The Chronicle: When Tenured Professors Are Laid Off, What Recourse?
At Southern Mississippi, fights against program cuts are hampered by the lack of a formal process, professors find
If the University of Southern Mississippi seeks to fire a tenured faculty member for cause—that is, for allegedly sleeping with a student or some other malfeasance—that faculty member has recourse to a long sequence of hearings and appeals, spelled out in 48 paragraphs in the faculty handbook.
Comments Off on When Tenured Professors Are Laid Off, What Recourse?
Posted in Faculty, Working conditions
Tagged Budgets & Funding, due process, Layoffs, program cuts, tenure, Working conditions
Miami Herald: Florida Keys Community College president’s job on the line
The president of the Florida Keys Community College has shaken the cobwebs out of the sleepy institution, but she could be fired due to allegations of creating a hostile workplace.
Comments Off on Florida Keys Community College president’s job on the line
Posted in Administration
Tagged Florida Keys CC, University presidents, Working conditions
Student advocacy director Corey Briscoe, in white T-shirt, addresses some of the 350 protesters. (By Gerald Martineau — The Washington Post)
Washington Post: Howard U. Students and Union Workers Protest Over Aid Delays, Labor Practices
About 350 students and union workers crowded the plaza outside Howard University’s administration building Friday morning, protesting a long list of grievances — including problems with on-campus housing, delays in financial aid payments and labor practices — and at one point threatening a sit-in before they were turned away from the building’s doors.
Comments Off on Howard U. Students and Union Workers Protest Over Aid Delays, Labor Practices
Posted in Administration, Protests
Tagged financial aid, housing, Howard U, Protests, Students, Working conditions
The Chronicle: Doctoral Students Think Teaching Assistantships Hold Them Back
A new survey of recent Ph.D. recipients has found that more than four out of five of those who received paid teaching assistantships believe that having them prolonged their doctoral education, though not enough to keep them from completing the programs in a timely manner.
Comments Off on Doctoral Students Think Teaching Assistantships Hold Them Back
Posted in Students
Tagged graduate students, Teaching, teaching assistantships, Working conditions
The Chronicle: Lessons of a Dual Hire
Two Career Couples Illustration Careers
By Rebecca Manderlay
It’s been three years since I first wrote about the search my husband, “Tom,” and I undertook for long-term positions in academe. Since then, in the pages of The Chronicle, I’ve seen my own thoughts, dreams, and anxieties reflected time and again: the hope and pride of mailing out applications, the thrill of invitations to interview, the disappointment of not being chosen, the awful feeling of “Why not me?”
Comments Off on Lessons of a Dual Hire
Posted in Job market, Working conditions
Tagged dual careers, jobs, Working conditions
The Chronicle Review: The Faculty of the Future:
Leaner, Meaner, More Innovative, Less Secure
The faculty workplace has changed significantly in the last 20 years: More women, minority professors, and adjuncts have joined the professoriate. Information technology has led to new opportunities and expectations. The economic crisis has complicated long-term planning for scholars and institutions alike. We asked seven scholars from several fields and generations how they think the academic workplace — and, in particular, the job satisfaction and expectations of a faculty career — will change over the next 20 years.
Comments Off on The Faculty of the Future
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Faculty, Working conditions
FACE/AFT: Margaret West Reinstated at Edmonds CC
Some of you may remember that about a year ago, fellow FACT Talk blogger Phil Ray Jack started telling the story of Margaret West, who, after 21 years of service at Edmonds Community College in Washington State, had been “non-renewed.” Not so coincidentally, West was also about to become the first part-time faculty member at Edmonds to assume the role of president of the faculty union at Edmonds. In response to Phil’s first post, a commenter asked what the union was doing in response and what others could do as well. Phil pointed out that the union was taking action on several fronts and encouraged others to offer their support.
Comments Off on State Agency Orders Washington College to Reinstate Longtime Adjunct
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged adjuncts, Termination, Working conditions
Times Higher Education: Edict curtailing freedom to work at home ‘appals’ staff
Lecturers should be on campus for community and students, university says. Rebecca Attwood reports
Lecturers have reacted with dismay to a policy requiring them to spend the full 35 hours of the working week on campus unless they obtain formal permission to work off site.
Comments Off on Edict curtailing freedom to work at home ‘appals’ staff
Posted in Working conditions
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Teachers union targets Moore
A staff march on the art college was joined by conventioneers in Phila. for an AFT convention.
Waving signs and chanting, more than 100 members of the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania marched up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway yesterday to protest what they called unfair labor conditions at Moore College of Art and Design.
Comments Off on Philadephia: Teachers union targets Moore
Posted in Protests, Unions, Working conditions
Tagged AFT, Moore College of Art and Design, protest, Unions, Working conditions
Inside Higher Ed: Oregon to Adopt Union-Backed Principles on Part Timers
The Oregon Senate and House have now passed (with gubernatorial approval expected) legislation to codify principles of the Faculty and College Excellence Campaign of the American Federation of Teachers, which aims to improve the working conditions of faculty members and to push colleges to hire more tenure-track professors. Under the Oregon legislation, public colleges and universities will be required to report on the make-up of their faculties — something faculty groups say is essential for drawing attention to and changing hiring patterns. Further, some part timers will be able to gain eligibility for health insurance based on work at multiple colleges, not just one.
Comments Off on Oregon to Adopt Union-Backed Principles on Part Timers
Posted in Contingent labor, Working conditions
Tagged adjuncts, Oregon, Unions, Working conditions
The Chronicle News Blog: ‘Mobbing’ Can Damage More Than Careers, Professors Are Told at Conference
Washington — It probably wouldn’t be that hard for faculty members to imagine that academic mobbing — a form of bullying in which members of a department gang up to isolate or humiliate a colleague — could derail their careers. But a discussion of the phenomenon today at the American Association of University Professors’ international conference on globalization, shared governance, and academic freedom illustrated that the consequences can be much worse.
Comments Off on ‘Mobbing’ Can Damage More Than Careers, Professors Are Told at Conference
Posted in Working conditions
Tagged bullying, careers, mobbing, Working conditions
BBC News: Teachers to strike at academies
More than 120 teachers at two newly-designated academy schools in Essex are due to strike over fears of increased working hours and reduced holidays.
Members of the teacher unions the NUT and NASUWT at Chalvedon and Barstable secondary schools in Basildon are due to strike on Tuesday 19 May.
Comments Off on UK: Teachers to strike at academies
Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged academies, Strikes & Labor Disputes, teacher strikes, UK, Working conditions
Inside Higher Ed: Gun Fight
Legislation that would allow guns on college campuses is moving forward in Texas and Missouri, but the history of other such fights suggests the issue won’t be put to rest with the passage of a bill.
University officials in Utah allowed concealed weapons on campus only after protracted battles in court and the Legislature. As for Colorado, the fight over firearms continues to this day. Well after the passage of a 2003 law that many argue allows for guns on college campuses, most universities have yet to lift bans.
Comments Off on Fighting over guns on campus
Posted in Safety & Security
Tagged Guns, Safety & Security, Working conditions
Inside Higher Ed: Arbitrator Rules Against Prof Who Didn’t Want Extra Course
The University of Florida did not violate collective bargaining rules by requiring a professor to teach an additional course, an independent arbitrator has concluded. Florence Babb, an endowed professor and graduate coordinator of the university’s Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, challenged Florida’s decision to change her teaching load, saying her employment agreement stipulated that she would only be required to teach one course each semester. Given significant budget challenges, Florida officials increased Babb’s teaching requirements. Babb is now required to teach three courses over the spring and fall semesters, in addition to carrying out her duties as graduate coordinator for the women’s studies center. Ben Falcigno, an arbitrator who reviewed the case, based his decision on Babb’s 2004 appointment letter. The letter states that the “normal” course load for Babb would be two courses a year, but Falcigno concluded current budget constraints constitute “abnormal” conditions that allow the university to increase Babb’s teaching requirements. Babb was represented by the United Faculty of Florida, a statewide union affiliated with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Pradeep Kumar, who represented Babb for the union, said the arbitration ruling is binding and won’t be appealed. Babb could not be reached for comment.
Comments Off on Arbitrator Rules Against Prof Who Didn’t Want Extra Course
Posted in Unions, Working conditions
Tagged Collective bargaining, teaching load, Unions, Working conditions
Salt Lake Tribune: U. humanities dean accused of defaming prof
A defamation lawsuit filed Monday alleges the University of Utah’s Middle East Center is hemorrhaging faculty, putting at risk the federal grant that has sustained the center for nearly 50 years.
U. administrators say they are committed to the center’s survival and growth, even in the face of evaporating budgets and competing needs.
U. humanities dean Robert Newman was sued by Hebrew professor Harris Lenowitz, after alleging last year that he and another veteran scholar from the center were contributing to a hostile environment for female faculty.
Comments Off on Utah: U. humanities dean accused of defaming prof
Posted in Legal issues
Tagged Legal issues, Working conditions
KOMU.com: Conceal and Carry Changes
JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri House voted to lift a ban on carrying concealed weapons at state colleges and universities in the state.
Yesterday the House voted 106 to 41 to lift the ban. The nation is currently split on the issue. Twenty-five states prohibit concealed carry on campus. The MU Police Department does not support firearms on campus.
Comments Off on Missouri house votes to lift ban on concealed weapons at state colleges and universities
Posted in Safety & Security
Tagged Guns, Working conditions
Houston Chronicle: Campus guns bill gaining support in Texas House
AUSTIN — Legislation allowing state university students and employees to carry their concealed handguns on campus appears to have enough pledged support from lawmakers to pass the full Texas House.
The bill would prohibit public universities across Texas from creating rules that forbid concealed handgun license holders from carrying their pistols into a classroom, but it would allow private institutions to exempt themselves.
Comments Off on Campus guns bill gaining support in Texas House
Posted in Safety & Security
Tagged Guns, Texas, Working conditions
Globe and Mail: A whole new meaning to cutting classes
Cash-strapped universities looking at cancelling small classes, programs, charging flat tuition
As the last grim signs of winter fade from Canadian campuses, the spring rite of cutting classes is taking on a whole new meaning.
Course calendars across the country are under the microscope as universities, trying to do more with less, are taking a hard look at programs and class sizes. The end result will likely be fewer choices for undergraduates and larger classes in September – another symptom of the financial squeeze on higher education
Comments Off on Canada: Cash-strapped universities looking at cancelling small classes, programs, charging flat tuition
Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Canada, Working conditions
Net Nebraska: UNL budget cuts make students, professors wary
Anyone strolling campus hallways these days has noticed some visible evidence of the nation’s economic woes arriving at UNL: saloon lighting.
Jay Jackson, of building maintenance, is busy removing half the remaining bulbs from hallway fixtures across campus – more than 4,000 so far – as part of UNL’s effort to reduce energy costs.
Comments Off on U Nebraska removes half of hallway lights on campus to save energy costs
Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, energy, Working conditions
Follow
More Drivel From the New York Times
howtheuniversityworks.com: More Drivel From the New York Times
Today the Grey Lady lent the op-ed page to yet another Columbia prof with the same old faux “analysis” of graduate education.
Why golly, the problem with the university is that there aren’t enough teaching positions out there to employ all of our excess doctorates Mark C. Taylor says: “Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist).” Because there are just too many folks with Ph.D.’s out there, “there will always be too many candidates for too few openings.”
Comments Off on More Drivel From the New York Times
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Academics, adjuncts, Contingent labor, Job market, Working conditions