If Universities Were Democracies

If Universities Were Democracies: "

Alumni, staff members, and students would have the greatest say in how things were run if everyone had a vote.

"

Southern Illinois-Carbondale Moves to Subject Tenured Professors to Layoffs

Southern Illinois-Carbondale Moves to Subject Tenured Professors to Layoffs: "

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale will be able to lay off tenured faculty members without declaring fiscal exigency under the terms of a one-year contract it imposed on its faculty union this month. The new contract for the current fiscal year allows the faculty union, the SIUC Faculty Association, to bargain with the university over proposed layoffs and calls for nontenured faculty members to be laid off first, but the document stands out from faculty contracts elsewhere in allowing the cash-strapped university to circumvent the usual requirement that a formal declaration of fiscal crisis precede any decision to lay off the tenured. It also calls for faculty members to take four unpaid furlough days in the current academic year. The faculty association plans to file a complaint accusing the university of unfair labor practices for unilaterally imposing the contract after the union’s negotiators rejected the agreement. University officials have said they had no choice but to move ahead and adopt a contract that had represented their “last, best, and final offer.”

"

10 Years to Tenure at Michigan

10 Years to Tenure at Michigan: "

New policy, adopted over faculty objections, gives divisions the option to extend probationary periods.

"

Budget Standoff Frays Nerves at a Regional Public University

Budget Standoff Frays Nerves at a Regional Public University: "

In the first in a series on one institution's financial crisis, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro faces a 15-percent cut in state funds.

"

Pepperdine U. Chooses Growth by Cutting

Pepperdine U. Chooses Growth by Cutting: "

Rather than generating new revenue for new projects, the university reallocated 10 percent of its budget toward areas believed to be poised for growth.

"

Controversial Adviser to U. of Texas Regents Says He's Been Fired

Controversial Adviser to U. of Texas Regents Says He's Been Fired: "

Rick O'Donnell said his dismissal came after he complained about the difficulty of obtaining data he expected would show that some professors don't teach much.

"

Return to the Silo

Return to the Silo: "

Over faculty objections, Temple is forcing its interdisciplinary programs into traditional disciplines.

"

A Stab at Deflating Grades

A Stab at Deflating Grades: "

Faculty at U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill backs plan to put students' (and professors') grades in context.

"

E-Mails Show Texas Governor Pushed Universities to Adopt Businessman’s Ideas

E-Mails Show Texas Governor Pushed Universities to Adopt Businessman’s Ideas: "

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has insisted that he leaves higher-education policy decisions to the governing boards of the state’s public universities. E-mails obtained by the Houston Chronicle, however, show that the Republican governor’s office has been closely involved in pushing universities to adopt ideas championed by Jeff Sandefer, a business educator and major campaign contributor to Mr. Perry. Those ideas include ranking faculty members by productivity and putting more focus on teaching instead of research. University regents and chancellors heard Mr. Sandefer explain his proposals at Mr. Perry’s request in May 2008, the newspaper reports, and over the next two years the governor’s office sent follow-up messages setting a time line for putting Mr. Sandefer’s ideas in place, requesting regular updates from university leaders on their progress, and instructing regents not to be influenced by university staff members. Peter T. Flawn, a former president of the University of Texas at Austin, called Mr. Perry’s actions “absolutely a new and unique situation” and criticized Mr. Sandefer’s proposals as a blueprint for stepping backward “from a first-class research university to a second-class undergraduate degree mill.”

"

NYU Adjuncts Win Pay Increases and Benefits for Summer Work

NYU Adjuncts Win Pay Increases and Benefits for Summer Work: "

New York University’s 2,400 adjunct faculty members will receive substantial pay increases and benefits for the summer hours they work under the terms of a new contract with the private institution. The agreement, ratified last week, is the product of tough negotiations that had left adjunct faculty members poised to go on strike. In an attempt to deal with the earnings gap between adjunct faculty members who teach credit-bearing courses and the lesser-paid adjunct faculty members who teach noncredit courses, the contract calls for all adjunct faculty members’ pay to rise by the same dollar amount, so that the latter group will see its pay climb at a steeper rate. (The $4-per-contact-hour increase in the contract’s first year amounts to about a 3.6 percent raise for those who teach credit-bearing courses and a 6.7 percent increase for those who teach noncredit courses.) The agreement also builds on gains won by adjunct faculty members in their 2004 contract by, for the first time, offering health insurance, job security, and retirement benefits to those who work in the summer.

"

When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate

When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate: "

The suspension of a faculty senate is not unheard of in academe, but the reasons for it vary widely.

"

Colleges Spend Far Less on Educating Students Than They Claim, Report Says

Colleges Spend Far Less on Educating Students Than They Claim, Report Says: "

More than half of students attend institutions that take in more per student in tuition payments than what it costs to instruct them, a center's analysis found.

"

Federal Budget Deal Spares Pell but Shrinks Research and Education Programs

Federal Budget Deal Spares Pell but Shrinks Research and Education Programs: "

Details were released on Tuesday of the compromise struck last weekend between the White House and Democrats and Republicans in the Congress.

"

Edison State College Faculty Votes No Confidence in President and Senior Vice President

Edison State College Faculty Votes No Confidence in President and Senior Vice President: "

Faculty members at Edison State College, in southwestern Florida, on Tuesday voted no confidence in President Kenneth P. Walker and in James Browder, a senior vice president, the Naples Daily News reported. Under the threat of a no-confidence vote, Mr. Walker had recently moved Mr. Browder to an “external” position in the hope of improving the senior administration’s relationship with the faculty.

"