By KC Williams and Shannon Gibney. You probably don’t want to be reading this any more than we want to be writing it. Documenting racism, sexism, and classism in American society – especially in institutions of higher ed, which are allegedly supposed to be at least somewhat enlightened about these issues -- is a real downer. Read more...
By Patti McGill Peterson. U.S. colleges and universities face choppy waters ahead. Navigating institutional direction these days requires not only a clear grasp of what the domestic challenges are but also demands a good global positioning system. Read more...
By Kaitlin Mulhere, Michael Stratford and Ry Rivard. Battles over funding and college costs are being fought in races for governor across the country. These state races are likelier to have a more immediate effect than much of what Congress or the Obama administration may do. States, after all, are spending about $72 billion a year on higher education. Read more...
By Paul Fain. The U.S. Department of Education today will release what is likely the Obama administration’s last chance to set regulations to clamp down on for-profit colleges. But this second iteration of “gainful employment” rules will fail to please either advocates for the for-profit sector or its critics. Read more...
By Colleen Flaherty. Service Employees International Union launched its Adjunct Action campaign less than two years ago, with an ambitious goal: take SEIU's metro-wide adjunct organizing effort in Washington, D.C. -- which took years to establish -- national, and fast. Drives were soon happening from Boston to San Francisco, leading to a dozen new unions. Read more...
By Colleen Flaherty. A college can’t fire an adjunct professor for criticizing it, so long as the issues raised are matters of public concern and the adjunct has reasonable expectation of continued employment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday in a decision regarding Moraine Valley Community College in Illinois. Read more...
By Colleen Flaherty. The “Delicious Women's Phd [sic] Darling Sexy Costume,” sold by Amazon, received a lot of virtual eye rolls from academics on social media on Halloween. The costume, including a short, low-cut gown, cap and stole, is similar in style to other “racy” profession costumes that many critics have panned as sexist, offensive and absurd. Read more...
By Andy Thomason. The U.S. Department of Education released the full text of its final gainful-employment rule on Thursday morning, and it’s a big one, weighing in at 945 pages. But sheer volume has never been enough to discourage the most devoted of higher-education observers: the diehard policy wonks, who took to Twitter with observations and analysis. More...
By Andy Thomason. Marvel Comics this week announced a new slate of superhero movies to be released over the next several years. You’ve got plenty of time to decide which ones you’ll see, so in the meantime let’s address the question on everyone’s mind: Which Marvel character would make the best college president? Let’s limit the search to all nonmutants who have starred or will star in a Marvel movie. More...
By Peter Schmidt. A federal appeals court has ruled that the First Amendment protected an adjunct instructor’s public complaints about how her employer, an Illinois community college, deals with people in her position. In a decision handed down on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit unanimously held that the First Amendment precluded Moraine Valley Community College from firing Robin Meade, a part-time business instructor and adjunct-union head, for telling an international organization that her college mistreats adjuncts in ways that hurt students’ education. More...
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