To an American audience, the demonstrations, strikes, and unrest resulting from the changes to higher education in Britain must seem perplexing. Compared with the $37,000 for annual tuition at a private university like Princeton, higher education in England still seems like a bargain. But the changes now under way in Britain threaten the very core…

Despite the carnage wrought on higher education by the Great Recession, evidence persists that the sector is still host to a speculator psychology. One example is the unabated stampede to set up branches and programs overseas. Colleges have many reasons to go offshore: (1) to reduce costs; (2) to build their "brands" in "emerging…

Heightened commercialism on campus is pulling universities and their faculties away from higher education's core commitment to academic research, teaching, and the production of reliable public knowledge. Nearly a century ago, similar threats led to the birth of a new faculty organization--the American Association of University Professors…

Rightly or wrongly, a language of "firsts" has long permeated graduate student labor at New York University (NYU). In 2002, NYU's graduate student employees were the first in the nation to secure a union contract at a private university. In 2005, they were also the first to lose their contract, precipitating a bitter six-month-long…

The circumstances of tenure have changed and will likely continue to change, perhaps even dramatically. The proportion of university and college faculty members with full academic qualifications--which usually means those with earned doctorates--who either have tenure or are serving a probationary period for tenure has been declining steadily over…

This article presents three recent American Association of University Professors (AAUP) cases that involved the dismissal of a senior non-tenure-track member of the faculty. The most recent case resulted in the investigating committee's report on Nicholls State University, a regional public institution in Louisiana. Preceding Nicholls was an…

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. With a duration of eighteen months, this recession was almost double the length of the average post-World War II economic downturn. Although the worst recession since the Great Depression is now technically over, this analysis…

Having recently represented their colleagues in discussions with the administration of their institution, Saint Anselm College, about faculty compensation, the authors of this paper decided to compile a guide for other professors at similar institutions--small, private liberal arts colleges--who may be called on to negotiate salary packages…

Faced by growing inequality in American society and the stratifying aspects of early education, elite private colleges and universities that do not make a deliberate effort to open their educational experience to different kinds of individuals are disproportionately likely to enroll children from financially and academically privileged families.…

Need-based financial aid is seen as an essential component of a meritocratic admissions policy. A cornerstone of the meritocratic admissions revolution has been the willingness of college and university trustees to provide increased resources for financial aid. The experiences at Williams College are discussed.

The proportions of tenure-track faculty appointments in doctoral-level, comprehensive, general baccalaureate, specialized, and two-year public, private, and church-related colleges are tabulated for each academic rank. (MSE)

Tables and narrative analysis are presented for salary trends for all ranks of college faculty in 2,532 public and private institutions. Slight real increases in salary are found, with public institutions behind private colleges. In the past decade, faculty salaries have fallen behind those in the private sector. (MSE)

Detailed knowledge of how an institution obtains and expends its resources forces faculty to look at the whole picture of an institution. The budget process should be one in which the various institutional interests achieve mutual recognition and consensus about policies, people, and perquisites. (MLW)

The report of an AAUP committee's investigation of the termination of four tenured Temple University faculty members following an administration declaration of retrenchment is presented. (MSE)

Discusses the approach taken by Cornell University (New York) to the end of mandatory retirement for faculty, noting the differences between the private and publicly assisted colleges that form the university. Topics addressed include the construction of the retirement plans, demographics of the faculty population, changing faculty expectations of…