Leaders of the movement to unionize graduate teaching/research assistants are learning organizing tactics through the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, and plotting strategies for a critical campaign year. Graduate students at 20 universities already have collective bargaining units, students at 15 institutions are campaigning for union…

Increasing use of non-tenure-track, full-time college professors, which some thought a temporary solution to institutional budgeting, has become common policy, according to a study of existing data for 88 four-year institutions. While administrators find flexibility and savings in the practice, faculty accuse institutions of exploiting Ph.D.s and…

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), long dismissive of the idea of post-tenure faculty evaluation, has adopted a new policy offering guidance on how such a system should be set up, while insisting it should not be used to revoke tenure. The group still clearly opposes requiring tenured professors to undergo formal, regular,…

The reservations of many young faculty members about the tenure system are gaining increasing attention among older scholars, in part because they feel it must be discussed. Some call for a complete overhaul of the system. Even many tenure supporters feel more options are needed in the current environment of higher education. (MSE)

At a recent conference of academics, union organizers, and workers at Yale University (Connecticut) activity and rhetoric focused on reinforcing the ties that bind academe and labor, and particularly on the question, currently before the National Labor Relations Board, of whether Yale graduate students qualify as employees or students. Leaders of…