Higher Education News From Around The Web
Dan Mithcell’s UCLA Faculty Association Blog:
- by UnknownFrom BU to U?From Inside Higher Ed: Boston U Suspends Admissions to Humanities and Social Science Ph.D. ProgramsIn an email obtained by Inside Higher Ed on condition of anonymity, the heads of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), in which all the affected programs are located, pointed to increased costs associated with the union contract […]
- by UnknownWe're going to jump ahead in our coverage of last week's Regents meeting to the third day, November 14 which was entirely a series of full board meetings, including closed sessions. Public comments in the morning were heavily tilted toward Israel-Gaza, antisemitism, and free speech issues. Also included were nonunion staff salaries, undergrad health clinics including […]
- by UnknownFrom Gov. Newsom's website: Governor Gavin Newsom… announced the following appointment:Robert “Bob” Myers, of Santa Monica, has been appointed to the University of California Board of Regents. Myers has been an Advisor for the Washington Commanders since 2024 and a National Basketball Association Studio Host and Analyst at ESPN since 2023. He held multiple roles […]
- by UnknownInside Higher Ed recently carried a learned piece entitled "Grade Inflation: An Ahistorical Narrative."* After pointing to the interesting fact that back in the day (19th century), grades as we know them did not exist, the authors agree that grade inflation – starting in the 1960s – is real. But the piece never gets to […]
- by UnknownThe Regents met at UC-San Francisco last week. Tuesday's meeting included the Health Services Committee – evidently differed from last October to avoid problems around October 7th – and the Investments Committee.The Health meeting began with public comments, all dealing with the Israel-Gaza War. There was also a very brief disruption during one of the […]
Chris Newfield & Michael Meranze’s Remaking the University
- by Chris NewfieldNovember 13, 2015, Beirut from Crown Plaza, 6:26am (NEVER) ENOUGH “Mr. Trump’s voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home […]
- by Chris NewfieldNovember 9, 2016, cousin's guest room, Columbus, OhioMOST POLARIZED DEMOCRACY “Pernicious polarization threatens democracies by hampering their ability to solve problems and — worse — by increasing the risks of political violence and authoritarianism. Here again, the findings are not encouraging. In a separate analysis based on the same dataset but focused just on democracies since […]
- by Chris NewfieldNovember 9, 2022, Hyde ParkThis is my ISRF Director's Note for November. Higher education's main response to political adversity has been accommodation. My comments on this here are relevant to the U.S. as much as the U.K. situation, including the data on teaching and research losses.The Democratic and Labour parties regularly hint around about breaking […]
- by Chris NewfieldNovember 6, 2024, Lauren Halsey, Emajendat, SerpentineTHE BLAME WOKE CROWD"Blaming “trans issues” for elite failures is quickly becoming the free space in Bingo of responsibility-evasion. We may look forward to high status Democrats citing trans people to explain away their losses to Barron Trump in the 2048 election. "It, of course, wouldn’t be a scapegoat frenzy […]
- by Chris NewfieldNovember 10, 2016, Columbus, Ohio My heart goes out to the tens of millions of people who spent the campaign in Trump’s crosshairs and who will stay there during his four years of chaos to come. Trump’s victory feels very very bad. In the short run there’s no way to avoid mourning and despair, and disorientation. There’s […]
Here are the latest posts from the Berkeley Faculty Association:
- by Michael BurawoyOn May 14, John A. Pérez, Chair of the Board of Regents, and Michael V. Drake, UC President, made a joint statement, congratulating Governor Newsom for “proposing the largest state investment in UC’s history.” The statement waxed enthusiastic about the transformative impact of the revised budget. Reading between the lines and examining the often–elusive details, […]
- by Michael BurawoyShared governance, the concept of administration and faculty making policy and decisions together, has a long history at Berkeley. Our campus’s Academic Senate has more power than most such bodies across the country: the Budget Committee plays a central role in determining FTE, granting tenure and promotion, and other Senate committees control curriculum and set […]
- by Michael BurawoyJust in time for Mother’s Day, parents with children in campus childcare faced plans for increased tuition, shorter hours, and reduced staff next fall. Meanwhile, UCOP is putting the final touches on an improved paid family leave program that is still worse than that of comparable employers throughout the state. Why is the University of […]
- by Michael BurawoyIn early April, the UC unveiled their “Proposed Revisions for UCPD” plans. One proposal is the creation of “Systemwide Response Teams”—in effect, a UC paramilitary force that can be mobilized in response to protest actions, and to provide crowd management and “riot control.” These teams would be armed with body armor, chemical agents, and explosive […]
- by Michael BurawoyThe lecturers’ union (UC-AFT) and UCOP have been bargaining over a new contract for more than two years, with little to show for it. Despite the legal obligation to bargain in good faith, the UCOP negotiators have refused to bargain on basic issues, while regularly demonstrating their disrespect for their UC-AFT interlocutors. Senate faculty who have […]
National higher education blogs of interest, starting with AAUP’s Academe Blog:
- by Guest BloggerBY TEXAS AAUP-AFT The following statement was released November 19 by the Texas AAUP-AFT. Upon the passage of Senate Bill 17 last year, Texas faculty warned of the detrimental impacts the state’s so-called ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and practices would have on the ability of colleges and universities to perform their duties…
- by Hank ReichmanBY HANK REICHMAN A year ago I began a post to this blog, “Yesterday’s election results in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere have boosted the spirits of Democrats and progressives. One of the less widely publicized results, however, has been the stunning rebuke suffered by book-banners and transphobes like Moms for Liberty in school board…
- by Matthew BoedyBY MATTHEW BOEDY As attacks on higher education and tenure spread, it behooves faculty to make sure stakeholders such as legislators know the facts about tenure. The most common reasoning for post-tenure review is the myth of the “deadwood” tenured professor. We on campus have always known it is a myth. But now the very…
- by Guest BloggerBY ROBIN D. G. KELLEY This post is part of a blog series, organized by Annelise Orleck, that will focus on recent crackdowns on protests at US college and university campuses against Israel’s war on Gaza. You can read the first post and an introduction to the series here. On Monday morning, October 21, 2024,…
- by Guest BloggerBY RYAN HARROD, DOUGLAS COST, ANDREA DEWEES, AND CINDY TRUSSELL Solidarity in collective bargaining for better wages and working conditions is the basis of any union activity. Pitting union members against each other is a common tactic employed by management in its union-busting strategy. It’s a tactic we are facing in Alaska. In the current…