Gender debate revived at Harvard

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Boston Globe: Gender debate revived at Harvard

The controversy sparked by former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers in 2005 when he questioned women’s “intrinsic aptitude” for science may be over, but the issue continues to provoke lively debate on campus.
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Yesterday afternoon, Rosalind Chait Barnett of Brandeis University and Steven E. Rhoads of the University of Virginia offered students vastly different takes on women’s scientific prowess and why they make the professional choices they do, during a seminar titled “What Larry Summers and Nancy Hopkins Didn’t Say: Women in Science.”

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Posted in Equity

Gap Persists Between Faculty Salaries at Public and Private Institutions

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The Chronicle: Gap Persists Between Faculty Salaries at Public and Private Institutions

The division threatens the ability of public institutions to recruit and retain faculty members at all levels, according to the American Association of University Professors’ annual report on the economic status of the profession.

FACULTY PAY AND COST OF LIVING

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

Fired Professor and Southern Illinois U. Settle Dispute Over Alleged Plagiarism

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The Chronicle News Blog: Fired Professor and Southern Illinois U. Settle Dispute Over Alleged Plagiarism

In 2004, Chris Dussold, an assistant professor of finance, was fired by Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville for copying someone else’s teaching statement. No one would have predicted the fallout from that dismissal, or guessed that the battle would stretch on for four years.

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Posted in Legal issues

What happens when a professor understands her hiring to be a joint appointment but her contract reflects otherwise?

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Inside Higher Ed: Rare Performance Review Do-Over

Middlebury College’s faculty committee that makes recommendations about colleagues’ pre-tenure reappointments recently took the rare step of reversing itself. The case not only put the institution’s review system under the microscope, but it also highlights the tricky issue of assessing professors with an interdisciplinary focus.

Earlier this academic year, the reappointments committee recommended to the college’s president that the contract of Laurie Essig, an assistant professor of sociology, not be renewed. As it does in all such cases, the three-professor panel observed Essig in the classroom and consulted with the head of sociology and anthropology, her “home” department.

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Posted in Tenure & Promotion

‘Collective Sidestep’ on Adjuncts

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Inside Higher Ed: ‘Collective Sidestep’ on Adjuncts

Accreditors have many detailed rules that they expect colleges to meet — requirements that relate to courses, faculties, facilities, money and more. But what about the use of adjunct faculty members — an issue that is the subject of increasing debate in higher education? What have the accreditors said or done?

“One might expect them to be in the vanguard of the debate over part-time faculty. They are not,” says a report, “Looking the Other Way? Accreditation Standards and Part-Time Faculty,” being issued today by the American Association of University Professors. The report says that accreditors generally say little about the use of adjuncts, are vague when they address the topic, and have rarely taken actions against colleges that have shrunk the sizes of their tenure-track faculty in favor of more use of adjuncts.

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Posted in Contingent labor

Torture and Tenure

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Inside Higher Ed: Torture and Tenure

A civil liberties group that is working to curb what it sees as abuses by the Bush administration has mounted an e-mail campaign to push for the firing of John Yoo, a tenured professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley.

While Yoo’s views on torture have been widely condemned in the academic legal world, many are objecting to the campaign as an infringement on academic freedom — ironically coming from a group formed to protect civil liberties. His controversial writing — justifying forms of interrogation many view as torture and in violation of the Constitution and international conventions — came while he worked in the Bush administration’s Justice Department. While Yoo did not respond to an e-mail request to comment on the campaign against his continued employment at Berkeley, he has written elsewhere defending his views.

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Posted in Academic freedom, Tenure & Promotion

Faculty Salaries and Priorities

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Inside Higher Ed: Faculty Salaries and Priorities

The American Association of University Professors is today reporting an increase in average faculty salaries of 3.8 percent — the same as last year. But because inflation is up this year to 4.1 percent from 2.5 percent, the association says that this year’s increases point to a real decline in faculty standards of living.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

Australia: Cuts take toll on ‘overworked’ Melbourne Uni staff

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The Age: Cuts take toll on ‘overworked’ Melbourne Uni staff

INCREASED workloads and stress among Melbourne University staff has raised questions about the university’s call for more voluntary redundancies in the embattled arts faculty.

According to a union survey of staff, obtained by The Age, more than 90% of staff said their workload had increased in the past two years. Of those, 60% reported a sustained increase in the past three months.

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Posted in Faculty

Virginia: BTSR budget shortfall leads to faculty lay-offs

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abpnews.com: BTSR budget shortfall leads to faculty lay-offs

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) � Faced with �worrisome� financial challenges, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond will downsize its faculty and staff, the school�s president announced April 8.

Four full-time professors and at least three administrative staff members will be let go in an effort to reduce costs, according to BTSR President Ron Crawford, who was elected to his position about a year ago. Though he did not release the names of the professors to be dismissed, Crawford said he has communicated with each one and that the school is offering severance packages that exceed a full year�s salary and full personnel benefits.

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Posted in Faculty

Meeting supports teachers in Puerto Rico

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Workers World: Meeting supports teachers in Puerto Rico

An April 4 meeting held at Hunter College in New York City to support the FMPR (Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico), the teachers union in Puerto Rico that went out on strike from Feb. 21 to March 5, drew more than 100 people.

There was strong participation from New York’s United Federation of Teachers, which represents teachers of kindergarten through 12th grade; and from the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents teachers and staff at the City University of New York. Outside the union movement, many members of the Latin@ community in New York also came out to show their solidarity.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

NYC Catholic Teachers: Strike Likely Next Week

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WCBS-TV: NYC Catholic Teachers: Strike Likely Next Week

Stalled Contract Talks Leads Union To Strike During Papal Visit
NEW YORK (AP) ― The dispute boils down to just $19,000, but it is likely to spur a teachers’ strike at several Roman Catholic schools days before Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit to the city, a union official said.

Lay Faculty Association spokesman Henry Kielkucki said Friday that teachers would likely walk off their jobs at 10 Catholic high schools on Monday or Tuesday in a contact fight with the Archdiocese of New York. He said a decision will be made Sunday.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

UK: 100,000 civil servants to walk out over pay on day of teachers’ strike

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Daily Mail: 100,000 civil servants to walk out over pay on day of teachers’ strike

The Home Office will be among the government departments hit by the civil servants’ strike

Schools across England and Wales will be forced to close their doors when more than 100,000 civil servants go on strike on the day of the first teachers’ walkout in more than 20 years.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Costa Rica Teachers Continue Strike, No Resolution in Sight

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Costa Rica Teachers Continue Strike, No Resolution in Sight

La Asociación de Profesores de Segunta Eseñanza (APSE, or the Association of Secondary Education Teachers), is holding firm in its strike against el Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP, or Ministery of Public Education) regarding wage discrepancies. Teachers interrupted the commemoration ceremony for Juan Santamaria today in Alajuela just as President Arias was about to speak with drums and signs demanding justice. The strike began March 31 and will continue indefinitely.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Union Dispute at Wayne State

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Inside Higher Ed: Union Dispute at Wayne State

The union of part-time faculty members at Wayne State University is engaged in negotiations over a contract, and union officials charge that on Thursday they were threatened with arrest for passing out leaflets. The charges, by the unit of the American Federation of Teachers, are detailed here. Wayne State officials did not respond to e-mail messages seeking comment.

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts

Professor for Hire

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Inside Higher Ed: Professor for Hire

Readers of The Washington Post were treated on Thursday to the latest salacious details of the “D.C. Madam” trial, a federal racketeering case in which prosecutors are attempting to prove that Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s escort service was really an illegal, high-class prostitution ring. The proceedings, and the mythical list of clients she’s dangled in front of the press, have already ensnared politicians and others far outside Washington’s orbit. Now it’s higher education’s turn to get roped in.

In Wednesday’s testimony, a former academic and university department chair took the stand and admitted to earning some extra income on the side: $250 per sexual encounter as an employee of Pamela Martin & Associates.

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Posted in Faculty

Many Academics Use Drugs to Enhance Their Brain Power, Survey Suggests

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The Chronicle News Blog: Many Academics Use Drugs to Enhance Their Brain Power, Survey Suggests

College students have long resorted to popping Ritalin and other stimulants to give themselves a mental leg up, but an informal survey by Nature magazine reveals that many science professionals are also taking drugs for the express purpose of improving their cognitive capacities.

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Posted in Faculty

Official at New Mexico State U. Apologizes for Sending Pornographic E-Mail

Posted on April 10, 2008 by | Comments Off on Official at New Mexico State U. Apologizes for Sending Pornographic E-Mail

Las Cruces Sun-News: NMSU memo details apology in e-mail uproar

LAS CRUCES — Larry Olsen, the New Mexico State University administrator accused of e-mailing pornography to a whistle-blowing professor in the College of Health and Social Services, has apologized for doing so, according to a confidential memorandum.

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Posted in Administration

N.Y. Catholic Teachers to Strike

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Washington Post: N.Y. Catholic Teachers to Strike

Teachers from 10 New York Catholic high schools voted Tuesday night to strike while Pope Benedict XVI visits New York later this month.

The Lay Faculty Association, a union representing about 420 teachers in schools from Poughkeepsie to Staten Island, wants the Archdiocese of New York to agree to a new three-year contract with improved pay, pension plan and health benefits.

The teachers do not hold Pope Benedict responsible for the dispute, but striking during his visit will draw wider attention to the problem and pressure the archdiocese to make a deal, said Henry Kielkucki, union business manager.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

Washington: WWU faculty protests lack of contract

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Bellingham Herald: WWU faculty protests lack of contract

Pact has been at bargaining table since March ’07

About 150 Western Washington University faculty members picketed outside the school’s board of trustees meeting Friday morning, protesting the lack of a contract after more than a year of negotiations.

Holding signs reading “Faculty Deserve Respect” and “Fair Contract Now!” faculty members packed the board room and hallway of Old Main.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Alaska: University signs salary contracts with three employee unions

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Anchorage Daily News: University signs salary contracts with three employee unions

A union representing 940 university faculty, counselors, librarians, Cooperative Extension agents and postdoctoral fellows primarily employed at the main campus will receive an annual salary increase of 3.3 percent over three years. But the university’s contribution to net health care will be reduced.

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts