The Racine Post: The Felner Chronicles
The Felner Chronicles
The story of UW-Parkside’s almost-chancellor, Robert Felner — who was appointed to the position but resigned before his investiture — continues to play out in Louisville, where he has been indicted on multiple charges.
We’ll keep track of the unfolding story here, with links to the most important stories (most recent first); a cautionary tale for all, but especially those who serve on public search committees.
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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Posted in Faculty
The editors of *Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor* are proud to announce our latest issue, which is now available online at http://www.cust.educ.ubc.ca/workplace/. The issue begins with a special “Mental Labor” section, which was generously compiled and guest edited by Steven Wexler. We express our heartiest gratitude to him, as well as to web designers Stephen Petrina and Franc Feng.
The lead section includes:
(I’m)Material Labor in the Digital Age
by Steven Wexler
Autonomy vs. Insecurity: The (Mis)Fortunes of Mental Labor in a Global Network
by David B. Downing
Extreme Work-Study, or, The Real “Kid Nation”
by Marc Bousquet
From the *Grundrisse* to *Capital* and Beyond: Then and Now
by George Caffentzis
Ideology and the Crisis of Capitalism
by Thomas A. Hirschl, Daniel B. Ahlquist and Leland L. Glenna
Gender, Contingent Labor, and Our Virtual Bodies
by Desi Bradley
Our regular segment of “Feature Articles” contains the following:
Capitalism, Audit, and the Demise of the Humanistic Academy
by Charles Thorpe
Troubling Data: A Foucauldian Perspective of “a Multiple Data Source Approach” to Professional Learning and Evaluation
by Mark C. Baildon
And our “Book Reviews” section, edited for the final time by William Vaughn, features four new entries:
*Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire: Towards a New Humanism*
Reviewed by Dana Carluccio
*Taking Back the Workers’ Law: How to Fight the Assault on Labor Rights*
Reviewed by William Vaughn
*Three Strikes: Labor’s Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans*
Reviewed by Philip Eubanks
*Teachers as Owners: A Key to Revitalizing Public Education*
Reviewed by William Vaughn
The editors are extremely thankful to William Vaughn for years of fine work with the Book Reviews, and we are sorry to see him go. We are pleased to report, however, that Steven Wexler will take on the role of reviews editor in the coming issues.
Thank you for your continuing support of the journal, and please keep *Workplace* in mind as a venue for your future scholarship. Send submissions to cscarter@ou.edu or wayne.ross@ubc.ca.
Solidarity,
Chris Carter
Wayne Ross
Stephen Petrina
Co-editors, *Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor*
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Posted in Uncategorized
National Post: ‘UN’ university should be cut off, professors say
‘Something smells’; World Trade school an ’embarrassment’ to British Columbia
A private university erroneously touted by the B. C. government as a “United Nations mechanism” is really a failed experiment that should be terminated before causing the province “further embarrassment,” says a group that represents B. C.’s public university professors.
“Something smells” at World Trade University, declares Robert Clift, executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B. C. (CUFABC). Yesterday marked the third anniversary of special provincial legislation giving the institution university degree-granting status, yet the school still has not opened for business and its founder and chief executive is rarely heard from any more.
Based on an old military base in Chilliwack, an hour’s drive southeast of Vancouver, WTU is the brainchild of a jet-setting, hyperbolic Bangladeshi-Canadian. Sujit Chowdhury has told legislative committees and media that, among other things, his school has campuses around the world, that it is formally tied to global institutions and that he has been nominated for a knighthood.
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Posted in Accountability, Government
BBC: Universities reject more scrutiny
University chiefs say that there is no need for any further scrutiny
Universities have defended the effectiveness of self-regulation in maintaining standards – rejecting any need for further external scrutiny.
Baroness Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, said that this did not mean there was a “free for all”.
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Posted in Accountability, Governance
The Canadian Press: Ontario dismisses combined contract bargaining for province’s universities
TORONTO — Co-ordinated bargaining for all universities across Ontario is not being considered by the province despite a second university going out on strike since the school year began, the government said Thursday.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Toronto Star: Strike brings York to standstill
Union, administration not talking; students worry about extended break from studies
A strike by part-time workers has turned York University into a virtual ghost town at the height of the November mid-term crunch, with all classes cancelled, assignments postponed and pickets letting cars onto campus only every few minutes.
Maclean’s: York U strike is a power struggle, not about wages
CUPE and Ontario universities face off. Students suffer the consequences.
Students at York University should expect a long strike, as both sides have a lot to lose if the other side gets what it wants in the single issue that actually matters in this dispute: the length of the contract.
CUPE 3903, which represents 3,400 contract faculty, teaching assistants and graduate assistants at the university, wants a two-year contract. The Canadian Union of Public Employees is attempting to negotiate a contract end date of 2010 at all universities, where it has members in Ontario.
CTV Toronto: York University union strikes, classes cancelled
Thousands of teachers at Toronto’s York University have decided to strike, and now classes are cancelled for roughly 50,000 undergraduate students.
National Post: York University students fear strike’s ramifications
Undergraduate students currently affected by the strike at York University say while they feel for those on strike, they just want to get back to class as soon as possible.
Toronto Star: EDITORIAL
Ontario’s economic future depends on a highly educated workforce. All the more regrettable, then, that 50,000 students find themselves without classes because of a strike at York University.
Globe and Mail: Classes cancelled as York staff strikes
Toronto’s York University, the country’s third-largest postsecondary institution, is on strike, the latest in a string of labour disruptions at Canadian campuses this fall.
Classes for more than 50,000 students are cancelled today because of a strike by contract faculty, teaching assistants and graduate students, which also is part of a provincewide effort to co-ordinate bargaining on Ontario campuses.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Inside Higher Ed: College Ends Ban on Nietzsche Quote
Whether or not “God is dead,” as Nietzsche famously argued in The Gay Science, the philosopher’s famous quote can once again be displayed on the doors of faculty offices at Temple College, in Texas.
The president of Temple, Glenda Barron, and Mark Smith, who had earlier ordered a professor to remove the quotation from his door, sent out an e-mail message to faculty members reversing the earlier decision.
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Posted in Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Prof Risks Pay to Avoid Harassment Training
Alexander McPherson is facing a deadline next week. The tenured professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of California at Irvine has until November 12 to complete a training program on sexual harassment. He’s never been accused of sexual harassment, but he is among the 3,522 faculty members and other employees at the university who have supervisory responsibilities and are therefore covered by a 2004 state law mandating the training.
Already, McPherson has been stripped of the supervision of workers in his lab — a program that has brought in millions in federal research grants. And he’s been warned by deans and others that if he doesn’t change his mind in a week, the university will stop paying him his salary of $148,000 a year. McPherson won’t budge.
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Posted in Working conditions
The Chronicle: Colorado State U.’s President Exits Abruptly
Larry E. Penley, Colorado State University’s president since 2003, resigned suddenly on Wednesday, surprising many on the Fort Collins campus and around the state. In a written statement, Mr. Penley said he wanted to be “free to pursue other leadership positions in higher education.” His last day will be November 30.
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Posted in Administration
The Chronicle: Studies Link Use of Part-Time Instructors to Lower Student Success
Increasing the use of adjunct instructors erodes the student learning experience and affects full-time professors’ level of engagement, several new studies suggest.
At a time when colleges are under increasing financial pressure to rely more on part-time faculty, three new studies suggest that doing so erodes the quality of education many students receive.
Part-timers’ inability or unwillingness to devote more time to students outside the classroom, the research suggests, results in the denial of important support services to many students—including, often, those who need the most help.
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Posted in Academics, Contingent labor
The Chronicle: 2 Ivy League Universities, Hit by Financial Crisis, Announce Hiring Freezes
Even the Ivy League isn’t immune to the global financial woes that are being felt on campuses across the country, with Brown and Cornell Universities announcing hiring freezes and other cost-saving measures in recent days.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
The Chronicle: Female Professors at U. of Texas-Austin Earn $9,000 Less Than Male Peers
Female professors at the University of Texas at Austin earned an average of $9,028 less than their male counterparts in 2007, and senior female faculty members there feel more isolated and less recognized for their work than do their male colleagues.
Those are among the findings of a new report on gender issues affecting the faculty that was written by a 22-member panel created by the university’s provost in 2007.
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Posted in Equity, Salary/Economic Benefits
The Chronicle: Saudi Arabia and Canada Lead in Pay for Faculty Members, Study Finds
Starting salaries for newly minted professors are highest in Canada, but for the best prospects for raising earnings over an academic career, look to Saudi Arabian universities.
Those are some of the findings of a new study that looks at faculty pay across international borders, examining salary data in 15 countries, among them the United States.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
The Chronicle: Obama’s Possible Candidates for Education Secretary
If history is any guide, Barack Obama will spend several weeks chugging through higher priorities on his presidential to-do list before choosing an education secretary.
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Posted in Government
Inside Higher Ed: Good Showing for Higher Ed Ballot Measures
With the economy in a downward spiral, voters in states across the country still showed some tolerance Tuesday for funding higher education projects.
Higher education officials in Massachusetts breathed a collective sigh of relief last night to find that their state will maintain its income tax. A rejected ballot measure, brought by two former Libertarian candidates for state and national offices, would have cut the income tax for 2009 and completely eliminated it in 2010. Higher education officials throughout the state expressed concern about the measure and the possibility that it might pass, especially considering a similar proposed revocation of the income tax in 2002 received almost 45 percent of the vote. This time, however, the vote was nowhere near as close.
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Posted in Government
Inside Higher Ed: Nebraska Bars Use of Race in Admissions
Nebraska on Tuesday became the fourth state to ban the consideration of race in admissions decisions by public colleges and universities. California, Washington State and Michigan have previously approved such bans.
With more than 90 percent of votes counted in unofficial results, 58 percent of Nebraska voters were backing the ban. A similar measure in Colorado was narrowly behind, with 86 percent of the vote counted early Wednesday and without a clear indication of the final outcome.
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Posted in Diversity
The Chronicle News Blog: Emory Forms Ethics Panel in Wake of Payment Scandal Involving Scientist
Emory University announced on Monday that it had created a committee to evaluate how it handles potential conflicts of interest among its researchers.
The move followed recent revelations that Charles B. Nemeroff, an eminent psychiatrist at the university, accepted $2.5-million in payments from pharmaceutical companies from 2000 to 2007 but disclosed only about half that amount to the university, a violation of university and federal policies that has drawn the attention of Senate investigators.
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Posted in Ethics
The Chronicle News Blog: Professor Who Stole Republican Campaign Signs Resigns
A visiting professor at St. Olaf College who confessed to stealing several Republican campaign signs has quit his teaching job.
Philip Busse, acknowledged last week in The Huffington Post that he had stolen signs touting John McCain from yards along a rural stretch of highway near Northfield, Minn., where the college is located.
Mr. Busse, who had a one-semester temporary visiting appointment to teach one course on introductory media studies, “has tendered his resignation and is no longer affiliated with St. Olaf College,” according to a college spokesman quoted in the Northfield News.
On top of losing his job, Mr. Busse has been charged with misdemeanor theft and faces up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, the newspaper reported.
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Posted in Politics
Daily Nation: Teachers told to stop salary strike threats
Teachers must stop threatening the Government over salaries, Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno said on Friday.
“It is not right to negotiate your pay through the media,” the minister said, adding that teachers had been offered a “very good package.”
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
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