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…

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…

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)

A case study detailing efforts by University of Minnesota administrators to "re-engineer" the medical school by selling the teaching hospital without faculty consultation and nearly eliminating tenure notes that the medical school now faces an uncertain future and has experienced a precipitous decline in federal research support. (DB)

The average salaries for full professors and new assistant professors in 21 disciplines for 1976-77 and 1984-85 are ranked and the percentage increases in the intervening period are listed and analyzed. (MSE)

The University of California's "step" system for appointment and advancement of faculty and the salary scale attached to it are outlined, and some criteria and procedures used in making academic personnel decisions are reviewed. (MSE)

A growing bulge in the age distribution of California State University faculty and its potential effects on the status and distribution of full-time, part-time, tenured, and probationary appointments in the institution are examined. (MSE)