The Independent: University censured by race watchdog
One of Britain’s most prestigious universities has been censured by a race watchdog for the way it has handled redundancies.
Birmingham University may face legal action from the Commission for Racial Equality for failing in its duty to promote racial equality after threatening five black and ethnic minority group lecturers with redundancy.
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Posted in Diversity
McLean’s: Forcing professors to retire is unconstitutional: prof
A former deputy minister who was involved in the negotiations on the 1982 Constitution will now be using it to fight his forced retirement.
Howard Leeson is one of two professors at the University of Regina being forced to retire this month because they are turning 65. Both have launched legal action against their retirements, using the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to argue they are being discriminated against on the basis of age.
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Posted in Faculty
Inside Higher Ed: Gutting Shared Governance?
The journalism world was roiled and some within it recoiled back in 2005 when Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, widely regarded as a top school in the field, announced its pick for the new dean. John Lavine, an expert on media strategy and management, came in with a sweeping charge to integrate Medill’s journalism and marketing instruction in what many in journalism consider to be an unhappy and even dangerous marriage, and others describe as a necessary step in training future journalists for a rapidly changing business climate. Under the school’s strategic plan, “Medill 2020,” the school will be unveiling its revamped curriculum this fall, with the goal of ensuring that students learn about reporting and writing in the context of consumer, or audience, engagement.
Also upon Lavine’s arrival, though far less widely noted, the university suspended formal faculty governance procedures at Medill for 3.5 years – an act condemned as “unacceptable and in violation of the University’s Statutes” in a university-wide General Faculty Committee (GFC) resolution unanimously approved this month.
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Posted in Governance
Inside Higher Ed: The Adjunctification of Antioch
Much of the discussion of the planned shutdown of Antioch College at the end of the coming academic year has focused on the unique qualities of the education offered there.
Another shift will also take place with the shutdown — a shift that many professors at the college find sad and ironic. Antioch University — known because of the original undergraduate college as an institution with a strong faculty — will become an institution with five campuses, not one of which will have a tenured faculty member or a tenure system.
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Posted in Contingent labor, Corporate University
The Chronicle: Nevada Board Considers Plan to Train and Arm Some Faculty Members
The Nevada Board of Regents has endorsed a plan that would allow some faculty and staff members to carry concealed guns on public-college campuses, but the proposal is getting mixed reviews from professors.
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Posted in Faculty
The Chronicle News Blog: Students Will Begin Hunger Strike in Support of DePaul Professors Denied Tenure
Students who staged a sit-in this month at DePaul University on behalf of two professors denied tenure said today they would begin a fast this afternoon to bring renewed attention to their cause. During two weeks of protest, the students have demanded that the university grant tenure to Norman G. Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, and Mehrene A. Larudee, an assistant professor of international studies.
On Friday the Illinois Conference of the American Association of University Professors sent a letter to the university’s president, the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, echoing the students’ demands. In the two-page letter, Leo Welch, the chapter’s president, says the decision to deny tenure to the two assistant professors violated both the association’s standards and those of DePaul’s own Faculty Handbook.
Mr. Finkelstein’s alleged lack of “collegiality” appears to have been the “sole basis” for denying him tenure, Mr. Welch writes. “It is entirely illegitimate for a university to deny tenure to a professor out of fear that his published research … might hurt a college’s reputation,” he says. The association has explicitly rejected collegiality as an appropriate criterion for evaluating faculty members, and has criticized it as “ensuring homogeneity” and undermining the leadership role of colleges and universities, according to the letter. —Sierra Millman
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Posted in Protests, Students, Tenure & Promotion
The Sentinel: Shippensburg University faculty packs
Shippensburg University’s faculty will be on the go Monday – moving out of their campus offices in preparation for a strike that could come as early as July 2.
Faculty at SU and 13 other state universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education have already authorized leaders of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties union to call a strike if there is no new contract by June 30, when the existing four-year agreement expires.
Kent Chrisman of the SU APSCUF committee says a move from campus offices is a logical step.
“The rationale is that we are preparing for a job action July 2,” he says. “When you strike, you don’t come to work, so the faculty will take anything that is theirs, especially ‘intellectual property’ like grade sheets, books, articles they’ve written, manuscripts and research notes.”
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Inside Higher Ed: Professor’s Got A Gun
Next time, if an unhinged student chooses a campus in Las Vegas or Reno instead of Blacksburg, Va., Stavros Anthony wants Nevada’s colleges and universities to be prepared. After April’s shootings at Virginia Tech, the Las Vegas police captain and member of the Nevada Board of Regents proposed that the Nevada System of Higher Education protect itself against a similar attack, in part, by enabling faculty and staff members to become reserve police officers.
The Chronicle: Nevada Regents Approve Plan to Arm Professors
The Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents has endorsed a plan that would encourage faculty and staff members to go about their business armed with guns that could be used to thwart an attack like the one that took 32 lives at Virginia Tech in April. According to the Web site of KLAS, a local television station in Las Vegas, the regents approved a plan under which the system would pay a $3,000 fee for each faculty or staff member who wanted to take a 21-week training course in how to use firearms. The plan got mixed reviews from the students KLAS interviewed. —Andrew Mytelka
The Chronicle: Indiana State U. President Announces His Resignation, Effective Next Summer
One year after receiving a “no confidence” vote from the faculty, the president of Indiana State University publicly announced his resignation on Friday.
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Posted in Administration
The Chronicle: Accreditor’s Probation Provides Chilly Welcome for Incoming President of Florida A&M U.
James H. Ammons will face immediate challenges when he takes over next month as president of Florida A&M University, including straightening out financial irregularities and proving to the institution’s accreditor that it should be taken off probation.
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Posted in Administration
The Council of the American Historical Association rejected the affiliation application of Historians Against the War. HAW was informed of the rejection in a letter from AHA executive director Arnita A. Jones to Ben Alpers, who filed HAW’s request for affiliation, which read in part:
Dear Dr. Alpers:
I regret to inform you that the Council of the American Historical Association was not able to approve Historians Against the War’s application for affiliation. A majority of the members on Council were troubled by HAW’s membership criteria requiring anyone joining the organization to sign a statement opposing the war. Specifically, members believed this requirement establishes a political litmus test that conflicted with the AHA’s criteria for affiliation. (“The Association will not consider for affiliation any organization that discriminates on the basis of … ideology or political affiliation”). But more generally, a majority of the Council believed that the Association could not confer affiliate status on an organization focused on one side of a current
political debate, rather than historical study of the subject.Given those concerns, we cannot accept your application at this time.
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Posted in Academics, Campaigns & Contracts, Faculty, Protests
[Message from Natsu Taylor Saito below, and attached.]
Hello Folks,
The Regents of the University of Colorado will meet in
late July or early August, when the campus is all but
vacant, to determine Ward Churchill’s fate. Natsu
Saito has written a superb update and synopsis of the
relevant issues related to Ward’s case (see below or
attached), including links to supporting
documentation. She asks each of you send a statement
opposing Ward’s dismissal to the CU Board of Regents
and local print media. The Regent’s email addresses
are included in the update. Print media email
addresses are at the bottom. And, be sure to include
name, address and daytime phone number.
It should be clear by now that the case against
Churchill is fundamentally political. Further,
American Indian Studies experts Eric Cheyfitz and
Michael Yellow Bird have shown that the CU
investigative report on Churchill’s alleged
falsification and fabrication is severely flawed.
Professor Tom Mayer has shown the plagiarism charges
are greatly exaggerated. A still larger issue is who
should define academic freedom, determine the limits
of tenure, and formulate University policy. Should a
fair, objective faculty-driven process as specified by
the Laws of the CU Regents be the norm? Or do you
prefer an autocratic model favored by powerful right
wing foundations like Coors, Olin, Scaife and Bradley
and their cohorts at the American Council of Trustees
and Alumni (ACTA) and their allies in the CU
administration? Even if we fail to stop the
Regents, your input will surely count as this battle
enters a new stage.
The length of your statement is not important the fact
you send one is.
So, please take the time to write.
*********************************************************************************************
Regents to vote on firing Ward Churchill… It’s time to
speak out.
In the next few weeks, the Board of Regents of the
University of Colorado (CU) will vote on the dismissal
of Professor Ward Churchill. This is the final
opportunity for public input in this process.
Over the past two and a half years, many of you have
opposed CU’s attempts to fire Ward. Ward and I have
engaged in this struggle not for the sake of his job
(he will always write, speak and teach), nor because
we enjoy battling bureaucracy, but because it has
become emblematic of contemporary efforts to silence
those who insist on discussing uncomfortable truths.
Since February 2005, CU administrators have been under
intense political and financial pressure to fire Ward
for his statements about the 9/11 attacks. To avoid
blatantly violating the First Amendment, they have
resorted to a pretextual investigation of his
scholarship.
After combing through a media barrage of unfounded
allegations and his more than 20 books, 100 articles,
and over 12,000 footnotes, CU has settled for firing
Ward Churchill, a tenured full professor, for six
instances of alleged improper footnoting or author
attribution (see details below).
Predictably, this has provided sufficient excuse for
those who wish to distance themselves from this
“controversy” and still believe they support academic
freedom. For organizations like Lynne Cheney’s
neoconservative American Council of Trustees and
Alumni (ACTA), it is a major victory for the
corporatization of higher education.
However, those who look beyond the headlines and CU’s
self-serving pronouncements have recognized it as a
charade.
First, the evidence has established that all of the
charges investigated were solicited or invented by
University administrators. None were filed by the
allegedly aggrieved parties.
The specific charges against Ward have been debunked.
Recently, fifteen professors and two attorneys filed
two sets of formal research misconduct allegations
against the investigative committee which wrote the
report used to justify sanctions. These illustrate
that the committee members were so determined to
convict Ward that they engaged in falsification and
fabrication of evidence, twisting the facts to fit
their conclusions. In addition, CU Professor Tom
Mayer has exposed the pretextual nature of the
so-called plagiarism charges.
More generally, Indigenous scholar/activists and their
allies have recognized that this is an attack on those
who challenge mainstream “truths” about U.S. history,
as well as an attempt to eliminate ethnic and gender
studies. Public intellectuals including Derrick Bell,
Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Howard Zinn, and Immanuel
Wallerstein published an open letter in the NY Review
of Books denouncing CU’s actions as part of the
repressive post-9/11 “militarist reflex.” A petition
opposing Ward’s dismissal was signed by nearly 500
scholars and activists with Teachers for a Democratic
Society. Many other groups have submitted letters and
petitions denouncing CU’s tactics and calling for
Ward’s reinstatement.
What has meant the most to us, however, has been the
support of elders like Carrie Dann of the Western
Shoshone and Japanese American activist Yuri
Kochiyama, young people who are searching for a way to
cope with an uncertain future, and regular people on
the street – parking lot attendants, baggage handlers,
homeless people – who consistently express their
appreciation that Ward refuses to be silenced. They
know this is not about footnotes.
I hope you will take the time to e-mail the CU Regents
and urge them not to fire Ward Churchill. They can be
reached c/o Millie.Cortez@cu.edu , or individually at
Steve.Ludwig@cu.edu, Cindy.Carlisle@cu.edu,
Patricia.Hayes@cu.edu, Michael.Carrigan@cu.edu,
Tom.Lucero@cu.edu, Steve.Bosley@cu.edu,
Kyle.Hybl@cu.edu, Paul.Schauer@cu.edu,
Tillie.Bishop@cu.edu
(For maximum effectiveness, please cc:
wcsn@gmail.com.)
We have no illusions that the Regents will suddenly
wake up and decide to take academic freedom seriously.
However, the resistance they encounter in firing
Ward Churchill will determine how readily others will
be subjected to similar treatment. Resistance is
never futile, for it defines the terms of the next
struggle.
In solidarity,
Natsu Taylor Saito
Boulder, Colorado
June 20, 2007
p.s. A brief outline of key facts and links follows.
See also http://www.wardchurchill.net and
www.defendcriticalthinking.org.
Key Facts in the Ward Churchill Case
The Charges :
CU’s grounds for dismissal now consist solely of the
charges that Prof. Churchill:
(1) failed to provide sufficient evidence that in
the 1837 smallpox epidemic
(a) infected blankets were obtained from an
infirmary;
(b) an Army doctor or post surgeon told the Mandans
to scatter; and
(c) 400,000 people, as opposed to possibly
300,000, ultimately died;
(2) cited to material he has consistently
acknowledged as ghostwritten;
(3) published an article in Z Magazine in which
the editors, without telling him, deleted his
attribution of co-authorship to “Dam the Dams;” and
(4) copyedited a piece in a book edited by a third
party which, unbeknownst to him, plagiarized Fay
Cohen.
The invalidity of each charge has been shown
demonstrated by Prof. Churchill and numerous other
scholars. But even if they were true, they illustrate
the pretextual nature of the process. No prolific
scholar could withstand such fine-tooth combing of his
or her work.
The Bottom Line : Recognizing that they could not
fire Prof. Churchill directly for his political
speech, CU administrators created a pretext to do so
by soliciting/inventing “research misconduct”
allegations. A biased investigation generated a
handful of technical charges which the University has
falsely labeled “plagiarism” or “fabrication of
evidence.” To date, external political and financial
pressures have trumped the First Amendment and the
principle of academic freedom at the University of
Colorado.
Key Developments:
Feb. 2, 2005: Then-Colorado Governor Bill Owens
demands that Professor Ward Churchill be fired for his
2001 op-ed web posting on the 9/11 attacks.
Feb. 3, 2005: The Regents denounce Ward Churchill’s
statements and authorize then-Interim Chancellor
Philip DiStefano to investigate “every word” he has
published. Though billed as a public meeting, two
people are arrested and prosecuted for attempting to
speak in support of Prof. Churchill.
Mar. 3, 2005: Then-President Betsy Hoffman warns the
Boulder Faculty Assembly of a “new McCarthyism,”
pointing out that there is “no question that there’s a
real danger that the group of people [who] went after
Prof. Churchill now feel empowered.” Within 5 days
Pres. Hoffman announces her resignation.
Mar. 24, 2005: Interim Chancellor DiStefano, who has
never bothered to inform Prof. Churchill of the
investigation, publicly announces that although all of
Prof. Churchill’s writings and speeches are protected
by the First Amendment, the University has received
other allegations which require investigation.
Subsequently it comes out that all of the allegations
actually investigated were either created or solicited
by University administrators.
Spring 2005: The University feeds the media frenzy,
holding press conferences to announce each step of the
“investigation” in direct violation of confidentiality
rules. In turn, news coverage is submitted for
investigation by Interim Chancellor DiStefano as
“complainant.”
Fall 2005: An Investigative Committee is appointed,
chaired by CU law professor Mimi Wesson. Prof.
Churchill is not informed that Prof. Wesson had
circulated a memo in Feb. 2005 comparing Prof.
Churchill to “charismatic male celebrity wrongdoers”
like OJ Simpson, Bill Clinton, and Michael Jackson.
The Committee includes no American Indians and no one
specializing in American Indian or Indigenous Studies.
May 9, 2006: The Investigative Committee holds a
press conference to release its Report, claiming to
have found 7 instances of research misconduct. One
committee member recommends termination, four
recommend suspension.
June 16, 2006: Interim Chancellor DiStefano, the
“complainant,” now becomes sentencing judge,
recommending dismissal.
May 3, 2007: An internal faculty appeal panel finds
the University has not met its burden of proof on some
charges, but upholds others (documentation of the 1837
smallpox epidemic and questions of author
attribution). Two members of the panel support
dismissal; three recommend a 1-year suspension.
Prof. Churchill requests that CU President Hank Brown
recuse himself from the dismissal process, based upon
Brown’s biases, including his close ties to ACTA,
which has consistently denounced Prof. Churchill
(see ACTA’s How Many Ward Churchills?).
May 10 and 28, 2007: Two groups of professors and
attorneys file research misconduct charges against the
Investigative Committee for falsifying and fabricating
evidence against Prof. Churchill in their Report .
The governing board of the Colorado Conference of AAUP
chapters calls on the University not to take action
against Prof. Churchill until the legitimacy and
objectivity of the Report has been investigated.
June 7, 2007: CU President Hank Brown refuses to
recuse himself or delay action, and overrides the
majority of both the Investigative Committee and the
faculty appeal panel to recommend that the Regents
fire Prof. Churchill.
July/Aug 2007: The CU Regents will vote on
dismissing Prof. Churchill.
Quick links :
Two sets of research misconduct charges filed against
CU Investigative Committee:
http://wardchurchill.net/files/misconduct_charges_letter_and_supporting_docs.doc
http://wardchurchill.net/files/rm_indig_sch_052807.pdf
Debunking plagiarism charges:
http://wardchurchill.net/files/mayer_on_plagiarism_charges_0607.pdf
The ACTA connection:
http://wardchurchill.net/files/cu_acta_ad.pdf
Indigenous Studies:
http://wardchurchill.net/files/indig_conf_resol_020307.pdf
NY Review of Books Open Letter:
http://wardchurchill.net/files/open_letter_for_nyrb.pdf
Teachers for a Democratic Society petition:
http://www.teachersfordemocracy.org/?q=node/19
Send letters and op-eds to:
Silver and Gold Record <dodgej@cusys.edu> (most
important)
Daily Camera
Colorado Daily <letters@coloradodaily.com>
Denver Post <openforum@denverpost.com>
Rocky Mountain News <letters@RockyMountainNews.com>
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Posted in Academic freedom
Arizona Republic: ASU’s president gets 25% pay hike
The Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday gave a 25 percent raise in pay and benefits to Arizona State University President Michael Crow.
The board voted unanimously on the unprecedented five-year contract, which raises Crow’s annual salary and benefits to more than $720,000 a year. He also gets a one-time bonus of $600,000, paid with private funds, if he remains president for five years.
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Posted in Administration, Salary/Economic Benefits
Tallahassee Democrat: Auditor: FAMU fix needs scrutiny
Chronic mismanagement and loss of property at Florida A&M University might be “something more than sloppiness,” a state auditor told the special task force on FAMU operations Thursday.
State Board of Governors member Lynn Pappas, who chairs the Task Force on FAMU Financial and Operational Control Issues, said it might be time for a “forensic audit” into some of the 35 critical findings cited in an April operation audit of FAMU.
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Posted in Administration
Inside Higher Ed: Antioch Professors my sue
Professors at Antioch College are considering a lawsuit against the board of Antioch University over its decision to shut down the college. A statement issued on behalf of the faculty, by Dimi Reber, an emerita professor who noted that she can speak freely without fear for her job, blasts the university’s board. While board leaders have said that they tried to save the college, and couldn’t continue it with enrollment of around 300, the faculty statement says that the board forced changes that prompted an enrollment decline. “The board risked the college’s well-being with the imposition of an ill-considered plan, failed to provide promised support, and then closed the college,” according to the faculty. The statement goes on to note that the university would gain the college’s endowment and land if the college is destroyed. “Can the board and university administration which conducted their review of the college’s recent situation in secrecy, in violation of our governance policies, without consulting faculty and staff who stand to lose their livelihoods and professions, be trusted with the college’s current assets, its legacy and its future?” the statement asks.
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Posted in Faculty
The Chronicle: Accreditor Puts Florida A&M on Probation for Financial and Administrative Problems
The accrediting association that oversees Florida A&M University has voted to place the historically black public college on six-months’ probation, citing financial and managerial problems.
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Posted in Administration
The Chronicle: A Judge Jettisons ‘John Doe’ Subpoenas
When the Recording Industry Association of America started filing “John Doe” subpoenas to ascertain the names of campus song-swapping suspects, some lawyers complained about the process. Ex parte discovery tactics — in which John Does are often unaware that they are subpoena subjects — should be reserved for extreme circumstances, the critics argued.
In fact, several people identified in the John Doe subpoenas have tried making that case in court, but judges have routinely slapped the argument down. Until now, that is: A U.S. District Court judge has told the RIAA it cannot use the John Doe method to uncover the names of 16 suspected music pirates at the University of New Mexico, according to the blog Recording Industry vs. The People.
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Posted in Open access
The Boston Globe: Retro reform at UMass
THE DEBATE about governance at the University of Massachusetts, motivated by President Jack M. Wilson’s vision for “one university,” has paid scant attention to the history of state university systems. Across the nation are experiments that enable us to draw conclusions about the elements necessary to achieve the highest level of educational excellence. Massachusetts has a less mature state university system than some other states. Undoubtedly because of the large number of outstanding private colleges and universities located here, Massachusetts created a state university system relatively recently, in 1991, several decades after such systems were created in places like California, New York, Texas, and Illinois.
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Posted in Governance
The News-Press: FGCU lawyer placed on leave
FGCU’s head attorney claims the university’s president blocked her from reviewing a gender equity complaint involving campus athletics.
General Counsel Wendy Morris said she didn’t even hear about the May 25 complaint until all Florida Gulf Coast University employees were notified through a June 8 e-mail. That message was sent hours after The News-Press already had inquired about the case.
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Posted in Legal issues
San Diego Union-Tribune: MiraCosta president resigns amid upheavals
MiraCosta College President Victoria Muñoz Richart resigned early this morning, following a year marked by lawsuits, three administrative departures, and a no confidence vote in her leadership by the faculty.
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Posted in Administration
