AP: Iraq suspends university for politics
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister suspended classes and banned political activities at one of Baghdad’s leading universities following student protests on campus, a government spokesman said Wednesday.
AP: Iraq suspends university for politics
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister suspended classes and banned political activities at one of Baghdad’s leading universities following student protests on campus, a government spokesman said Wednesday.
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Posted in Government, Politics
Tagged Government, Iran, Politics, Protests, university closures
Daily Press: Sen. Tommy Norment wearing two hats for W&M: well-paid employee and powerful advocate in the General Assembly
WILLIAMSBURG – On July 1, 2008, state Sen. Tommy Norment boosted his state paycheck nearly tenfold with the stroke of a pen. That’s when he accepted a part-time faculty appointment with the College of William and Mary, his law school alma mater.
His annual salary for teaching two courses: $160,000.
That means Norment now wears two hats with regard to William and Mary: well-paid employee and powerful advocate in the General Assembly.
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Posted in Government
Tagged Conflict-of-interests, double-dipping, Ethics, Government, Salary/Economic Benefits
Charleston Gazette: Emily, John Perdue discuss MU grades controversy
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Emily Perdue said she did nothing wrong and got no special treatment when she earned two A grades this summer to replace two “incomplete” grades for courses she took during the spring 2009 semester at Marshall University.
During an interview on Sunday, Perdue said she received the incomplete grades after she withdrew from two courses taught by Laura Wyant, a professor of adult and technical education at Marshall.
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Posted in Academics
Tagged Government, grading, Marshall U, Scandal
The Chronicle: Israel Bars Some Foreign Academics Who Teach in the West Bank
Israel has clamped down on the movement of foreign academics teaching at Palestinian universities in the West Bank, barring some from entering the region altogether or stamping “Palestinian Authority only” in the passports of others, preventing them from entering Israel.
An English-language instructor from Ireland who taught for several years at the Arab American University, in Jenin, was refused entry on August 23 when she returned to the West Bank to take up a new
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Arab American U, freedom of movement, Government, Israel, Palestine, West Bank
Chicago Tribune: Chicago State gets $40 million surprise
State lawmakers plan funding for a West Side campus that the struggling school didn’t request
The president of Chicago State University was scanning the newspaper before an executive staff meeting when he did a double-take. Frank Pogue learned his South Side school would be building an extension campus on the West Side, and state lawmakers were allocating $40 million for it.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Chicago State U, Government
Inside Higher Ed: Labor Secretary Clarifies Remarks on Adjuncts
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis last week gave an interview to National Public Radio in which she answered a listener’s question about adjunct instructors in a way that some viewed as questioning their commitment to teaching — but she has now clarified her comments. The comment in question, found toward the bottom of this transcript, is: “[T]he continuance of involvement on the part of part-time faculty members I think is a legitimate issue and should be looked at. Because as it stands, you also find that that faculty member is not as inclined to stay committed to those groups of students that they do teach because they’re off to different — other — what they call, freeway traveling or teaching.…” The American Federation of Teachers approached the Labor Department about the issue and published this statement of clarification that the AFT received: “Adjunct faculty are being particularly hard-hit by the financial crisis at the state level. They deserve to be represented in collective bargaining, and their collective bargaining agreements should be respected. I certainly was not implying that adjuncts are not committed to their students, or that they are anything other than excellent educators. In fact, my involvement with California community colleges has shown me that they are committed professionals who are dedicated to helping students succeed. What I wanted to get across is that, too often, adjunct faculty do not get the level of compensation or professional supports that full-time faculty receive to advise students academically, follow students through their academic careers, develop the college’s curriculum, etc. Too many adjuncts, I noted, wind up needing to move from college to college each week just to put together a small living.”
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Posted in Contingent labor
Tagged adjuncts, Contingent labor, Government
The Chronicle News Blog: Muslim Scholar Excluded from U.S. Wins a Victory in Federal Appeals Court
A federal appeals court ruled today that the U.S. government might have acted improperly in denying a visa to the the prominent European Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Government, Legal isues, visa denials
Grand Rapids Press: Proposed bills tell teachers one strike, they’re out
GRAND RAPIDS — Two bills in the state House could cause teachers to suffer greater penalties — including loss of certification for two years — for taking part in a strike.
State Reps. Bill Rogers, R-Howell, and Jimmy Womack, D-Detroit, filed bills intended to add teeth to the 1994 law that made strikes illegal, but made it impractical to punish violators.
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Posted in Government, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Government, K-12 issues, Strikes
AP: Mousavi Web site: 70 professors detained in Iran
Seventy university professors were detained in Iran in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a Web site affiliated with Iran’s key opposition figure, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he was robbed of victory in a rigged presidential election.
The professors were detained on Wednesday, immediately after meeting with Mousavi, said the Kalemeh site, which is affiliated with the opposition leader. The report said it is not clear where the detainees were taken.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged Government, Iran, professors detained, Protests
The Chronicle: Slide show: Assault on the U of Tehran
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged assualts, Government, Iran, Protests, U of Tehran
AP: Woodward: Former provost salary package ‘invalid’
RALEIGH (AP) — The interim chancellor of N.C. State has eliminated the lucrative resignation package given to the former campus provost, saying in a letter released Tuesday that the deal was “invalid.”
Interim chancellor Jim Woodward said in the letter that former Chancellor James Oblinger did not have the authority to “fundamentally alter” the 2005 employment agreement of former provost Larry Nielsen. Woodward said Oblinger should have sought the approval of the board of trustees.
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Posted in Administration, Government, Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged Government, North Carolina State U, pay, Scandal
EurasiaNet: KAZAKHSTAN: ECONOMIC CRISIS CRIMPS ASTANA’S GRAND PLANS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Kazakhstan’s higher education system is taking a battering from the global financial crisis, jeopardizing Astana’s ambitious plans to turn the country into an Asian tiger economy. Thousands of young people face expulsion from universities as they find themselves unable to pay tuition and fees. The government has moved to quell public outcry by fast-tracking measures to assist financially-strapped students.
There are wider implications: problems in higher education could jeopardize President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s key priorities of transforming Kazakhstan into a knowledge economy, turning the country trilingual and making it one of the world’s 50 most competitive countries (Kazakhstan ranks 66th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009).
Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, economic crisis, Government, Kazakhstan
The Economic Times: Sibal spells doom for deemed universities, bats for private ones
NEW DELHI: The human resource development (HRD) ministry may allow private players to set up universities instead of going through the “deemed to
be university” route. The ministry will also push for firm regulations which would demand transparency and accountability of the players in the education sector.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Government, India, private universities
The Chronicle: Mary Easley Is Out at N.C. State, and So Is the Chancellor
Shock waves from a politically charged hiring scandal at North Carolina State University continued to expand Monday with the resignation of James L. Oblinger, the university’s chancellor, and the firing of Mary P. Easley, the former governor’s wife whose $170,000-a-year job is at the center of the controversy.
The high-profile departures followed the university’s release on Monday of a large number of documents it had provided to a federal grand jury that is investigating dealings involving the former governor, Michael F. Easley.
Inside Higher Ed: Survival Tactics
It’s looking like a hot, sticky and scandalous summer is in store for higher education. In recent weeks, controversies of varied size have embroiled college chiefs at the University of Illinois, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and North Carolina State University, where Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned Monday.
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Posted in Ethics
Tagged Ethics, Government, Mary Easley, N.C. State U, Scandal, University presidents
News & Observer: Records: Mike Easley involved in hiring
New documents show that the Mary Easley job at N.C. State University was orchestrated at the highest levels of state government, and included the direct involvement of then-Gov. Mike Easley.
E-mail messages show the creation of the job for Mary Easley was orchestrated in April and May of 2005 by the governor and that her job formation also included his wife, Mary; the chancellor at N.C. State, James Oblinger; a key trustee, McQueen Campbell; a senior adviser to Easley who now heads the Golden Leaf Foundation, Dan Gerlach; and an NCSU lobbyist at the time, Andy Willis.
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Posted in Ethics
Tagged Government, jobs, Mary Easley, N.C. State U, Scandal
News & Observer: NCSU leaders to testify on Easley
Chancellor and outgoing provost are subpoenaed to talk about former first lady’s job.
Federal prosecutors Tuesday ordered the chancellor and provost at N.C. State University to appear before a grand jury this week, making it clear that investigators have opened a wide-ranging criminal probe of dealings surrounding former Gov. Mike Easley.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Government, Mary Easley, Mike Easley, North Carolina State U, Scandal
News & Observer: Bowles wants NCSU chairman out
UNC system head is ‘very disappointed’ in Campbell’s role in the hiring of Mary Easley.
The president of the University of North Carolina system has asked McQueen Campbell, chairman of the N.C. State University board, to resign immediately after learning this week that Campbell played a role in hiring former first lady Mary Easley.
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Posted in Administration, Government
Tagged administation, Ethics, Governance, Government
Inside Higher Ed: Patterns in Academic Persecution
The Scholar Rescue Fund drew applications from oppressed academics in 101 different countries in its first five years of operations, suggesting “at least a low level of scholar persecution in a surprisingly wide range of countries and regions” — although it’s most prevalent in the Middle East/North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Scholars from the two regions accounted for 61 percent of all applicants from 2002-7 and 73 percent of grantees.
“Scholar Rescue in the Modern World,” a report being released today by the Institute of International Education (home of the Scholar Rescue Fund), identifies such trends in reported persecution across 847 grant applications. The Scholar Rescue Fund awards fellowships for scholars to hold temporary academic posts abroad on the basis of the urgency of threats they face at home and the quality of their academic work. The report’s authors acknowledge the limitations of a small data set and of the fund’s reach — North Korea, for instance, is not represented in the application pool — but also assert the importance of gleaning what trends one can.
The Chronicle: For ‘Rescued’ Scholars, Persecution Came in Many Forms and Many Lands
A marine biologist in Ukraine was fired from his university position for studying mollusks in the bay near his institution, despite warnings from the government to focus his academic inquiries elsewhere.
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Posted in Working conditions
Tagged Academic freedom, Free speech, Government, Persecution
mosnews.com: Students to pay for the mess in Chisinau, president says
Money to rebuild the pillaged parliament and presidential office buildings in Chisinau will come from funds earmarked for institutions of higher education, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has stated. A student protest against the Communist victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections spilled over into violence and the sacking of those facilities. More than 270 injuries also resulted from the unrest.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged Government, Moldova, Protests, Students
Reuters: Exam cheaters jailed on state secret charges
BEIJING (Reuters) – Eight Chinese who used high-tech communications equipment, including mobile phones and wireless earpieces, to help their children cheat at university entrance exams have been jailed on state secret charges, local media said.
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Posted in Academics
Tagged Cheating, China, Government