Archive for the ‘Academic freedom’ Category

Invitation to planning discussion: Building an effective organization for faculty and staff.

Monday, August 29th, 2011

The following event is likely to be of interest to S&W readers – Ed.

Save the date!

Saturday, Sept 24 — 10 AM- 3 PM

Building an Effective Organization for Faculty and Staff

If you read Sifting and Winnowing then you recognize that the events of last semester underscore the need for a viable organization of University staff and faculty. The Wisconsin University Union (WUU) invites you to a planning discussion about what that might look like. We’d like to hear from campus employees what they’d like that organization to focus on and do.

What issues should this organization prioritize? (more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Collective bargaining, Compensation, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, Uncategorized | No Comments »

More on the “sorrows of academic corporatization.”

Friday, May 13th, 2011

The latest issue of The Nation brings us the following article

Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education

In addition to the other issues raised, many of which have been well-covered, I find the following excerpt interesting:

As Gaye Tuchman explains in Wannabe U (2009), a case study in the sorrows of academic corporatization, deans, provosts and presidents are no longer professors who cycle through administrative duties and then return to teaching and research. Instead, they have become a separate stratum of managerial careerists, jumping from job to job and organization to organization like any other executive: isolated from the faculty and its values, loyal to an ethos of short-term expansion, and trading in the business blather of measurability, revenue streams, mission statements and the like. They do not have the long-term health of their institutions at heart. They want to pump up the stock price (i.e., U.S. News and World Report ranking) and move on to the next fat post.

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

When pro-business ideologues run universities. Case study: Texas

Friday, May 13th, 2011

As noted in a recent post, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch asserts that Public Authority would bring “a free-market approach to the university system similar to that of a corporate business.”

Ideologically, Huebsch is (by his own admission) joined at the hip with Scott Walker, so we can safely take this as an authoritative statement of what the governor’s office really wants for UW-Madison.

The Public Authority may be legislatively dead (or at least on ice), but we would do well to keep Scott Walker’s ultimate objectives in mind as we contemplate any “gifts” offered to UW-Madison and/or the UW System by the GOP-controlled state government.

And we would do especially well to study the example of Texas, where the struggle for ideological control of two university systems is coming to a head, as described in an exceptionally disturbing report by the Chronicle of Higher Education (more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

Huebsch: NPB “would bring a free-market approach to the university”

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Just when we’re fretting about the apparent dismantling of academic freedom and shared governance at Florida State and other universities as these institutions openly sell their curricula to wealthy corporate donors,  Sara Goldrick-Rab over at Education Optimists tips us off to recent comments by Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch.

Here’s the key passage:

… Mike Huebsch says he and Gov. Scott Walker remain hopeful that the guv’s proposed split of UW-Madison from the rest of the university system will pass.

Speaking in Brookfield Wednesday at a gathering of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, he told the group it would bring a free-market approach to the university system similar to that of a corporate business. [emphasis added]

I now have two burning questions for Chancellor Biddy Martin, for our Faculty Senate,  and for other prominent and enthusiastic supporters of the public authority plan:

  1. Do you have any plausible basis whatsoever for doubting Huebsch’s characterization of the public authority plan as regards the actual intentions of those who inserted it into the budget bill?
  2. Do you support this vision for UW-Madison?

If you answer “no” to both questions, then the most obvious interpretation is that your endorsement of Scott Walker’s public authority plan reflected a grave lapse in judgment and due diligence on your part.

I look forward to hearing the arguments for a more generous interpretation.

-GP

 

Posted in Academic freedom, Instruction, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

Breaking news: “Koch University” already exists. Are we next?

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Cynics here in Badgerland have been cracking jokes for months that UW-Madison could become “Koch University” if and when some of Governor Walker’s policies take effect, including (some allege) the public authority status that is part of his budget bill.

But who knew that the first branch campus of Koch University already opened in Tallahassee, Florida, way back in 2008?  Only now, in May 10th’s St. Petersburg Times, is the arrangement finally getting wider attention: (more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | 14 Comments »

Furlough fun

Friday, December 31st, 2010

On the occasion of yesterday’s mandatory furlough day,  I  tracked down this document posted on the Provost’s website (UW System Furlough FAQs) to remind myself what I am and am not permitted to do.   I quickly found my answer in Frequently Asked Question B.6:

May I work any time during FTO?
No. You must not work any time during FTO. Such work includes being physically present in the work place, work at home, work online, e-mail, work on the telephone, “working lunches,” work on Blackberry, or work on a cell phone.    All such unscheduled, unapproved work on a furlough day is prohibited.

In short, by the very act of accessing the FAQ page in connection with my job at the University, I was in unambiguous violation of the policies it described!  Thank goodness I checked.

Well, I am always grateful for such clear guidance when it is available, but it occurred to me that some gray areas remained.   Having now waited until an ordinary holiday (when it is apparently legal again for me to use my home computer in connection with my University employment), I herewith propose the following additional questions in the hope that the Provost will helpfully append them, and their answers, to a future edition of the above FAQ: (more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Compensation, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System | No Comments »

Stepping up to protect free speech on campus

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Just days ago, this forum reposted a message that had been circulated by the AAUP concerning loopholes in the legal protection of speech on campus due to a controversial Supreme Court ruling in 2006.

Today, in the article “Free speech constraints spark criticism, concern”, the Daily Cardinal has reported that  Prof. Donald Downs (Political Science) is taking up that issue with our University Committee. That article, and the background information from the AAUP, is essential reading for anyone who might ever disagree with an administration decision.

(more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Graduate School, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »

Speak Up! Speak Out! Protect the Faculty Voice

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

The following broadcast message was sent out by the American Association of University Professors to its membership on November 10, 2009. It is reprinted in its entirety here for the convenience of S&W readers. – Eds.

The right of faculty members at public colleges and universities to speak freely without fear of retribution is endangered as never before.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government can restrict the speech of public employees when they comment on issues related to their “official duties.” Although the decision specifically set aside academic speech, recognizing that additional constitutional interests were at stake, several lower courts have ruled recently that faculty members who speak out on matters affecting their institutions are not protected under the First Amendment. (more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance | No Comments »