The Boston Globe: School threats follow Va. Tech massacre
Schools and campuses in at least 10 states were locked down or evacuated in the aftermath of a Virginia Tech student’s shooting rampage that killed 33 people.
Threats in Louisiana, Montana and Washington state on Tuesday directly mentioned the massacre in Virginia, while reports of suspicious activity surfaced in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota and Michigan.
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Posted in Uncategorized
The New York Sun: Rod Paige Warns of a ‘Death Grip’ by Unions
President Bush’s first-term education secretary, Rod Paige, is sitting in his office on the 75th floor of the Empire State Building, the leather of his black cowboy boots creaking beneath the cuffs of his pinstriped suit, and talking about the “death grip,” the “stranglehold,” that teachers’ unions have on public education in America.
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Posted in Unions
Houston Chronicle: Minority legislators resist TSU czar plan
Gov. Rick Perry’s desire to put Texas Southern University under conservatorship is meeting stiff resistance from minority lawmakers wary of placing the fate of the historically black institution in one person’s hands.
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Posted in Governance
Daily Telegraph: Universities ‘targeted’ by Islamic extremists
British universities will be warned this week that they are being targeted by Islamic extremist groups looking for recruits.
A conference of chief security officers will hear that religious radicals remain active on campuses and have infiltrated at least 20 institutions.
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Posted in International
Baltimore Sun: Lecturers to get benefits
Regents to require colleges to provide health, retirement coverage to long-term teachers
The University System of Maryland agreed yesterday to require its colleges to provide traditional benefits to long-term contractual lecturers, who occupy an expanding second tier of the state’s teaching work force.
The Sun reported in December that nearly 300 full-time instructors at five colleges were not eligible for retirement and other benefits. At Coppin State and Frostburg State universities, some lecturers who had been in their jobs for more than a decade weren’t even getting health insurance.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
Inside Higher Ed: (Virtual) Exile in Hawaii
A University of Hawaii professor sued the institution last week about a month after it essentially banished him from campus and prohibited him from contacting colleagues or students while it investigates accusations that he engaged in “intimidating, hostile and bullying behavior.”
Michael D’Andrea, a professor for nearly 18 years in the counselor education department of Hawaii’s main campus at Manoa and a self-described outspoken advocate for peace and social justice issues, describes the action as an attempt to stifle speech and dissent on campus. The American Civil Liberties Union is serving as co-counsel on the case, while the American Association of University Professors has raised concerns about a lack of due process in a letter to the Hawaii administration — which maintains in a statement that its actions were consistent with the university’s responsibilities “to provide a safe and healthy working and learning environment” for faculty, staff and students and “to foster a climate of collegial respect and trust to support our educational mission.”
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Intellectual Diversity or Intellectual Insult?
The Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would require public colleges to report regularly on how they promote and protect “intellectual diversity.” While the bill still must be approved by the Senate and the governor to become law, House passage was a major victory for groups seeking legislative help to change campus climates they view as hostile to conservative ideas.
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Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle News Blog: West Virginia U. Ignores Controversy and Picks Garrison as New President
The result is in for one of the most controversial presidential searches in recent years: West Virginia University announced today that Michael S. Garrison would be its next president.
Mr. Garrison, 38, is a local lawyer who earned undergraduate and law degrees from the university. He has held several posts in the state’s capital, most notably as chief of staff to a former governor and as chairman of the Higher Education Policy Commission.
His connections, including alleged ties to current members of the university board, led many critics to charge that the search had been rigged in his favor. The Faculty Senate on Wednesday took the rare step of voting no confidence in him even before he was appointed.
The chairman of the search committee and the university’s governing board defended the search process, which was unusually open. And Mr. Garrison has supporters, including student leaders, faculty members, business executives, and government officials.
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Posted in Administration
The Chronicle: Academics Protest Education-Research Group’s Silence on ‘Social Justice’
In a heated discussion of anti-gay violence, social inequality, and the obligations of teacher-training programs, scholars attending the business meeting of the American Educational Research Association on Friday accused the organization of neglecting its commitment to the public good.
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Posted in Academics
The New York Times: Virginia Tech Shooting Kills at Least 22
At least 22 people were killed today, some of them students, and about two dozen more injured during shootings at Virginia Tech, some of them in a classroom, the police said. A gunman was also shot to death, officials said.
The attack was the deadliest campus shooting in American history. According to several news agencies, the death toll continued to climb and could be as high 32.
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Posted in Events
New Unionism is the collective name for an approach being developed internationally by unions who want to make change and set agendas, rather than just reacting to them. This network brings people together to further these principles. As a network we have no formal structure, nor do we have any officers, policies or meetings. We have no links with any other organisation; we’re just us, and we want you to be us too. Here’s our FAQ. If you are interested in joining us click here
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Posted in Unions
The Chronicle News Blog:
Kaplan Buys Florida Company That Runs Online School With U. of Miami
Kaplan Inc. has become the second higher-education company to move into the business of running a virtual high school. The company, which is owned by the Washington Post Company, announced on Wednesday that it had acquired a Florida company, Sagemont Virtual, that runs a school called the University of Miami Online High School and a company that develops online high-school courses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to the online high school’s Web site, the operation appears to stem from a partnership between the university and Sagemont Virtual.
In January, the Apollo Group Inc., the parent company of the University of Phoenix, announced that it had bought an online high school. —Goldie Blumenstyk
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Posted in Corporate University
Huntington News: WVU Faculty Senate Votes ‘No Confidence’ in Garrison, Endorses Nellis for WVU Presidency
In an unprecedented move, the WVU Faculty Senate met in an emergency session late Wednesday afternoon, April 11, 2007, on campus to debate, deliberate, and ultimately vote overwhelmingly to express ‘No Confidence’ in WVU Presidential Finalist Mike Garrison.
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Posted in Governance
Academic Freedom and Tenure: Bastyr University
This report is concerned with the actions taken in 2005 by the administration of Bastyr University against three faculty members, Professor Suzzanne Myer in the School of Nutrition and Professors William (Bill) Roedel and Steven R. Kubacki in the Department of Counseling and Health Psychology. On June 22, the administration informed Professor Myer that she was being placed on administrative leave until her contract expired on August 31 and that her contract would not be renewed. On August 29, the administration notified Professors Roedel and Kubacki that their contracts, also set to expire on August 31, would not be renewed. The three had served continuously at Bastyr for twelve, nine, and four years, respectively. In all cases, their computer access was immediately terminated, and they were given no more than an hour to clear out their offices while the director of human resources remained outside their doors.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Tenure & Promotion
Haaretz: Protest shuts down higher education, closes roads
Students responded to the strike against the reforms in higher education so enthusiastically yesterday that they even managed to surprise some of their leaders, who called the strike.
“The students have woken up and realized they won’t get another chance to prevent the wrong that the Shochat Committee (for education reform) is about to do,” Itzik Shmuli, the Students’ Union chairman at Oranim College said yesterday.
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Posted in Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students
Inside Higher Ed: Promoting the Converted
The complaint is familiar: A professor is denied tenure or passed over for a promotion because of his or her right-leaning politics. The professor goes public, often to outlets such as FrontPageMag.com. Depending on one’s views — because these situations tend to be based chiefly on conflicting verbal accounts — the accusations are either part of a larger liberal bias in academe or represent trumped-up charges by unqualified or overly outspoken faculty members.
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Posted in Tenure & Promotion
Washington Post: Divisive Scholar Draws Parallels Between Islam and Democracy
Tariq Ramadan has a huge following in Europe but a controversial profile in the United States. The Islamic scholar has been barred from entering the country since 2004, when he was denied a visa he needed to accept a professorship at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Government
Inside Higher Ed: Real Pay Increases for Professors
The average full-time faculty salary for 2006-7 climbed 3.8 percent, outpacing the inflation rate of 2.5 percent during 2006 and giving professors a “real” raise, according to a study released today by the American Association of University Professors. The previous two years saw inflation outpace salary increases.
The Chronicle: AAUP Reports Higher Pay for Faculty but Sharp Inequalities
Faculty salaries are up this year, beating inflation for the first time in three years, according to the latest survey report from the American Association of University Professors. But the organization says underlying financial inequalities remain and pose serious threats to higher education.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Telegraph Forum: North Central State College may unionize
The North Central State Faculty Association has filed a petition with the State Employee Relations Board to form a collective bargaining unit.
About 60 full-time faculty members will vote soon on collective bargaining, according to Beth Franz, president of the college faculty association. The association is a chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
BBC: Mass protest over Argentina death
Argentina was brought to a near standstill on Monday amid protests over the killing of a teacher in the south-west of the country last week.
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Posted in International
