Inside Higher Ed; ‘I Am Less Patient and Dress Better’
SEATTLE — Stories abound in higher education about professors with short memories about faculty life once they are promoted into the dean’s office or the administration building. Nothing is more galling to many professors than the sense that Dean Jones or Vice Provost Smith really should know better — they were so nice, after all, when they had the (smaller) office next door and shared teaching duties.
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Posted in Administration
Inside Higher Ed: Assessing Assessment
SEATTLE — Margaret Spellings may be secretary emerita, but the assessment and accountability movements— which of course predated her commission — are alive and well. And if colleges think they can ignore these pushes, they are seriously misguided. That was the message behind speeches and the announcement of two new national education campaigns here Thursday at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
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Posted in Accountability
In the latest issue of Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, David Gabbard reviews After Multiculturalism: The Discourse on Race and the Dialectics of Liberty, by John F. Welsh.
Welsh’s book offers an individualistic critique of multiculturalist thought in social theory and public policy through a survey of the discourses on race by major individualist theorists. The ideas of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, Max Stirner and contemporary libertarian scholars on race and racism are discussed to lay the foundation for the individualist critique of racism and multiculturalism.
Welsh responds to Gabbard’s review at The Stirner Cafe.
The Chronicle News Blog: Vanderbilt U. Makes List of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’
Employees at Vanderbilt University helped the Tennessee institution land a spot among the 100 best companies to work for, as ranked by Fortune magazine.
Vanderbilt, at No. 98, is the first educational institution ever to be named to the annual list, which is based on an employee survey.
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Posted in Corporate University
The Chronicle News Blog: Former MIT Scientist Who Falsified Data Is Suspended From Receiving Federal Grants
Washington — The Department of Health and Human Services will bar a former university scientist from receiving federal research money for five years, after concluding that he falsified data in several government-backed projects.
The researcher, Luk Van Parijs, was fired in 2005 as an associate professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after he admitted he had fabricated and falsified data in a paper, several manuscripts, and grant applications. The federal agency’s announcement is scheduled to be made public tomorrow, in the Federal Register.
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Posted in Ethics
Chattanooga Times Free Press: Professor sues University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
A UTC professor has sued the university, claiming he was demoted because he voiced concerns about a female professor who he said lied about her academic records and behaved unprofessionally.
Dr. Bill Harman, who came to UTC in 2001 to serve as head of the philosophy and religion department, was removed from his position as department head in June 2008, taking a 12 percent pay cut, after opposing the tenure promotion of Dr. Talia Welsh, who had worked in the religion and philosophy department since 2001.
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Posted in Legal issues, Tenure & Promotion
The Guardian: Boom in exam cheats battling for China’s top jobs
Growing competition for jobs in the Chinese civil service appears to have produced a boom in dishonesty, with about 1,000 cheats caught in the national entrance exams this year.
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Posted in Students
Dalllas Morning News: SMU, George W. Bush library face renewed fight over land
Southern Methodist University’s claim to some of the land planned for the George W. Bush Presidential Library complex is at risk from a new legal challenge, raising questions about whether the final project will match recently released drawings.
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Posted in Politics
BBC: White working class ‘losing out’
White working class people are losing out on several fronts, from education to housing, a report argues.
The current school system is skewed in favour of giving more opportunities to middle class children, the report by the Runnymede Trust says.
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Posted in Equity
The Chronicle: U. of California to Consider Covering Tuition for Families Below State’s Median Income
The University of California’s president, Mark G. Yudof, will propose that the university promise to cover tuition and fees for undergraduate students whose families make less than the state’s median household income, $60,000 per year.
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Posted in Economics
Globe and Mail: Striking York staff reject offer
University president refuses to return to bargaining table as union members stand firm
Striking teaching assistants and contract faculty at York University have voted to reject a three-year deal, leaving in limbo the fate of 50,000 students who have been out of class for more than two months.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Toronto Star: York U’s labour woes are bred in the bone
Wild child of the Sixties can’t shake reputation for loud, lefty activism
It was a child of the Sixties, shaped by the baby boom and now staring down its 50th birthday – no wonder York University seems such a hotbed of activists.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
TCPalm.com: Some question employee salary increases at FAU
In a year when Florida Atlantic University faced $19 million in budget cuts and offered only 1 percent raises to faculty, some question why more than 100 employees received salary increases of 10 percent or more.
The United Faculty of Florida, which is at impasse in its salary negotiations with FAU, is angry about what it sees as inconsistencies. The university said it gave money to employees who took on extra responsibilities after jobs were cut last year, including several who work closely with FAU President Frank Brogan. The university cut 130 positions last year, mostly through attrition.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
KBC: Govt accused of attempting to scuttle teachers’ strike
The Kenya National Union of Teachers is accusing the government of using underhand tactics to derail the planned teachers’ strike.
Addressing the press on Sunday the union also accused some members in the teachers’ service remuneration committee of betraying the teacher’s cause.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
The Kingston Whig Standard: Part-time faculty to decide if they’ll join union
St. Lawrence college’s part-time and sessional faculty members in Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall are set today to take part in what is touted to be the largest union vote in Ontario history.
They will vote to decide whether they will join the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
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Posted in Organizing, Unions
Toronto Star: Part-timers key to York stalemate
Lykke de la Cour, after 15 years as a York lecturer in women’s studies, still has to reapply for a new contract each year. “It’s not fair,” she says.
Bulging ranks of those without tenure, who run over half of undergrad classes, seek job security
Lykke de la Cour gets up weekdays at 4 a.m. She finds she writes her best lectures then; she’s too tired at night.
She knows this from preparing hundreds of lectures over 15 years for more than 20 courses at York University about women and the disabled and health and law.
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Posted in Contingent labor, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Toronto Star: York U. prof disputes letter
Re:Letter only represents 15% of
York faculty, Letter Jan. 15
Professor Berland has claimed that the open letter by full-time faculty and retirees to striking members of CUPE 3903 is in direct defiance of motions passed by the faculty union’s executive. The signees have never claimed to speak on behalf of, or to represent, the faculty union.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
ContraCosta Times: Antioch teachers hold peaceful protests
Dozens of Antioch Unified School District teachers clad in blue to show union support gathered before and after school Friday in protest of the district’s positions in ongoing contract negotiations.
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Posted in Protests
Capital News: Court blocks teachers’ strike
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 17 – The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has obtained a court order restraining the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) from holding a nationwide strike that is scheduled to start on Monday.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Green Left Weekly: Israel — the case for a union boycott
The horror of what is unfolding in Gaza is forcing more people to come out to support Palestine. People are coming out onto the streets in tens or hundreds of thousands all over the world.
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Posted in Protests
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