college tours and intimidating a student employee, Bowdoin officials charged); and became the subject of a series of accusations and campus investigations.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Bowdoin College, Research misconduct
Calgary Herald: Union president says professor’s dismissal first in 25 years
OTTAWA — Denis Rancourt is the first tenured professor fired by the University of Ottawa in at least 25 years, according to the president of the university’s professors’ union.
“To my recollection, it generally doesn’t happen at the university,” said Atef Fatim, president of the Association of Professors at the University of Ottawa.
Rancourt, a physics professor and self-described anarchist, was suspended by the university in December after attracting national media attention for his unorthodox teaching methods, which included giving an A-plus to every student in an upper-year physics class.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Faculty, Tenure & Promotion, Termination, University of Ottawa
Haaretz: Arab professor says booted from eatery over bartender’s ‘racist’ T-shirt
An Arab psychology professor at the University of Haifa said Sunday he was booted out of a restaurant over the weekend after complaining that the bartender was wearing a shirt advocating killing Palestinian children.
Restaurant owner Khaled Hajaj, who is also Arab, said he did not kick out Professor Ramzi Suleiman, though he did tell him he didn’t care if Suleiman took his money to a different restaurant.
“It hurts my feelings and the feelings of Arab customers,” said Suleiman. “I’m not willing to accept such shirts. It’s like the reaction of Jews who see people wearing shirts with a cross.”
The bartender at the Haifa restaurant was wearing a shirt with a drawing of a rifle sight and the words, in Hebrew, “Institution for special-ed children.”
OC Register: Bitter sex ed battle ends at UC Irvine
An award-winning UC Irvine biologist who set off a national controversy in academia by refusing to take state-mandated sexual harassment prevention training changed his mind and took the class, ending a bitter dispute that lasted for months.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Faculty, sexual harassment, Sexuality
The Chronicle: Who’s Your Academic Buddy? New Study Suggests How Fields Are Intertwined
University leaders often talk about the need to break down academic silos on campuses, but they don’t necessarily have a good road map for doing it.
Inside Higher Ed: Faculty Speed Dating
For all of their big ideas, sometimes faculty are a bit like wallflowers at a high school dance; they need a little push to make the first move. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the University of Southern California is using “speed dating” techniques to encourage professors to work together across disciplines.
Later this month, about 60 Southern California faculty will assemble at a long rectangular table, pitching research ideas to other faculty they may have never even met before. In the style of speed dating, faculty will move across the table in a round-robin fashion, taking just a few minutes to chat before moving on to talk to other faculty. After these brief sessions, organizers hope a special chemistry will develop between some of the participants, prompting the beginnings of a new research relationship.
Flint Journal: Popular University of Michigan-Flint professor dies in classroom
FLINT, Michigan — A popular University of Michigan-Flint professor collapsed mid-sentence and died on Monday afternoon while teaching an honors English class.
Associate Professor of Foreign Languages Matthew Hilton-Watson, 40, was remembered as a wonderful professor who served as a mentor and friend to students.
AP: Peking Uni transfers outspoken prof to west China
BEIJING (AP) — University authorities reassigned an outspoken Beijing law professor to teach in remote western China — a move he said Thursday may be retaliation for his signing a landmark petition calling for political reform.
He Weifang said administrators at elite Peking University in Beijing approached him earlier this year about transferring to the Central Asian border region of Xinjiang. Though the school frequently sends professors to remote schools for stints, He said he was given no explicit reason for the move.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged China, Free speech
The New York Times: Professor Accused of Pocketing NASA Money
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Federal investigators are accusing a University of Florida professor and three members of his family of fraudulently receiving millions of dollars from NASA and then funneling money to their personal bank accounts, court documents show.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Ethics, Faculty, Fraud, Government
San Antonio Express-News: Ex-UTSA prof wins suit over trashed notes
Don’t touch those files.
This week, a federal court jury awarded $175,000 in damages to Philip Stotter, a former chemistry professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, for the loss of research materials tossed out by school officials during a forced cleaning of Stotter’s laboratory.
The jury held former UTSA provost Guy Bailey personally responsible for failing to give Stotter adequate notice before throwing out his personal property, sending the message that government administrators are not always protected by the state’s immunity from being sued, said Regina Criswell, Stotter’s lawyer.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Faculty, Legal issues
The Chronicle: Notoriety Yields Tragedy in Iowa Sexual-Harassment Cases
After 2 suicides, colleagues question university’s role
Mark O. Weiger was a star oboe professor who had traveled the globe as an artistic ambassador for the U.S. government. But he was also known as the king of raunchy puns. Even when he performed for schoolchildren, the music professor from the University of Iowa couldn’t resist slipping in some fart jokes.
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Posted in Faculty
Tagged Faculty, sexual harassment, Working conditions
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