2 U. of Missouri Professors Named in Sexual-Harassment Lawsuit Resign

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The Chronicle: 2 U. of Missouri Professors Named in Sexual-Harassment Lawsuit Resign

Two tenured faculty members at the University of Missouri at Kansas City have agreed to resign to avoid disciplinary action, one year after the university paid $1.1-million to settle a lawsuit alleging rampant sexual harassment by those professors.

In July 2007, the University of Missouri reached a settlement with two female employees who claimed the university had been unresponsive to their complaints about two professors, C. Keith Haddock and Walker S. Carlos Poston II (The Chronicle, July 27, 2007). The lawsuit, filed in 2006, alleged that the two faculty members created a “sexually hostile work environment” in the health-research laboratory they jointly supervised by making sexual advances, cracking explicit jokes, and groping female colleagues.

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Posted in Faculty, Legal issues

Kentucky: History repeating? As former U of L Dean Robert Felner faces the feds, colleagues and students shed light on his turbulent past

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LEO Weekly: Cover Story for August 13, 2008

History repeating?

As former U of L Dean Robert Felner faces the feds, colleagues and students shed light on his turbulent past

The e-mail’s subject line read “Justice at Last?”

The message relayed sordid details about the brewing scandal surrounding Robert Felner, the former University of Louisville dean under federal investigation for potentially mishandling hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money.

When Paul Hutchinson — a student of Felner’s at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign two decades ago — opened the e-mail from an old college friend, the message linked to recent media coverage of the criminal investigation here in Louisville.

As Hutchinson read news of the saga, he wasn’t surprised by the allegations against Felner, whom he describes as problematic, neglectful and unprofessional. What was more shocking, he says, is that it took so many years for accusations of wrongdoing to surface.

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Posted in Ethics, Legal issues

Online campaign to help Gaza’s students reach their studies abroad

Posted on August 12, 2008 by | Comments Off on Online campaign to help Gaza’s students reach their studies abroad

Currently, hundreds of Palestinian students are trapped in the Gaza Strip – unable to reach the universities around the world to which they have been accepted. Since June of 2007, Israel has imposed a closure on the Strip, violating the right to freedom of movement and other rights for which freedom of movement is a pre-condition, such as the right to access education.

Faced with pressure from world leaders outraged over the ban, Israeli officials declared recently that they would allow exit for just a few dozen students in Gaza holding “recognized scholarships” as a gesture to “friendly countries” but will continue to prevent hundreds of other students from reaching their studies. With each passing day, Gaza’s most talented young people risk losing their places in universities abroad – and losing their chance to pursue their dreams of building a better future in the region.

Further information on this issue is available in Gisha’s report issued in June 2008 and in Gisha’s July 2008 Power Point Presentation.

With the new academic year fast approaching, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement is working to persuade Israeli authorities to cancel the ban on students leaving the Gaza Strip and to allow Gaza’s students to reach their studies abroad. One of the ways we are doing so is via a new internet campaign, in which banners featuring the students (see an example of one which I’ve attached below) are passed along through mailing lists and posted on blogs. Clicking on the banner then leads to the campaign’s minisite: www.trappedingaza.org, where visitors can send a message to Israeli leaders in support of the right of Palestinian students in Gaza to reach their studies.

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Posted in International, Students

Tanzania: Teachers back strike plan

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The Citizen: Teachers back strike plan

Teachers in Morogoro region have defended the decision by the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTA) to stage a countrywide strike over the Government’s failure to pay their new arrears.

Both primary and secondary school teachers sided with the union saying it was the only remaining option to have their demands met.
According to them, the government is yet to pay about 156,000 teachers countrywide a total of Sh16.4 billion in salary arrears and other benefits.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Union secretary wins pay rise in tribunal

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Liverpool Echo: Union secretary wins pay rise in tribunal

Aug 9 2008 by Ben Turner, Liverpool Echo

A LIVERPOOL teaching union which went on strike over unfair pay “unlawfully” refused to give its own secretary a basic rise.

Today Deborah Moran said she was relieved after an employment tribunal ruled her bosses unlawfully deducted wages.

The 42-year-old said she was looking forward to continuing in the post she has held for 25 years.

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Posted in Unions

Poland: Teachers Union mobilizes for September strike

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Warsaw Business Journal: Teachers Union mobilizes for September strike

8th August 2008
The Teachers Union (ZNP) announced plans to prepare for strike action in September

The Teachers Union (ZNP) announced plans to prepare for strike action in September, as union representatives are not happy with the plans to increase wages for teachers by zł.586 for the youngest teachers and zł.381 for the most experienced.

“Local governments received permission to increase the working week of teachers by four hours, from 18 to 22 hours. The time spent in school will increase by 20 percent. Simultaneously, the government plans two increases in wages within a year, on average each amounting to 5 percent,” said ZNP leader Sławomir Broniarz.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Nigeria: Governors and teachers’ new pay

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The Punch: Governors and teachers’ new pay
By Punch Editorial Board
Published: Friday, 8 Aug 2008

Barely a week after the governors’ intervention in the industrial dispute declared by the Nigeria Union of Teachers, it is cheering that both parties have now reached a truce. To meet the teachers’ demand for a new salary scale, the governors, under the auspices of the Governors’ Forum, have offered a salary increase of 27.5 per cent “on prevailing basic salaries in each state.” Though the decision is expected to be discussed by the National Executive Council of the teachers’ body, there are hopes that the present offer will be embraced in the interest of the nation’s education system.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits, Strikes & Labor Disputes

Court ruling is victory for religious colleges

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USA Today: Court ruling is victory for religious colleges

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court ruling that a Christian university in Colorado can receive state scholarship money is the latest in a string of legal victories for U.S. religious schools seeking public dollars.

The most recent case involved Colorado Christian University, a college of 2,000 students in suburban Denver where most students must attend chapel weekly and sign a promise to emulate the life of Jesus and Biblical teachings.

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Posted in Legal issues

Texas: UT regents approve plan to sell oil reserves

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Austin American-Statesman: UT regents approve plan to sell oil reserves

‘Forward contract’ could yield $1 billion in advance of production.

University of Texas System regents on Thursday approved a plan to sell a portion of the oil and natural gas reserves beneath the system’s vast West Texas lands for about $1 billion.

Under the plan, the system would be paid up front by an investment bank or oil company in return for agreeing to provide a certain amount of oil and gas from its 2.1 million acres during the next 10 years or so. Since 1923, when the system’s first well began producing, it has received royalty payments only for actual production, not future production.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

UK: Alarm at rising drop-out rate for student teachers

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The Independent: Alarm at rising drop-out rate for student teachers

15 per cent of all trainee teachers drop out before the end of their course

The drop-out rate for would-be teachers is rising – with modern language and maths courses among those with the worst record.

A report out today shows that 15 per cent of all trainees drop out before the end of their course (up from 14 per cent last year) with 28 per cent failing to take up a teaching post once they graduate.

The report, an annual survey of teacher training courses by Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson from the University of Buckingham’s Centre for Education and Employment, shows fewer modern languages trainees go on to work in the classroom than any other subject – with just 63 per cent ending up in teaching. Classics has the best rate, at 93 per cent.

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Posted in Academics

UK: Teacher training courses take on ‘risky’ students

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Guardian: Teacher training courses take on ‘risky’ students

Universities with teacher training courses are taking on “risky” students in shortage subjects to fill their quotas, researchers claimed today.

Science and maths subjects attract fewer teacher trainees with first and 2:1 degrees who are more likely to drop out or not get jobs in the classroom, according to the Good Teacher Training Guide 2008 published today.

But the government’s teaching training agency, the TDA, attacked the report’s findings for suggesting students without good degrees would make bad teachers.

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Posted in Academics

UK: Poll attacked over claim that a third of Muslim students think killing in the name of religion is justified and 40 per cent support sharia law in the UK

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Guardian: Radical Islam gains ground in campuses

Poll attacked over claim that a third of Muslim students think killing in the name of religion is justified and 40 per cent support sharia law in the UK

Almost third of Muslim students on Britain’s campuses believe killing in the name of religion can be justified, according to a controversial survey described as the most comprehensive of its kind.

The poll, conducted for Islam on Campus, a new report from the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank, also found that 40 per cent of those interviewed supported the introduction of sharia law for British Muslims.

But the findings have been fiercely attacked by student groups which described the poll’s methodology as ‘deeply flawed’ and accused the report’s authors of isolating Muslims.

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Posted in Students

In Academia, Hiring Token Jews

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Washington Times: In Academia, Hiring Token Jews

Asaf Romirowsky

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict long ago spilled over into America’s departments of Middle East studies. In an attempt to appear balanced in the face of charges of anti-Israel biases, some departments or programs of Middle East studies have added Israeli scholars to their ranks—a move that at first glance appears welcome.

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Posted in Commentary, Faculty

Why did the U.S. turn away Gaza Fulbright scholars?

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Haaretz: Why did the U.S. turn away Gaza Fulbright scholars?

WASHINGTON – “This is one of the oddest things we have encountered in recent years,” an Israeli official said of a long sequence of events that began with intense American pressure to allow two young Palestinian students to leave Gaza to study in the United States and ended with the U.S. barring their entry and canceling the visas it had granted them.

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Posted in International

McCain critique stirs affirmative action ban debate

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USA Today: McCain critique stirs affirmative action ban debate

PHOENIX (AP) — With one brief criticism of affirmative action, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has brought new attention to ballot issues aimed at dismantling preferential treatment programs for women and minorities.

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Posted in Equity

Kentucky: Higher-ed council realigned

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Courier-Journal: Higher-ed council realigned
It’s to fall under governor’s office

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear signed an order yesterday that attaches the Council on Postsecondary Education to his office, saying it will strengthen the state’s hand in recruiting a new higher education chief.
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The restructuring shifts the council from the Education Cabinet, where it was moved by Beshear’s predecessor, Ernie Fletcher. He had said he wanted it insulated from political influence.

Beshear said at a press conference that the council’s president will become one of his top advisers, but that the council will remain independent. The council is the state’s coordinating agency for Kentucky’s public universities and community and technical colleges.

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Posted in Governance

Pennsylvania: CCAC, union agree on labor contract

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: CCAC, union agree on labor contract

Faculty get raises; new presidents appointed at 3 sites

Community College of Allegheny County yesterday ratified a new three-year labor contract with the union representing about 350 faculty, librarians, counselors and educational technicians.

The pact with the American Federation of Teachers Local 2067 runs from Aug. 24 through Aug. 23, 2011. It was approved unanimously by the college’s board of trustees.

It provides for salary increases based on rank and tenure ranging from 3 to 4 percent the first year and 4 to 5 percent in years two and three of the agreement. The average yearly base salary across the bargaining unit will rise from $59,400 to $67,500 over the contract life, said AFT President John Dziak.

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts

PhD, the easy way

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Chicago Tribune: PhD, the easy way

Tribune reporter Russell Working tells about his adventures with diploma mills, where $699 and ‘life experience’ would earn him a degree in just about anything.

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Posted in Academics

Iowa: UI prof faces bribery charges

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Iowa City Press-Citizen; UI prof faces bribery charges
Allegedly asks female students for sexual favors

A University of Iowa professor was arrested Friday afternoon for allegedly asking female students to let him fondle their breasts in return for an “A” grade for the class.
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Arthur Herbert Miller, 66, of 1700 N. Dubuque Road, faces four counts of bribery, a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He was admitted to the Johnson County Jail at 3:56 p.m. Friday and released early Saturday.

Miller is a professor in the University of Iowa Department of Political Science with an office in Schaeffer Hall.

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Posted in Events

New York: Presidential ‘Pabulum’ and a Professor’s Punishment at RPI

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Inside Higher Ed: Presidential ‘Pabulum’ and a Professor’s Punishment

The e-mail messages wouldn’t have won Donald Steiner any dinner invitations to the president’s home.

In one e-mail to a faculty discussion group at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Steiner — a research professor — responded to a recent message from President Shirley Jackson to the faculty by writing: “Sadly, I found more of the same subterfuge and insulting pabulum.”

And in an e-mail to Provost Robert Palazzo, copied to the faculty discussion group, Steiner wrote: “Should not a ‘provost’ be the advocate for the rights of all faculty? You have not done so. Therefore you are not a ‘provost.’ Should not a ‘provost’ uphold the Faculty Handbook procedures? You have no done so. Therefore, you are not a ‘provost.’ Should not a ‘provost’ be truthful in dealing with the faculty? You have not done so. Therefore you are not a

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Posted in Administration