Posts

Against Anticipatory Obedience

By -
Image
Dear Scott, As we wrote last week, we are committed to fighting to protect and advance higher education in these difficult times—and we need you in that fight. One thing we can all do is work to prevent “anticipatory obedience” to political interference in higher education, on our campuses and in our states. A new joint statement out today from the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and Committee on College and University Governance discusses how the Trump administration and many state governments appear poised to accelerate attacks on academic freedom, shared governance, and higher education as a public good. They will likely attack the curricular authority of the faculty, including the ability to engage in teaching and research on certain topics. As the statement notes, “It is the higher education community’s responsibility not to surrender with such attacks—and not to surrender in anticipation of them.” Instead, we need to vigorously oppose them. While administ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Radical Solution to Utah's "Plumbing Problem"

By -
Image
Reading the December 10th Salt Lake Tribune report on plans to reduce general education requirements at Utah institutions of higher education by “cutting inefficient programs” and the December 5th Deseret News account of a meeting with Governor Cox during which he claimed that “higher ed has lost their way,” I started thinking about my plumber. Last week our boiler was heating the house, but there was only cold water in the taps and shower. We called our plumber. He usually sends one of his journeymen or even an apprentice, depending on the specific problem. But yesterday he did the work himself. A pump feeding the domestic use system is inoperative, he reported. The replacement pump cost $400 and he charged us $200 for his labor. Now we can take warm showers again. What if the plumber had diagnosed a faulty pump in the Governor’s mansion or the state capitol? I wondered. The discussion might have gone this way: Governor (speaking for legislative leaders as well): What we...
2 comments
Read more

Shared Governance

By -
Image
  Professors Are Uniquely Powerful. That May Be Changing. Faculty members are used to sharing power with presidents and trustees to run universities. But some presidents and lawmakers have made moves to reduce their say. In September, faculty members held a silent vigil in defense of academic freedom and shared governance at the Emory University campus in Atlanta. Credit... Nicole Craine for The New York Times By  Alan Blinder Reporting from Atlanta Nov. 2, 2024 Updated  6:31 a.m. ET Ilya Nemenman, an Emory University physics professor, seethed as summer break neared its end. After a pro-Palestinian demonstration in April had  ended with police officers firing chemical irritants , Emory’s president had decided to update the campus’s protest policy. The revisions were not necessarily what angered Dr. Nemenman. The problem was that the president had not received the University Senate’s feedback first. “This is not just a corporation,” Dr. Nemenman chided the president,...
Post a Comment
Read more