Boston Globe: Contract standoff ends at Emerson
After three years of bitter conflict, Emerson College and its faculty union have come to an agreement over how to divvy up power. Emerson’s trustees unanimously approved the pact yesterday and union members approved the new contract on Tuesday by a vote of 60 to 2. The faculty assembly, a separate body with largely overlapping membership, also approved a new handbook of rules by a vote of 88 to 6.
Comments Off on Massachusetts: Contract standoff ends at Emerson
Posted in Administration, Unions, Working conditions
AP: 38-year-old diversity agreement fulfilled
A court-ordered agreement to increase racial diversity at Tennessee colleges and universities may be ending next week, but higher education officials say they will continue the effective programs it required.
Comments Off on Tennessee: 38-year-old diversity agreement fulfilled
Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle: Arabic Professor at San Francisco State U. Waits in Canadian Limbo for a U.S. Visa
An assistant professor of Arabic at San Francisco State University has been stuck near the United States-Canadian border for almost three months while U.S. officials decide whether to grant him security clearance and a new visa.
Comments Off on Arabic Professor at San Francisco State U. Waits in Canadian Limbo for a U.S. Visa
Posted in Academic freedom
The Chronicle: Brigham Young U. Puts Physicist Involved in Scholars for 9/11 Truth on Leave
Brigham Young University has placed Steven E. Jones, a senior professor of physics, on paid leave because of concerns over his involvement in Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a group that says the U.S government permitted and may have even orchestrated the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.
Comments Off on Brigham Young U. Puts Physicist Involved in Scholars for 9/11 Truth on Leave
Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle: Utah Supreme Court Strikes Down University’s Ban Against Guns on Campus
The University of Utah cannot ban guns on its campus in defiance of a state gun-rights law, the Utah Supreme Court ruled on Friday.
Comments Off on Utah Supreme Court Strikes Down University’s Ban Against Guns on Campus
Posted in Working conditions
The Chronicle: Despite Post-September-11 Fears, Institutions That Protect Academic Freedom Remain Strong
Many professors in the United States feared the start of a new McCarthy era after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but scholars say the fight for academic freedom has continued, and, in cases where liberty is threatened, redress seems possible.
Comments Off on Despite Post-September-11 Fears, Institutions That Protect Academic Freedom Remain Strong
Posted in Academic freedom
Los Angeles Times: Students, Alumnae Boo Opening School to Men
Amid boos and shouts of “traitors,” Randolph-Macon Woman’s College officials announced that men would be admitted to the 115-year-old Lynchburg institution starting in 2007.
Comments Off on Virginia: Students, Alumnae Boo Opening School to Men
Posted in Academics
Detroit Free Press: Union holding its ground
They marched through the drizzly rain Saturday afternoon, carrying signs with sentiments like “Hands off my benefits” and “Protect our classrooms.” Just a day after a judge ordered Detroit teachers to return to school Monday, a handful of teachers, students and area activists took the fight straight to Detroit Board of Education President Jimmy Womack, as they protested in front of his home on McNichols.
Comments Off on Detroit: Union holding its ground
Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Guelph Tribune: Labour Relations Board Sides With U of G Union
Recently unionized faculty at the University of Guelph are in a strong position as they enter negotiations for a first contract after winning their case at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, says association president David Josephy.
Comments Off on Ontario: Labour Relations Board Sides With U of G Union
Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Sun Journal: UMS, faculty union reach tentative deal
he union representing University of Maine System faculty has reached a tentative contract deal. Only the union representing the system’s support staff now is without a contract.
Comments Off on Maine: UMS, faculty union reach tentative deal
Posted in Campaigns & Contracts
San Jose Mercury News: Shultz speech sets off plagiarism debate
When Stanford University economics professor and Hoover Institution fellow George P. Shultz delivered his prestigious Kissinger Lecture at the Library of Congress, he used entire paragraphs that had been previously published in a Yale University journal.
Comments Off on Shultz speech sets off plagiarism debate: Stanford students complain of double standard
Posted in Academics
The New York Times: Ex-Gonzaga Head Is Tied to Abuse Scandal
A former Gonzaga University president was involved in the sexual abuse of boys and young men in the 1960’s, but Jesuit officials covered up his actions, the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus said Friday.
Comments Off on Ex-Gonzaga Head Is Tied to Catholic Priest Sexual Abuse Scandal
Posted in Administration
Detroit Free Press: Judge: Back to class
A judge ordered Friday that 7,000 striking Detroit teachers return to the classroom without a new contract, agreeing with administrators that the state’s largest school district will be crippled and its students’ educations irreparably harmed if the 12-day work stoppage was allowed to continue.
Boston Globe: Detroit teachers ordered back to work
A judge on Friday ordered Detroit Public Schools teachers back to work after the district and the teachers union could not reach a tentative labor agreement despite nearly continuous negotiations. Wayne County Circuit Judge Susan Borman said she had “hoped and was given hope” that the two sides could reach an agreement, but that the teacher’s 12-day-old strike threatened to irreparably harm Michigan’s largest school district. Borman said the teachers must return to work by Monday. She also ordered the district and the 9,000-member Detroit Federation of Teachers to continue negotiating at least 12 hours per day through the weekend.
Detroit Free Press: Parents support return to class
Relief and solidarity were two competing emotions Detroit parents expressed as they prepared to send their children back to school on Monday — a week after the first scheduled day of classes.
Comments Off on Detroit teachers ordered back to work
Posted in K-12 issues, Strikes & Labor Disputes
A study all private universities in the US, released by a psychiatrist at Washington State University, shows that their ranking in Ultimate Frisbee edges out both SATs and grades as a predictor of academic performance!
Those ranked in the top half for Ultimate have a graduation rate of over 85%, while those in the bottom half just 60%. The top seven have nearly as many Rhodes scholars and Marshall scholars as all others combined.
The son of the study’s author, who helped with research, is on a U.S. national Ultimate Frisbee team.
Comments Off on Utimate Frisbee rankings more accurate than SATs in predicting level of academic success at universities
Posted in Academics
Inside Higher Ed: The Secretary Offers a Preview
The formal coming-out party for the final report of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education isn’t scheduled until the end of the month, when Margaret Spellings will be the featured guest at a September 26 National Press Club luncheon at which she is expected to unveil the report of the panel she created a year ago and offer her views about how its recommendations might be carried out.
Comments Off on The Secretary Offers a Preview of Higher Ed Commission’s final report
Posted in Accountability, Government
Inside Higher Ed: End of the Picket Line
“How long will the strike last?”
“The duration of the strike is in many ways up to NYU. The sooner the administration agrees to bargain with us in good faith, the sooner the strike will end. It’s important for the administration to understand that we want a contract and that we are not going away.”
Comments Off on More on end of NYU TA strike
Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
The New York Times: N.Y.U. Teaching Aides End Strike, With Union Unrecognized
In a victory for New York University, its graduate teaching and research assistants have ended the contentious strike that disrupted hundreds of classes last November, without having won recognition of their union.
Comments Off on N.Y.U. Teaching Aides End Strike, With Union Unrecognized
Posted in Uncategorized
The Chronicle News Blog: Questions Raised About Legality of Kentucky Governor’s Appointment to Board
The Kentucky governor’s choice to fill a vacancy on the Murray State University Board of Regents could be in jeopardy, the Associated Press reports. Members of a committee that recommends nominees to fill such vacancies disagree on whether a list that included the choice—Jeff S. Taylor, an appeals-court judge appointed to the board last Friday—received a sufficient number of votes to be forwarded to Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
AP: Approval of Fletcher appointee uncertain
Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s choice to fill a vacancy on the Murray State University board of regents may not have been approved by a required nominating panel, a member of the committee said.
Comments Off on Questions Raised About Legality of Kentucky Governor’s Appointment to Board
Posted in Administration
Houston Chronicle: Fired TSU president taken off teaching
Texas Southern University has relieved former President Priscilla Slade of her teaching duties and started the process to revoke her tenure, campus officials said Thursday.
Comments Off on Texas Southern U moves to revoke tenure from ex-prez
Posted in Accountability, Administration, Tenure & Promotion
And what does this absurd circumstance say about the value of strategic planning… EWR
The Chronicle: Plagiarism Hunters at Southern Illinois U. Say Campus’s Strategic Plan Was Lifted
A plagiarism hunt at Southern Illinois University may have snagged its biggest catch yet — a university’s entire strategic plan.
In 2001, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale began a long-range-planning process called Southern at 150, designed to make the university into a top-75 public university by 2019, its 150th anniversary. Many of the planning documents appear to be nearly identical to a strategic plan that Texas A&M University at College Station created in the late 1990s, called Vision 2020.
AP: SIU panel tapped to review new allegations of plagiarism
Southern Illinois University’s president tapped a panel Friday to review new allegations of plagiarism involving the system’s Carbondale campus, scrutinizing similarities between the school’s strategic plan and that of a Texas school where the chancellor once worked.
Glenn Poshard’s naming of the three-person panel came the same day The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that SIU’s long-range planning blueprint bears similarities to Texas A&M’s “Vision 2020.”
Comments Off on Plagiarism Hunters at Southern Illinois U. Say Campus’s Strategic Plan Was Lifted
Posted in Administration
