This dissertation analyzes how rhetorics of graduate labor clash with and condition rhetorical activity concerning university decision-making. I examine the rhetorical tactics by which graduate worker-organizers promote an explicit worker identity that invests graduate workers with agency in decision-making over their working conditions; I also…

This report is an investigation into the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many institutions faced dire challenges in the 2020-21 academic year; for some, the pandemic exacerbated long-festering conditions. It was found that, at other institutions, governing boards and administrations…

The White House released an executive order to protect free speech on college campuses, appropriately highlighting the issue of ongoing threats to expression in the ivory tower. The President and his Administration exercised restraint with this order by directing federal agencies to stay within the bounds of existing law as the agencies implement…

Objective: To assess the characteristics of campus populations who were opposed to a vape-free campus policy and examine factors associated with opposition to a vape-free campus policy among those who indicated support for a tobacco-free policy. Participants: Faculty, staff, and students (N=2210) in a Midwestern university participated. Methods:…

This article examines the language used to discuss transgender people on university campuses. This study asks how, despite seemingly benefitting transgender people, the discourses carried by the documents that discuss trans people may actually undermine the intended goals of policy initiatives. For example, a report on the status of transgender…

This article examines undocumented/DACAmented status competency (UDSC) centered on the awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary for higher education institutional agents to support undocumented and DACAmented students. Forty-five community college professionals from four states (California, Connecticut, Georgia, and Wisconsin) were interviewed…

This article describes a project initiated in 2011 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) to develop a research-based action plan to justify the need for, and consequently the creation and adoption of, gender-inclusive language policies that aligned with UWEC's equity, diversity, and inclusivity goals and mission. By 2013, six…

Some students from low-income families are unable to pay their college costs without experiencing material hardship. What they do to make ends meet (e.g., go hungry and homeless) inhibits learning and discourages persistence. Strategic college leaders are investigating the needs of their students and drawing on the strengths of their institutions…

At many colleges, taking time off to care for a relative, or missing a few days of class to attend a funeral, can be difficult for students. They may encounter a professor who tells them, in so many words, to suck it up. They might have difficulty negotiating extensions for assignments and make-up dates for exams. Although most institutions have a…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to better understand the identity and work of academic and extension staff who have boundary spanning responsibilities. The results will help universities, especially public land-grant universities with an outreach mission, to create stronger policies and systems to support boundary spanning staff members…

One might derive, from the eradication of a particularly heinous speech code, some encouragement that all is not lost in the culture wars. A core of dedicated scholars, working from within, made it obvious, to all but the most radical left, that imposing social justice by restricting thought and expression was a recipe for tyranny. Donald…