The familiar conversation about access to higher education is limited to what college costs and whether colleges are giving people their money's worth. While important, that conversation may be constricting people's ability to understand what is really limiting the promise of higher education in America. Americans are clearly troubled about the…

Efforts to diversify university faculties began almost forty years ago. Since then, the number of white women faculty and faculty of color on U.S. campuses has grown slowly but steadily. At the same time, the explanatory framework for this shift--what they call the "terms of inclusion"--has changed profoundly. "Diversity" and "excellence" were…

Stumbling blocks remain on the road to a fully equitable culture in higher education in South Africa. Between 2003 and 2006, the author conducted two research studies that probed the nature of the transformation of higher education institutions in the country. The first study focused specifically on institutional culture; the second examined the…

Alternative research and scholarly opportunities for scholars outside academe are discussed, including communitites of scholars and university outreach to unaffiliated scholars. A list of organizations of independent scholars is included. (MSE)

Universities as social institutions are shaped and influenced by people who are socialized to repress genuine feelings, to deny prejudices, yet who reflect in their relationships all the imperfections of a society resistant to change. One area in which respect for cultural heterogeneity is urgently needed is evaluation of scholarship. (MLW)

Founded at the AAUP's Fourth Annual Meeting, Committee W on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession pioneered in addressing problems facing women in academe. Quiescent for several decades, the Committee returned to full activity in 1970 and has been an assertive voice for women ever since. (Author/MLW)

An academic hierarchy, consisting of schools with various levels of ranking and prestige, represents a complex mechanism influencing the type of higher education available to various groups in American Society. As such, the academic hierarchy maintains long-standing manifestations of educational inequality. (MLW)

The success of faculty members in balancing their academic careers with family responsibilities is a matter of more than individual happiness: it is also a matter of addressing structural inequities and attracting the most qualified candidates to the academic profession. To make it possible for faculty members to balance work and family,…

Many faculty members were optimistic about their economic prospects for 2004-05. They saw signs of--or at least hope for--economic recovery all around and were ending a year in which overall average faculty salaries had grown by the smallest percentage in decades. Following the pattern of recent years, this annual report first examines the…

Recommended procedures for increasing the number of minority persons and women on college and university faculties are presented. Affirmative action plans are seen as essential to ensure that equal opportunity is realized and to remove vestiges of past discrimination. Suggestions for affirmative action plans are provided. (MLW)

The typical affirmative-action-mandated procedure for filling new tenure-track openings in humanities departments, together with the typical organization of service-course programs, puts women faculty members at a disadvantage. It often draws new faculty from outside the institution, generally passing over women already within the institution.…

The development of applicable affirmative action legislation and practice and the current role of the affirmative action officer are discussed. Threats to affirmative action and possible answers to those threats are identified, and specific ways by which the affirmative action officer's role might be strengthened are described. (MLW)

The potential impact of the new nondiscrimination requirements of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 in faculty pension plans is devastating for faculty. The faculty's pension program's ability to survive in a form that serves the mutual interests of both faculty and institution is now in question. (MLW)

A federal judge and former college faculty member discusses issues and precedents in present court receptivity, or lack of it, to litigation by faculty against their institutions, primarily in employment discrimination and tenure cases. Recommendations are made for faculty to create a more favorable case if litigation is unavoidable. (MSE)

In the 12 years since nondiscrimination statues became applicable to faculty employment, faculty women have had little success in winning legal redress for employment discrimination in hiring, salary, promotion, and tenure. Tenure and confidentiality, disparate treatment and disparate impact, and internal remedies are discussed. (MLW)