By Colleen Flaherty. The new chancellor of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale has big plans to eliminate all departments across campus, in the name of “synergy” and cost savings. But many professors question his motives and doubt it’s the right move. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. Boston U moves to terminate professor after high-profile investigation into claims that he harassed a former graduate student in Antarctica in 1999. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. The Government Accountability Office on Monday released a report called “Contingent Workforce: Size, Characteristics, Compensation and Work Experiences of Adjunct and Other Non-Tenure-Track Faculty.” The paper follows up on a 2015 GAO report that found instructors off the tenure track earn less and have less stable positions than their tenure-track and tenured counterparts. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. The American Association of University Professors filed a joint amicus brief this week in support of a legal challenge to a Texas law permitting handguns on public college and university campuses, including classrooms. AAUP and its partners for the brief, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, say that the law and corresponding campus policies violate faculty members’ academic freedom, since instructors may fear discussing controversial topics with guns in the classroom. The brief pertains to a case brought by several faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin who argued the same. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences this week released the fourth and final paper from its Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, called “Policies and Practices to Support Undergraduate Teaching Improvement.” The paper says that institutions are increasingly under social, economic and political pressure — just not pressure to improve undergraduate teaching. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. Non-tenure-track faculty members — adjuncts, full-timers and postdoctoral fellows — at Fordham University voted 16-to-1 to form a union affiliated with Service Employees International Union, they announced Tuesday. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. Professor’s essay about being harassed and raped by her late adviser sparks calls for public acknowledgment of the reasons for his past suspension from Stanford and the renaming of a disciplinary society mentorship award that bore his name. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. Study finds male Ph.D. candidates submit and publish papers at much higher rates than women, even at the same institution. One factor is that women teach more during their Ph.D. programs and men serve more often as research assistants. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. The Indiana Court of Appeals sided with Purdue University at Calumet last week in rejecting an associate professor’s claims that the institution violated his free speech and other rights. The case centers on the political scientist’s inflammatory comments in the classroom and outside it, many of which deride Muslims. More...

By Colleen Flaherty. Graduate students and higher education experts warn GOP plan to tax tuition waivers would be disastrous to both students’ finances and institutions’ teaching and research missions. More...