The Denver Post: Dems warn CU on Benson
Legislators leery of partisan past
After a week and a half of one-on- one coffees and public promises to shake money from the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, the sole finalist for the University of Colorado presidency is struggling to gain ground among certain Democrats.
In fact, it could be getting worse for Bruce Benson, an oilman and Republican operative who was named the finalist for the job earlier this month.
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Posted in Administration
The Chronicle News Blog: Embattled President of William and Mary Resigns
Gene R. Nichol, president of the College of William and Mary, announced today his resignation, effective immediately. He was told last weekend that his contract, which expires on June 30, would not be renewed.
In a remarkably blunt letter to the campus, the controversial president said he had been forced out because of stands he took to defend diversity and academic freedom. He also said the college’s Board of Visitors offered him and his wife money to go quietly. The board rebutted some of his assertions in a written statement, which said the contract decision “was not in any way based on ideology or any single public controversy.”
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Posted in Academic freedom, Administration, Diversity
The Daily Egyptian: University, faculty reach settlement
The university and the SIUC Faculty Association have reached a settlement agreeing that faculty members should be able to express concerns about colleagues without fear of retribution.
The agreement comes in response to a two-year-long dispute among faculty members in the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts. Faculty members said they were upset when their complaints about former MCMA Dean Manjunath Pendakur were made public and they were subsequently ostracized.
Faculty Association President Marvin Zeman said the settlement clarifies a principle he believes is important to workplace relations.
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Posted in Free speech
Some 585 academics and others have joined the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend the University, a group established to affirm the principles of academic freedom on campuses across the country. Their statement, which appears in the February 15 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, calls upon administrators, students, and colleagues to speak out against political interference in scholarly life “even if it means incurring the displeasure of non-scholarly groups, the media among them.” It especially targets those who would silence critics of U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East with charges of disloyalty, support of terrorism, and anti-Semitism.
The group has established a web site: http://defend.university.googlepages.com on which appear the names of those who have signed on as well as links to articles about attempts to suppress academic expression. Its organizers are Joan Scott, of the Institute for Advanced Study; Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University; Edmund Burke III, University of California, Santa Cruz; Steven Caton, Harvard University; and Jonathan Cole, Columbia University.
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Posted in Academic freedom
The New York Times: At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web
Publish or perish has long been the burden of every aspiring university professor. But the question the Harvard faculty will decide on Tuesday is whether to publish — on the Web, at least — free.
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Posted in Open access
Inside Higher Ed: The Phantom Campus in China
In May 2006, Kean University attracted national attention for its announcement that it would “be the first American university to open an extensive and newly constructed university campus on Chinese soil in September 2007.” As the New York Times reported at the time, “Glasses clinked, toasts were made and then leaders of this 151-year-old institution were calling it the most important moment in its history.”
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Posted in Corporate University
Oxbridge told to take more poor students
Oxford and Cambridge came under criticism from the Government on Monday for failing to recruit enough working-class students.
Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said just one in five students at the United Kingdom’s top 20 universities came from poor backgrounds.
But at Oxbridge the proportion plummets further still to just one in 10.
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Posted in International, Students
Turkish Daily News: Rectors in dilemma over headscarf controversy in universities
The ban on the headscarf was lifted in some universities yesterday as Parliament approved constitutional amendments Saturday, however, the amendments still need presidential approval before entering force.
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Posted in International
The Chronicle News Blog: Accreditor Faults U. of California on Management
The controversy over salary and benefits at the University of California may be a sign of an even wider problem.
The university’s regional accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, says it has conducted an investigation into the compensation matter that has led it to question some fundamental aspects of operations at the 214,000-student system.
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Posted in Administration
The Free Press: Twenty-six academic programs put on “probation”
Twenty-six academic programs have been put on a list threatening their suspension in the latest effort to improve USM’s efficiency and reduce its spending.
The list, released last Friday by Mark Lapping, the university provost, includes many of the sciences, as well as economics, the women’s and gender studies program, several master’s programs and a couple from the Lewiston/Auburn College.
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Posted in Academics
The Press Association: Oxbridge criticised over selection
Oxford and Cambridge were criticised by a Government minister for failing to give enough places to working class students.
Higher education minister Bill Rammell said the two ancient institutions take only one in 10 of their students from working class backgrounds.
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Posted in Students
International Herald Tribune: Iran replaces Tehran University chancellor after student protests
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran replaced Tehran University’s chancellor, who was the first Islamic cleric appointed by the hard-line government to the post, with a non-cleric economics instructor after allegations of mismanagement, state media reported Sunday.
The government-owned IRAN newspaper said the former university chief, cleric Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani, was replaced by Farhad Rahbar, a non-cleric who had been an economics teacher at the oldest university in Tehran.
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Posted in International, Protests, Students
Turkish Daily News:Court left as a last stand for secularists
The constitutional amendments package that will pave the way for women to wear the Islamic headscarf in universities was approved by an overwhelming majority in Parliament Saturday.
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Posted in International
Voice of America: Striking Zimbabwe Teachers Union Charges State Intimidation Of Members
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said Wednesday that district education officials in company with suspected state security agents have been visiting schools and demanding the names of union members who are on strike.
The union said it has received reports of such intimidation from Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Harare, Gweru, Masvingo and Matabeleland.
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Posted in International, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Bucks County Courier Times: Experts: Teachers strike bill unlikely to pass soon
Though Pennsbury school directors voted unanimously to support a bill against teacher strikes Thursday, the state school boards association doesn’t think a legislative change will happen anytime soon.
If passed, the Strike-Free Education Act, House Bill 1369, would make teacher strikes and lockouts illegal, as well as create a more detailed timeline and rules for contract negotiation. It was unveiled in early June 2007.
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Posted in Government, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Sunderland Echo: Teachers’ union slams assaults
Two attacks a week are carried out on Wearside teachers, new figures have revealed.
A total of 109 attacks were reported in 2007 – and the statistics do not include verbal confrontations, which could still be deemed as an assault in the eyes of the law.
Union leaders have slammed the attacks, saying schools need to be safe.
Howard Brown National Union of Teachers Sunderland branch secretary, said: “All assaults on teachers are unacceptable – the same way all assaults on pupils are unacceptable.
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Posted in Working conditions
Herald Sun: More than 25,000 state school teachers to go on strike
THE State Government could build a new primary school or hire 250 extra teachers with the $9.67 million it will save by not paying striking teachers.
On Thursday, more than 25,000 state school teachers demanding better pay and conditions are expected to walk off the job for the second time in three months. More than 10,000 will rally at Vodafone Arena before marching to Parliament.
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Posted in K-12 issues, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Seacoastonline.com: UNH faculty: No contract, no summer school
Union says one chance left to settle labor differences
DURHAM — If a contract agreement is not reached between the American Association of University Professors and the administration of the University of New Hampshire, summer school classes may feel the impact.
Professor Dale Barkey, president of the AAUP, said there is a mediation session set for Feb. 25. The two sides reached their second impasse last month and talks were called off by the administration to move back into mediation.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
New York Teacher: Appellate court backs Pace faculty
Leaders of NYSUT’s adjunct faculty local union at Pace University feel vindicated following a federal circuit court decision that potentially means adding hundreds of members to a bargaining unit of 750 members.
The January decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Washington, D.C. Circuit, affirmed the National Labor Relations Board’s original certification of this bargaining unit and the inclusion of adjuncts who were not eligible to vote in the 2004 representation election.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts, Legal issues, Organizing
The News Journal: President, others at DSU lose tenure
Faculty says protection is only for instructors
DSU President Allen L. Sessoms was awarded academic tenure when he was hired. The faculty union says only teachers can receive tenure.
Delaware State University President Allen L. Sessoms and five other administrators have lost their academic tenure as part of a settlement with the school’s faculty union, which argued the status was awarded by the board of trustees in violation of the union’s contract.
Under the terms of an agreement reached late last month, the administrators no longer can move automatically into senior faculty positions should they lose their administrative posts.
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Posted in Administration, Tenure & Promotion
