Inside Higher Ed: Terminating the Terminal Year
When DePaul University rejected Norman Finkelstein’s bid for tenure in June, all the documents in the very divided review of his record suggested no dispute over the high quality of his teaching. The tenure denial also said that Finkelstein would receive a contract for this coming academic year — the “terminal year” contract that is standard for colleges to offer those who have been denied tenure.
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Posted in Tenure & Promotion
The Chronicle: DePaul U. Cancels Courses of Professor Who Lost Tenure Bid, but He Plans to Teach Them Anyway
DePaul University has canceled all of Norman G. Finkelstein’s courses, taken away his office, and put him on administrative leave for his final year, but the controversial political scientist said that will not stop him from coming back to teach this fall.
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Posted in Employment rights, Tenure & Promotion
The Chronicle: 150 Injured in Bangladeshi Students’ Protests of Military Presence at U. of Dhaka
At least 150 university students in and around Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, have been injured in violent clashes with the police since Monday, when protests began against the presence of the country’s army on the campus of the University of Dhaka.
According to A.F.M. Yusuf Haider, the university’s acting vice chancellor, the clashes began after students at the University of Dhaka demanded an apology from soldiers who got into an argument with and assaulted some students on Monday evening.
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Posted in International, Protests, Students
Inside Higher Ed: Bargaining for More Tenure-Track Lines
In a move that both faculty union leaders and administrators are calling significant, a new contract at Rutgers University contains a requirement that 100 new tenured or tenure-track faculty positions be created in the system over the next four years.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts, Faculty
The Birmingham News: Lawmakers must leave two-year colleges by 2010
Legislators will no longer be able to hold their seats and work in the state’s two-year college system at the end of their current terms in 2010, and maybe much sooner.
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Posted in Administration, Ethics, Government
San Francisco Chronicle: UC’S TOP REGENT BASHES SYSTEM
The chairman of the University of California’s Board of Regents issued a highly critical analysis of the 10-campus system Wednesday, painting a picture of an impotent administration with a “dysfunctional set of organizational structures, processes and policies.”
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Posted in Administration
New York Times: Ex-University Head in Texas on Trial for Money Misuse
With Texas Southern University struggling to survive as one of the nation’s largest historically black colleges, the former president once hailed as its savior faced a state jury here Friday, charged with misspending hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal luxuries.
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Posted in Administration, Legal issues
Globe and Mail: The (new) idea of a university
Educated citizens and democratic governance go together like the proverbial horse and carriage: They depend on and sustain one another. Without educated citizens, democracy is little more than a sham and likely a cover for elite rule. And without democratic opportunities and outlets, an educated populace will have little incentive or impetus to contribute to society.
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Posted in Commentary
St Petersburg Times: USF takes easy way on diversity
I’ve known St. Petersburg Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis since 1994, when I first came to work for the St. Petersburg Times. As assistant chief of police at the time, Davis invited me to lunch for a welcome-to-town, get-acquainted chat. After he became chief, his telephone lines remained open to me. Now, when I want to know what’s going on in Midtown or elsewhere in the city, I’m always able to speak with him.
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Posted in Commentary
Orlando Sentinel: FSU’s mandatory health insurance may be contagious
Florida State just became the first public university in Florida to require health insurance for new students, but it may not be the last.
Other state universities, including the University of Central Florida, are keeping a close eye this year on FSU’s experiment and may soon follow suit.
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Posted in Students
Boston Herald: University of Vermont installs ‘gender-neutral’ bathrooms
The University of Vermont’s new student center doesn’t just have women’s bathrooms and men’s bathrooms.
It also has “gender-neutral bathrooms,” a feature added for transgendered people. The four single bathrooms in the new Dudley H. Davis Center – each with a toilet, sink, shower and lockable door – cost about $2,500 a piece to build.
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Posted in Equity
Salt Lake Tribune: Stats show few guns found on Utah college campuses
As the debate over guns on Utah college campuses raged during the 2007 Legislature, lobbyists on both sides quoted statistics and provided scenarios to prove that allowing guns would have either worsened or improved a hypothetical campus crime.
But crime data obtained under the Clery Act, which requires all campuses to report crime statistics to the federal government, shows few incidents between 2001 and 2005 when weapons were found or used on campuses, and in those few incidents, rarely were students involved.
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Posted in Working conditions
Chicago Tribune: U. of I., military company cut ties
The University of Illinois has canceled a partnership between its prestigious police-training institute and controversial military contractor Blackwater USA, citing a possible conflict of interest.University officials say the institute’s director, Tom Dempsey, was not upfront about a personal agreement he made to work as a contractor for Blackwater, even as he planned the official partnership. The university continues to investigate the case while Dempsey remains on leave, using accrued vacation time to work for Blackwater in Afghanistan training local police in drug enforcement.
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Posted in Administration
The New Zealand Herald: Student riots rock New Zealand
Dunedin’s mayor has been talking about his shock and disappointment at last night’s destructive rampage in the city’s student area.
Fifty-two people will face the courts this week after drunken crowds set fire to cars, couches and mattresses.
AP: Harlem teachers union says members will strike this week
Associated Press – August 20, 2007 9:04 AM ET
HARLEM, Ill. (AP) – The teachers union for the northern Illinois community of Harlem says its members will strike tomorrow morning instead of starting classes.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Press-Register: Judge places fine on Bishop State
A federal judge in Mobile said Tuesday she would fine Bishop State Community College $3,000 a day until it complies with her judgment in favor of a white teacher who won a reverse-discrimination lawsuit.
Chief U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade said she would wipe away the fines if Bishop State officials comply with her order by Sept. 5. Otherwise, the daily fines will continue.
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Posted in Administration
AP: Tehran Will Put Iranian-American Scholar on Trial, Her Lawyer Says
An Iranian-American scholar released after months of imprisonment in Iran has no passport and cannot leave the country where she still faces charges of endangering national security, her lawyer said Wednesday.
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Posted in Faculty, International
Inside Higher Ed: U. of Phoenix Case Lurches Toward Trial
A federal judge has rejected the latest attempt by the University of Phoenix to shortcircuit a potentially massive lawsuit it faces, increasing the chances that the five-year-old case actually goes to trial.
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Posted in Corporate University
Ann Arbor News: Tenure marked by strains with EMU professors union
After he became president of Eastern Michigan University, John Fallon says he invited the head of the professors union for a dinner in Depot Town to get acquainted.
File photoPeople at a rally for Eastern Michigan University faculty picket outside EMU administration offices in Welch Hall.
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Posted in Administration
Oh, Canada
Inside Higher Ed: Oh, Canada
The United States is part of the Americas. Hence not all Americans are citizens of the United States — and it is a sign of imperial hubris to treat those terms as synonyms.
Or so runs a bit of routine language-policing, as practiced by many well-intentioned people. By many well-intentioned Americans, one should say – meaning “citizens of the United States.” I know because I used to be one of them. Then, a few years ago, while on vacation in Canada, my wife and I had an odd conversation with the woman who ran the place we were staying. When she used the expression “you Americans,” our half-baked cosmopolitan reflexes kicked in.
“You’re an American, too,” we insisted. “Canada is part of America!”
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Posted in Commentary, International