Climate scientists have received threatening letters and e-mails for years. Their names have been dragged through the mud in congressional hearings, on newspaper editorial pages, on talk-radio shows, and in their home communities by those seeking to distract and mislead the public. Despite the continued harassment, however, scientists were still…

This January, the Inter Faculty Organization, the union representing nearly 3,300 faculty members at the seven Minnesota state universities, took the unusual step of making an offer that broke dramatically with past practice and with typical union negotiating. The Minnesota faculty offered to accept a pay freeze while holding current contract…

The author's experience as the faculty senate chair at the University of Mississippi (UM) during a year of budget crises is likely typical of many other university senate leaders. He found that major challenges face senates trying to play a role in developing budget reduction recommendations. These include: (1) an absence of understanding on the…

Florida has been one of the states hit hardest by the recent financial crisis. Since 2007, Florida State University (FSU) administration says, the university's budget has been cut by over $38 million. The state budget approved by the legislature on May 8, 2009, requires FSU to make another cut of more than $43 million from the institution's…

This September, public universities in Texas will be required to post on their Web sites detailed syllabi for all undergraduate courses, a curriculum vitae for each regular instructor, a departmental budget report for each course offered, and reports of student course evaluations. According to a new state law, all of this must be "accessible…

In this article, the authors provide a description of the academic climate in New Mexico. Like many other places in the world today, New Mexico is trying to find an identity in an environment that the authors label "increasingly privatized, corporatized, and militarized." New Mexico's higher education salaries are lower than those in…

Faculty sometimes use votes of no confidence as a tool of last resort to express opposition to a college administration. Unfortunately, however, such votes often have limited effect aside from further damaging relations between administrators and faculty. This article describes how a no-confidence vote was averted at Alfred State College (formally…

This article talks about the retired faculty members from different types of institutions around the country that were interviewed to find out how well their preparations for retirement are serving them now. Like other state employees in California, faculty members at public institutions participate in the California Public Employees' Retirement…

Describes how the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee is restructuring its core curriculum in its Milwaukee Idea effort to build bridges between the university and the community. Discusses the interdisciplinarity of the effort; development of an alternative general education curriculum focused on "cultures and communities"; curriculum…

A case study detailing efforts by University of Southern California administrators to cut the salaries of medical school faculty by 25 percent reports on the faculty's resulting court litigation and an eventual settlement out of court. Notes that the final outcome was a school with a strengthened and democratized shared governance system. (DB)

Three reports of the American Association of University Professors' Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure are presented. Actions taken against Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Alabama State University, and Concordia Theological Seminary are described. (MLW)

A report concerning the actions taken in June 1985 by the administration of Central State University to terminate the faculty appointments of Charles W. Dean and Marvin Haire is presented. Academic due process and academic freedom are discussed. (MLW)

The report of the American Association of University Professors' ad hoc Commission on Governance and Affirmative Action concerning the University of California's decision to end affirmative action in admissions, hiring, and awarding of contracts is presented. It outlines the events leading to the policy action, considers the educational impacts,…

The history of the controversy over Southwest Missouri State University's production of "The Normal Heart," a play about acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is chronicled and concern is expressed about the resurgence of bitterness and hatred in the debate over academic freedom, even within the academic community. (MSE)

A summary of the 1982 Sonoma State University case of dismissal of 24 tenured faculty members for financial reasons provides background regarding financial exigency, faculty participation in decisions leading to the layoff, provision for individual hearings, notice, efforts to reinstate and relocate, and teaching service areas. (MSE)