Teachers' unions find themselves on the defensive in states across the country, as governors and lawmakers press forward with proposals to target job protections and benefits that elected officials contend the public can no longer afford academically or financially. Many of those efforts are being driven by newly elected Republicans, who have…

How at moments of dramatic change and a shifting social context do political actors alter their public identities? Put differently, how do political figures respond when positions with which they have been closely identified are no longer morally and electorally defensible and must be altered? Responses to identity challenge within institutional…

Many campus administrators in Alabama also serve in the state legislature, participating in debates and votes affecting their institutions. The potential for conflicts of interest has damaged state policy on higher education. Some recent incidents are described. (MLW)

Surveys 82 Alabama legislators and finds officials' views of the press as adversary or agent of consensus relates to perceived value of media for job-relevant information. Suggests a dysfunction of the "watch-dog" role because those believing the consensus model found the press more useful than those seeing the press as an adversary. (MG)