News

Higher Ed Labor United Vision Platform

Byhigbie

Over the summer, Faculty Associations on University of California campuses joined over 75 organizations representing over 300,000 academic workers in a statement on the future of higher education. The Higher Education Labor Summit’s statements, Building a Movement to Transform U.S. Higher Education, calls for greater federal investment to reverse declining conditions in universities. The statement emphasizes a commitment to shared governance across various employee groups, and strongly backs academic freedom. The summit also called on organizations representing higher education employees to work together to achieve these goals. University of California Faculty Associations endorsed the summit’s statement, which you can read…

AAUP’s Report Shows Worsening Economic Crisis in Higher Education

Bycucfastaff

The AAUP has conducted surveys for its Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession and is now publishing some results on their Academe Blog. Their first post based on the report examines the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on faculty salaries and benefits for both tenure-line and non-tenure-track faculty. “Key findings include: 55 percent of institutions implemented salary freezes or reductions. 28 percent of institutions eliminated or reduced some form of fringe benefits. Almost 5 percent of institutions terminated the appointments of at least some full-time tenure-line faculty members. Almost 20 percent terminated the appointments of or…

Faculty call for pause on budget & network security changes at UCLA

Byhigbie

Over 250 UCLA faculty, including a large number of department chairs and center directors, have written Chancellor Block with a detailed critique of plans for administrative centralization. The letter follows earlier exchanges between department chairs and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost Emily Carter and other top administrators. “Although we appreciated the fora that EVC/P Carter recently organized in response to an earlier letter requesting more time to evaluate the re-organization plans she is proposing, we continue to feel that there has been insufficient time or detail to evaluate their consequences and that we have not been adequately involved in the consultation process,”…

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Academic Council knocks UCOP data policy

Byhigbie

The Academic Council of the UC Academic Senate called for significant revisions to a proposed new university policy on “Research Data and Tangible Research Materials.” The Council characterized the proposed policy as, “overly broad, difficult to enforce, and a potential danger to faculty intellectual property.” Previously, the Berkeley Faculty Association criticized the policy as a solution in search of a problem, and a danger to faculty academic freedom. As the BFA noted, the policy opens with a sweeping assertion of new university rights, “The Regents of the University of California owns all Research Data and Tangible Research Materials,” and goes…

AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey

Byhigbie

A national survey of university faculty compensation paints a troubling picture of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on higher education. Salaries dropped for the first time since 2011 according to a national survey by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Adjusted for inflation, salaries decreased 0.4 percent when averaged across the more than 900 colleges and universities surveyed, and declined by by 0.8 percent at doctoral institutions. Nearly 60 percent of institutions surveyed froze or cut salaries, while about 30 percent cut or modified fringe benefits. The survey also showed substantially higher salaries for male faculty over female…

University of San Diego professor being investigated for criticizing the Chinese government

Bycucfastaff

USD is a private institution and so is not bound by the First Amendment, but it is required to live up to its promises to abide by the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. USD law professor Tom Smith is being investigated by his university for posting and online comment criticizing the Chinese government on his personal blog. Details are at theFire.org.

Haskell Indian Nations University and Faculty Free Speech Rights

Bycucfastaff

Just weeks after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) filed suit against Haskell University President Ronald Graham for refusing to approve the newspaper as a student organization and for shorting its account over $10,000 in funding following critical coverage of the university, FIRE now reports that President Graham has attempted to limit free speech rights of faculty, by forbidding them from expressing opinions about the school’s administration. Details are available in a Fire Newsdesk article.

Flawed Views of Academic Freedom at Stanford

Bycucfastaff

The protection and furtherance of academic freedom is a core value of the AAUP. We must always be wary of attempts to silence those who may disagree with us,regardless of how inane, illogical, unscientific, fantastic, or politically unpopular (or popular) their views may be. In today’s Academe Blog, John K. Wilson discussed a recent controversy concerning the Hoover Institution, a partisan political think-tank at Stanford University. The controversy erupted after three conservative members of the Hoover Institution asked that the faculty and the student newspaper be prevented from publishing views contrary to their own. They wanted censorship. Wilson provides a…

In the midst of the worst academic governance crisis in decades

Bycucfastaff

An AAUP investigating committee looking into governance issues at eight institutions has now concluded interviews with the principal parties at each institution and is drafting its report. As reported in Academe Blog, the first finding they will report is that we are in the midst of the worst crisis in academic governance in decades.

Survey about international collaboration and the politicization of science

Bycucfastaff

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Public Affairs Advisory Committee is preparing to bring scientist’s concerns to lawmakers and administration officials next year. In preperation for that work, thwy are conducting a survey to more clearly understand what those concerns are. Please take a few minutes to complete the online survey before January 15th.