CAUT Bulletin: CAUT condemns federal government directives on women’s programs
CAUT has written to Prime Minister Harper to express shock and anger over his government’s elimination of funding for women’s groups seeking support for research, lobbying or advocacy projects. CAUT also objected to the Harper government’s direction to Status of Women Canada that the agency drop “equality” from its list of goals.
Comments Off on CAUT condemns federal government directives on women’s programs
Posted in Equity
CAUT Bulletin: Canada: Settlement welcomed in federal research chairs discrimination complaint
The Canadian Association of University Teachers is welcoming today’s settlement of a human rights complaint launched by eight female professors against a federal government research program.“Today’s settlement is an important step toward redressing some very serious inequities in the academic research community,” said CAUT President Greg Allain.
Comments Off on Canada: Settlement welcomed in federal research chairs discrimination complaint
Posted in Equity
Asia Times: Iraq’s education under siege
BAGHDAD – The recent kidnapping of scores of academics in Baghdad highlights the desperate situation of the education system in occupied Iraq. Armed men wearing Iraqi police uniforms abducted as many as 150 academics from the Ministry of Higher Education.
Comments Off on Iraq’s education under siege: What The US Didn’t Do In Iraq Education
Posted in International
The Guardian: Iran’s fundamentalists push for segregation on campus
Religious fundamentalists in Iran are demanding separate university classes for men and women in a drive to impose puritanical Islamic values on the country’s campuses.
Comments Off on Iran’s fundamentalists push for segregation on campus
Posted in Equity, International
Inside Higher Ed: Domestic Partner Benefits Win a Round
An Ohio judge has rejected a suit challenging the legality of Miami University’s policy of offering domestic partner benefits to its employees.
Comments Off on Ohio: Domestic Partner Benefits Win a Round
Posted in Equity
Inside Higher Ed: Backlash Over Student Group’s Demands
Whether it’s a testament to the organizing muscle of Facebook or the intense feelings about race issues at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, upwards of 650 people have signed an online petition reprimanding a group of black students for making what signatories say are unreasonable demands of the university’s administration.
Comments Off on Backlash Over Student Group’s Demands
Posted in Students
Inside Higher Ed: Hopkins Endorses Gender Parity
A recent study, three years in the making, finds that Johns Hopkins University continues to lag behind comparable research institutions in recruiting and hiring female faculty and executive leaders. The Hopkins committee releasing the report has recommended and the university has endorsed that the institution achieve 50 percent representation of women in senior faculty and leadership positions by 2020.
Comments Off on Hopkins Endorses Gender Parity
Posted in Equity
Baltimore Sun: Back at work, but not on day of rest
Ever since his son Sam was born five years ago, David Brown has observed the Sabbath with his family, singing, praying and enjoying a large meal in their Pikesville home. For Orthodox Jews like the Brown family, the time between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday is a holiday during which work, even flicking a light switch, should be avoided.
Comments Off on Towson U. Relaxes Work Rules to Allow Jewish Policeman to Observe Sabbath
Posted in Working conditions
The Chronicle News Blog: Pentagon Monitoring Extended to Antiwar Protests on Campuses, Documents Show
The American Civil Liberties Union today released the latest batch of Pentagon documents related to what the ACLU described as the use of counterterrorism forces to monitor American groups, including campus groups, who oppose the war in Iraq and military recruitment. The documents, which the ACLU obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, include one in which an unidentified informant for the Pentagon cites a “non-specific threat” emanating from antiwar protests by Veterans for Peace in the spring of 2005 on several college campuses, among them Auburn, Emory, Howard, and Kent State Universities; and the Universities of New Orleans, Texas at El Paso, and Texas at San Antonio.
Comments Off on Pentagon Monitoring Extended to Antiwar Protests on Campuses, Documents Show
Posted in Government
Inside Higher Ed: Flagships Flunked on Access
Nothing subtle about the title: “Engines of Inequality.” Public flagship universities do a generally poor job of enrolling and educating underrepresented minority students and those from low-income families, and actually regressed rather than made progress on those fronts from 1995 to 2004, the Education Trust argues in a report released Monday.
The Chronicle: Flagship Universities Earn Poor Grades on Access, New Report Says
The nation’s public flagship universities are becoming less accessible to students who are from low-income families or who are members of underrepresented minority groups, according to a report released on Monday by the Education Trust.
Comments Off on Flagship Universities Earn Poor Grades on Access, New Report Says
Posted in Students
The Boston Globe: Hundreds in Hub teachers union picket at school
More than 300 members of the Boston Teachers Union picketed yesterday outside West Roxbury High School to protest stalled contract negotiations and pressure teachers to boycott a daylong math workshop scheduled at the school.
Comments Off on Hundreds in Hub teachers union picket at school
Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
NoSweat.org: Oaxaca: a No Sweat background briefing
“Oaxaca Vive, La Lucha Sigue!”
Oaxaca Lives, The Struggle Continues!
November 2006
By Paul Hampton
The savage repression of the movement in Oaxaca state in Mexico at the end of October has cost at least 17 lives and hundreds injured. But the struggle goes on. This briefing outlines the events leading up to the repression and looks at the tremendous history struggle by teachers in Oaxaca and across Mexico.
Timeline: Oaxaca 2006
Comments Off on Oaxaca: a No Sweat background briefing
Posted in International
Detroit News: Charge is dismissed against teachers union
A judge on Friday dismissed a contempt charge against the Detroit Federation of Teachers, saying the union followed a court order she issued even though its membership did not.
Judge Susan Borman ruled that the union cannot be fined because it obeyed an order when it told the striking membership during a meeting at Cobo Hall that they should return to work.
Comments Off on Charge is dismissed against Detroit teachers union
Posted in K-12 issues, Unions
The Korea Times: Teachers to Stage National Strike
Conflict among teachers, education authorities and parents has escalated with the teachers’ union planning to hold a national strike against a new teacher evaluation system on Wednesday.
The Korean Teachers and Education Worker’s Union (KTU) on Friday held a press conference in front of the Central Government Complex in Seoul and announced that it will mount a large-scale protest against the government’s teacher evaluation plan.
Comments Off on Korea: Teachers to Stage National Strike
Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
The Chronicle: Arizona Colleges Say Ballot Measure on Illegal Immigrants Will Be Costly
College officials in Arizona are worried that a new measure approved last week by voters will require them to shift hefty portions of their budgets so they can play backup for the border patrol.
Administrators at public colleges in the state say they expect to have to make expensive changes in their admissions, student-aid, and other policies to comply with a ballot measure approved by 72 percent of voters.
Proposition 300 prevents students who are not legal residents of the United States from paying in-state tuition at public colleges, receiving financial aid paid with state funds, and participating in adult-education classes offered by the Arizona Department of Education.
Comments Off on Arizona Colleges Say Ballot Measure on Illegal Immigrants Will Be Costly
Posted in Government
St. Petersburg Times: Al-Arian gets more prison time
Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who pleaded guilty last spring to aiding a terrorist group, was found guilty of contempt on Thursday for refusing to testify in another terrorism-related case and could serve as many as 18 additional months in prison, The St. Petersburg Times reported.
Comments Off on Al-Arian gets more prison time
Posted in Faculty
Des Moines Register: Expert: Regents met unlawfully
The secrecy surrounding the University of Iowa’s failed presidential search may color a second search for a new leader, said an Iowa expert and advocate for open government.
The Iowa Board of Regents, which voted Friday to reject four finalists and disband the presidential search, met in closed session several times in the past week without announcing each meeting, a requirement of the Iowa Open Meetings Law. Regents said the meetings were separate sessions of a closed-session meeting that started Nov. 9. Regent Bob Downer said Saturday that the board’s lawyer said that meant they did not have to announce the meetings.
Comments Off on Expert: U of Iowa Regents met unlawfully
Posted in Administration
Lexington Herald-Leader: Survivors of mass abduction recount torture, targeting of Sunnis
Shiite militiamen who snatched scores of Iraqis from a government office divided their captives by sect and freed only those who could prove they weren’t Sunnis, survivors of the incident said in interviews Sunday.
At least 64 men abducted last week in the brash daylight attack on a scholarship office in Baghdad remained unaccounted for Sunday, and the Sunni minister of higher education repeated a threat to resign unless the Shiite-led government shows progress in tracking down his missing employees.
Comments Off on Survivors of mass abduction recount torture, targeting of Sunnis
Posted in International
Orlando Sentinel: FSU boosters paid $537,000 to buy out Jeff Bowden
Whether he finds another coaching job, spends another day in town or ever works again at Florida State, Jeff Bowden will receive more than half a million dollars as part of the termination agreement he signed with the university Tuesday.
The contract, released by the university Wednesday, calls for Bowden to be paid $537,500 through 2012 after his current coaching contract ends next August. He will step down as offensive coordinator Nov. 26, the day after FSU’s final regular-season game against Florida. He will not coach in a bowl, should the Seminoles qualify for one.
Comments Off on FSU boosters paid $537,000 to buy out assistant football coach
Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
USA Today: Contracts for college coaches cover more than salaries
Pick any numbers you like to define college football’s premier teams — points scored, yards allowed.
Or the big money earned by their coaches.
The sport’s dizzying salaries spiral has come to this, a USA TODAY study finds: The million-dollar coach, once a rarity, is now the norm. Head coaches at the NCAA’s top-level schools are making an average of $950,000 this year, not counting benefits, incentives, subsidized housing or any of the perks they routinely receive. At least 42 of the 119 Division I-A coaches are earning $1 million or more this year, up from five in 1999.
Jim Tressel, coach of No. 1-ranked Ohio State, and Mack Brown, who steered Texas to the national championship a year ago, are among the nine coaches making more than $2 million. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz will pocket a guaranteed $4.6 million in an atypical 13-month period ending next June, including $1.8 million in one-time payments. With the incentive bonuses he still can earn, he could push his take to more than $4.7 million. That’s the most among the 107 coaches for whom USA TODAY could obtain a contract or other official document showing compensation.
Comments Off on Contracts for college coaches cover more than salaries
Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
