The Chronicle News Blog: New Details on Pentagon Surveillance of Antiwar Protests on Campuses
Internal military documents released on Thursday provide new details on the Pentagon’s efforts to monitor antiwar protests on college campuses. The documents, which were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request, include an update on “why the Students for Peace and Justice represent a potential threat” to Department of Defense personnel.
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Posted in Government
The Guardian: Universities urged to spy on Muslims
Lecturers and university staff across Britain are to be asked to spy on “Asian-looking” and Muslim students they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence, the Guardian has learned.
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Posted in Government, International
The Chronicle: University Leaders See Rewards and Risks in Internationalization, Survey Finds
The vast majority of leaders of colleges and universities around the world believe that while the internationalization of higher education is of utmost importance, there are also serious risks inherent in the process, according to a recent survey.
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Posted in International
Boston Globe: Harvard professor loses honorary title in ethics violation
Star Harvard economist Andrei Shleifer has been stripped of his honorary university title following an investigation into whether he violated the university’s ethical rules while advising the Russian government.
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Posted in Ethics
Union-Tribune: SDSU asks for stop to e-mails
A San Diego State professor has been using his university computer’s electronic mail account to organize rallies against illegal immigration and correspond with the controversial Minutemen.
The professor, Stuart Hurlbert, said yesterday that he doesn’t plan to stop – despite an official university request to cease and desist.
Hurlbert, who recently retired after 36 years teaching biology, says the university is persecuting him for his ideological beliefs.
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Posted in Free speech
Baltimore Sun: Suit seeks to toss out joint program at UB, Towson
Arguing that Maryland has failed to desegregate its colleges and universities, an advocacy group with ties to Morgan State University filed a lawsuit yesterday demanding the dismantling of several new academic programs at traditionally white campuses, including a joint MBA program at Towson University and the University of Baltimore.
The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education is requesting a court order that will mandate parity in “all facets of … operations and programs” between the state’s four historically black campuses and their traditionally white counterparts.
The Chronicle: Group Sues Maryland, Alleging Unfair Treatment of Historically Black Institutions
A civil-rights organization filed a lawsuit on Friday in a state court in Baltimore alleging that Maryland has failed to follow its own and federal laws with regard to historically black institutions in the state.
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Posted in Diversity
Inside Higher Ed: Research Review Boards Faulted
nstitutional review boards — never designed for oversight of journalism programs or surveys by sociology majors — have gone way beyond their mandates and purpose, to the detriment of scholarship, says a new report from the American Association of University Professors.
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Posted in Academics
Inside Higher Ed: Adjuncts and Graduation Rates
If community colleges want to see more students graduate or finish programs, what should institutions do? Add new testing or assessment programs?
There may be a simple answer. A national analysis of graduation and program completion rates at community colleges has found that institutions with higher percentages of full-time faculty members have higher completion rates. The study was conducted by Dan Jacoby, the Harry Bridges Professor of Labor Studies at the University of Washington, whose paper on the research is forthcoming in the Journal of Higher Education.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Inside Higher Ed: Arrests and Defiance at Gallaudet
Washington police arrested more than 130 protesters at Gallaudet University Friday night and early Saturday morning — ending a barricade that had effectively blocked people from entering the campus. But the protesters, who were taken away, fingerprinted and fined $50 each, quickly returned to campus, where they pledged to keep their activism going.
The Chronicle: Police Arrest Protesters and Reopen Gallaudet U.
City police officers arrested 133 protesters blocking the main entrance to Gallaudet University, in Washington, on Friday evening, ending a three-day blockade by students opposed to the choice of the next president for the nation’s only university for the deaf.
The Chronicle: Human-Rights Group Protests Israeli Ban on Palestinian Students at Universities
An Israeli military policy that prevents Palestinians in the West Bank from enrolling at universities in Israel is unjust and violates international law, according to a petition submitted this week to Israel’s Supreme Court by Gisha, an Israeli human-rights organization.
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Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle: White House Staffer Was Among Federal Workers Who Bought Fake Degrees From Diploma Mill, Lawyer Says
The strange saga of Saint Regis University, among the most notorious of all diploma mills, seems to get stranger and more interesting all the time — and may even reach all the way to the White House.
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Posted in Corporate University
The Wall Street Journal: Too Controversial for Columbia
s a graduate of Columbia College (’87) and the son of a Columbia graduate, I have some perspective on the school and the history of student behavior there. Sadly, nothing has changed in the over 45 years which include my father’s time at Columbia, my time there, and the recent “Minuteman protests.”
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Posted in Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/12/gallaudet
The protest over the selection of Jane K. Fernandes as Gallaudet’s next president — which escalated last week when students took over the main academic building — ratcheted ever higher Wednesday when members of the university’s football team manned the front gates and shut the campus down. They were later joined by hundreds of students who formed a human chain to block anyone trying to enter.
The Chronicle: Protests Against President-Designate at Gallaudet U. Intensify With Campus Takeover
Student protesters sealed off Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, on Wednesday in an escalation of their protests against the choice of the institution’s next president.
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Posted in Students
El Universal: Protest Reaches Mexican Capital
Protest Reaches Mexican Capital
By John Gilber/Special to The Herald Mexico
El Universal – October 10, 2006
http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/20880.html
Juan Pérez, a thin, 25 year-old teacher from Jocotepec,
Oaxaca, has been walking for the past 19 days. He wears
rough leather sandals, jeans, a hand-woven straw hat,
and a shirt with “APPO: a dream in construction”
painted in orange letters across the front.
“No revolution is going to come from behind a desk,” he
says as he swings his small backpack over his shoulders
and sets out from Nezahualc’yotl on the final 8 miles
of his journey.
“For the government, the voices of the people don’t
count,” he says, “that is why we have to take to the
streets, to do something with the impotence we feel.”
Pérez and several thousand of his colleagues from the
Oaxaca Peoples Popular Assembly (APPO) have walked
from Oaxaca City over 250 miles and through four states
to bring their demand that Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz be
ousted.
The march, which left Oaxaca City on Sept. 21 and
arrived in Mexico City on Monday, comes on the heels of
a four-month struggle to force the Ruiz Ortiz out in
response to a failed attempt on June 14 to violently
break up a teachers strike in Oaxaca´s central plaza.
“This is an example of people’s having reached the
limit of patience with decades of neglect,” says César
Mateos, one of the march’s organizers.
“The movement in Oaxaca seeks deep structural changes,
and the first step in these changes is the exit of
Ulises,” he says. “But we want to achieve these changes
through a peaceful movement, which is why we have done
this march. This is the true face of the APPO.”
The march began with over 4,000 people, dipped to
around 1,000 on the last few days, but then swelled to
at least 10,000 as it entered Mexico City.
The APPO protesters walked an average of 8 hours a day,
through both rainstorms and blistering heat, over
mountains and through valleys, enduring chilly nights
of mosquito bites and scorpion stings.
They were often met with support along the way,
including much needed nourishment from sympathetic food
and juice vendors along the highway.
“The support kept me motivated even though my feet
hurt,” said Betty, a 40 year-old preschool teacher from
San Mateo on the Oaxaca coast. “I cried twice, not from
the pain, but because there was so much support from
people.”
The marchers, carrying handmade signs, puppets mocking
Vicente Fox, and cardboard coffins for Ulises Ruiz,
walked down busy avenues leading to the Z’calo,
blocking traffic and enduring the full force of the
late-summer sun. Hundreds of people from nearby
neighborhoods and street-side markets lined the streets
to hand out water and sandwiches along the way.
They plan to set up a protest camp in front of the
Senate and have vowed to stay in Mexico City until
Ulises Ruiz is forced from office.
==========
Oaxaca, Mexico Overcoming Crisis
Prensa Latina – October 10, 2006
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=D54D366B-AC36-4652-A306-015DEE52F221)&language=EN
Mexico
Following eight hours of talks, the teachers’ union,
the Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) and the
Mexican Secretariat of Government finally agreed to
solve the ongoing conflict in that Mexican state via
legal procedures.
They decided to put public security in the hands of the
municipal and state police, led by a federal level
undersecretary.
Until Friday, APPO will hold consultation sessions on
handing over the capital of Oaxaca while teachers
promised to put the question of returning to classes to
the rank and file.
Removal of Governor Ulises Ruiz, the main demand of the
social movement, will be processed by the Senate, also
in charge of ruling on elimination of powers.
Meanwhile, a caravan of Oaxaca teachers and grassroots
activists arrived Monday evening in the Federal
District to stage a sit-in in front of the Senate to
demand the removal of Ruiz, which they consider the
only possible out of the conflict.
==========
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Posted in International, K-12 issues
* US Psychologists Banned from Conference in Cuba
Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles
Havana, Oct 6 (ACN) The US Treasury denied over 200 US
and Puerto Rican medical doctors licenses to attend an
international scientific forum in Havana.
Just ten days prior to the conference, the doctors were
informed of the denial by the US government, which
included threats and sanctions against the regional
organization for having held its congress on the
island, said Dr. Guillermo Arias, the president of the
2nd Regional Congress of the Inter-American Psychology
Society organizing committee.
The threat was extended to Latin American professionals
who were told that those who travel to Cuba will not be
allowed in US territory for six months, said doctor
Arias.
On behalf of his US and Puerto Rican colleagues, Arias
relayed their message against the more than 40-year US
economic, commercial, financial and also scientific
blockade of Cuba.
More than 200 experts from 14 countries, including
guests from South Africa and Spain, are attending the
congress that winds up on Saturday at Havana’s
Convention Center. During the meeting, Cuban
specialists have presented Cuba’s achievements in areas
such as education, human development, sports and
clinical psychology, among others.
The specialized gathering has also considered problems
related to gender, family, identity, social, arts and
community psychology as well as the historic and
cultural approaches.
The Inter-American Psychology Society is one of the
oldest organizations in the Americas and has
contributed to the development of psychology as an
academic subject in this part of the world through
international and regional conferences, publications
and networking.
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Posted in International
Quinnipiac Chronicle: Faculty: Loss of union may signal national trend
Eight months after the National Labor Relations Board accepted Quinnipiac University President John Lahey’s request to decertify the Quinnipiac University Faculty Federation, professors regret the decision and fear it may start a trend among private universities.
Sean Duffy, associate professor of political science and a member of the decertified faculty union, regards the university’s act of dissolving the union as being consistent with a broader, national trend.
“The union movement in general in this country is fighting an uphill battle,” Duffy said. “It means that national unions everywhere are going to fight and contest every effort to roll back and decertify these unions.”
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Posted in Unions
Washington Post: In N.Y., Sparks Fly Over Israel Criticism
Two major American Jewish organizations helped block a prominent New York University historian from speaking at the Polish consulate here last week, saying the academic was too critical of Israel and American Jewry.
The historian, Tony Judt, is Jewish and directs New York University’s Remarque Institute, which promotes the study of Europe. Judt was scheduled to talk Oct. 4 to a nonprofit organization that rents space from the consulate. Judt’s subject was the Israel lobby in the United States, and he planned to argue that this lobby has often stifled honest debate.
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Posted in Free speech
Orange County Register: No melting pot
More of California’s high school graduating seniors are black and Hispanic, but fewer can be found at University of California.
The news reverberated like an earthquake within UC Irvine’s small population of black students.
Only 96 of nearly 5,000 freshmen who planned to enroll at UCLA this fall were black – the lowest number in decades.
“It’s horrible to hear something like that – it’s hard to put into words how you feel,” said Blake Brown, a UCI biology major who hopes to go to medical school. “Ninety-six students. And probably a lot of them are athletes.”
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Posted in Diversity
Inside Higher Ed: Too Asian?
“Rachel, for an Asian, has many friends.”
That’s the kind of line that apparently is turning up more and more in letters of recommendation on behalf of Asian American applicants to top colleges, according to experts on a panel called “Too Asian?” at the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
When the recommendation line was cited as the kind of bias — even perhaps well intentioned bias — that pervades the admissions process, many in the audience at first seemed angry that in 2006 people would reference race in that way. But when it came time for audience comments, one high school counselor said that counselors feel they have no choice but to mention students’ Asian status and to try to make it seem like their Asian students are different from other Asian students.
The Chronicle: Textbook Company Tries Putting Bonus Materials on iTunes
Textbook companies have long sought to breathe life into their books by using technology. First, they tried packaging CD-ROM’s full of multimedia extras with traditional textbooks. Students were less than enthusiastic, and most of the disks were never put into a computer. More recently, many textbooks companies started putting such bonus materials on Web sites. That hasn’t been a raving success either. “It’s tough to get students there, short of the instructor making some sort of requirement,” says Scott Criswell, product manager for online-distribution platforms at McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
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Posted in Corporate University
