Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: WVU panelists stand by report
They question president’s claim M.B.A. program rife with records inconsistencies
West Virginia University’s revelation that there were problems with the records of about 10 percent of the Executive M.B.A. degrees the university has awarded in recent years is inconsistent with an investigative panel’s finding that the school does not have a pervasive record-keeping problem, four members of the panel said yesterday.
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Posted in Administration
Z Net: SEIU: How Democratic?
May 23, 2008 By Dan Clawson
Source: MRZine
For the first time in a generation or more, SEIU is facing a substantial movement by internal dissidents seeking to push through democratic reforms. This push has a two-fold character.
One prong is the very public resignation by Sal Roselli, the head of United Healthcare Workers — West (UHW), the third largest local in SEIU, from his position on SEIU’s national Executive Committee. When he resigned, and since, he raised issues about the course that is being pursued by national SEIU. With the backing of the UHW executive board, the local has created a highly visible web site, paid for an ad in the New York Times and ads on prominent blogs, and is putting the issue of democracy on the agenda for the SEIU convention. The other prong is SMART (SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today), a rank-and-file movement with the potential to create an on-going TDU-like internal opposition in SEIU.
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Posted in Unions
Rocky Mountain News:
An unprecedented offer for teachers
Denver Public Schools is eager to offer the largest annual pay increase in memory to its classroom teachers – one of its proposals would hike base salaries an average of 7.7 percent.
There’s more. With incentives available through the ProComp performance-pay system, average salaries, the district calculates, would rise by a jaw-dropping 18 percent.
Given the slumping economy, stagnating wages in the private sector and the fact that salaries at other local school districts may not keep pace with inflation, you’d think the Denver Classroom Teachers Association would be all over the offer. Instead, the union has flatly rejected it.
The district’s three-year-old ProComp program is the sticking point. All new hires are covered by ProComp, which is building up a sizable reserve from a tax approved by voters. The district wants to use that revenue to sweeten its incentive-based pay, such as for those who teach difficult subjects in hard-to-staff schools. It also wants to direct more money to teachers who are early in their careers.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
Newsday: SUNY needs to graduate
For the university system to reach its full potential, the state has to stop treating it like just another agency
We want the State University of New York to be everything it can be. To hold its head high with the other systems, to provide the leadership in research and education for a 21st-century high-technology economy. But to do that, we have to pay attention to how it’s structured.
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Posted in Commentary
The New York Times: U.S. Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Gaza
GAZA — The American State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted them permission to leave.
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Posted in Government, International, Students
The Chronicle News Blog: Judge Refuses to Force U. of Texas to Reconsider 2 Rejected White Applicants
A federal judge has refused to order the University of Texas at Austin to re-evaluate, without any consideration of race or ethnicity, the applications of two white students who have sued the institution, challenging its admissions policies as discriminatory. The lawsuit is continuing.
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Posted in Students
The Guardian: Lecturer union urges moral review of Israeli college links
A lecturers’ union was last night accused of launching a new academic boycott of Israel after it agreed a policy to call on its members to “consider” their links with Israeli institutions.
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Posted in Unions
The Chronicle: British Faculty Union Calls for Preconditions on Working With Israeli Academics
Britain’s largest faculty union was described as “racist” and “McCarthyite” on Wednesday after its annual congress approved a resolution asking members to question Israeli academics on their political views before working with them.
The new policy for the 120,000-member University and College Union was adopted by a show of hands of the 300 delegates in attendance after an hourlong debate in Manchester, England. The question of how to carry out the policy was referred to the organization’s leadership.
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Posted in Unions
The Telegraph: Lecturers to debate ‘boycott’ of Israeli universities
Academics are preparing to reignite an international row as they urge fellow lecturers to consider whether they should sever links with Israeli universities.
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Posted in Unions
The Chronicle News Blog: Anthropology Association Urges Government to Tread Cautiously With ‘Minerva’ Project
In the latest sign of scholars’ anxiety about Pentagon-financed social-science research, the president of the American Anthropological Association has sent a letter to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget expressing concern about the “Minerva consortium,” a program announced last month by Robert M. Gates, the secretary of defense.
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Posted in Government
Daily Herald: College of DuPage President Chand ousted
No reason given for sudden ouster
In an abrupt move, College of DuPage trustees Tuesday removed President Sunil Chand from his job.
No reasons were given for the immediate separation, though the college is obligated to pay for the remainder of his contract, with a base pay of about $200,000, which expires next year.
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Posted in Administration
Haaretz: Shin Bet detains, deports Jewish-American professor, Israel critic
The Shin Bet security service detained and deported a Jewish-American professor who is a prominent critic of the Israeli occupation when he landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Friday.
Professor Norman Finkelstein was interrogated for several hours and held in an airport cell before being put on a plane back to Amsterdam, his point of departure. Finkelstein said he was told he could not return to Israel for 10 years.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Faculty, Government, International
Charleston Gazette: Scandal at WVU leads 3 to leave
Professors cite Garrison as reason to move
At least three West Virginia University professors have tendered their resignations over the degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin’s daughter, saying WVU President Michael Garrison can no longer effectively lead the school.
At least three West Virginia University professors have tendered their resignations over the degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin’s daughter, saying WVU President Michael Garrison can no longer effectively lead the school.
Radiology professor Aina Puce has accepted a position with Indiana University, history department Chairman Steve Zdatny is going to the University of Vermont and Brian Gerber, a professor in the Division of Public Administration, has taken a position with Louisiana State University.
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Posted in Administration
San Diego Union Tribune: Grand jury expected to urge community college ethics panel
The county grand jury is expected to release a report tomorrow that will recommend an ethics committee establish and enforce an ethics code for local community colleges.
The report, obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune, recaps a series of recent controversies at community colleges and recommends that the schools collectively provide $500,000 to hire three people to run a countywide ethics office. The office would develop a uniform code of ethics for all five local community college districts, investigate whistle-blower complaints and monitor compliance with open government laws.
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Posted in Ethics
The Chronicle News Blog: Israeli Universities Settle Strike by Junior Lecturers
Jerusalem — Junior lecturers in Israel called off a series of work stoppages today after they reached agreement on salaries and working conditions with university heads.
The breakthrough removed the threat of another crippling strike at Israeli colleges, where studies have been disrupted twice in the past year because of labor actions by students and by senior professors.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
The Independent: Britain to Deport Scholar Who Downloaded Al Qaeda Guide at U.S. Government Web Site
The Home Office was accused last night of rushing to deport a university administrator to conceal official blunders after he was arrested on terrorism charges only to be released without charge. A Labour MP criticised the decision, claiming there was no reason for it “other than to cover the embarrassment of the police and intelligence services”.
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Posted in Government
Las Cruces Sun-News: Regent fires back: Board president disputes dismissed professors’ claims of discrimination
LAS CRUCES — “Fed up” with an ongoing controversy dogging the university, the president of New Mexico State University’s board of regents has leveled a number of allegations about two dismissed minority professors.
Bob Gallagher alleges John Moraros and Yelena Bird were wrongfully hired in 2004, against faculty and department head recommendations; that a note in their files warned they would be likely to sue the university for discrimination; that they filed glowing evaluations of their supervisors just before being dismissed; and that they have refused to allow anyone to review their academic records.
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Posted in Administration
BBC: Teachers warn of strike option
Teachers’ pay strike
About a third of schools were disrupted in last month’s teachers’ strike
Teachers raised the prospect of further classroom disruption over pay with a warning that an autumn ballot for strike action remains an option.
The National Union of Teachers closed thousands of schools in England and Wales this term with a one-day strike.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Green Left: ‘No deal’ say Victorian teachers
Victorian Premier John Brumby announced on May 5 that a deal had been struck with the Australian Education Union. While Mary Bluett, AEU branch president, described it as “the deal we were fighting for”, many union members are furious with the agreement made on their behalf.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Washington: Respect the Western Washington U faculty, fair contract now
The Western Front: Respect the faculty, fair contract now
Enough is enough. With some faculty threatening to picket at graduation, there needs to be an agreement on a fair contract now.
A once, somewhat hidden topic to students is seeping into classrooms where faculty are now verbally announcing their frustrations about the faculty contract bargaining to their classrooms, boycotting student projects outside the classroom and sporting “fair contract now” buttons all over campus.
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Posted in Commentary