academic labor

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  1/18/2022
  

  Columbia Has Lost Its Way

  The university's negotiations with its graduate student workers' union show an institution organized around the values of a corporation. 

• 
• SOURCE: YouTube
  1/19/2022
  

  "Hello Internet": Barry Mehler Responds to Reaction to His Course Intro Video

  The Michigan professor defends a controversial course intro video that resulted in his suspension, saying his purpose was to provoke thought and make students aware of the risks and dangers of in-person instruction. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  1/14/2022
  

  Michigan Professor's Intro Video Stunt Leads to Suspension (content: language)

  Historian of Science Barry Mehler was suspended by Ferris State (Mich.) University after releasing a welcome video for his spring course that took what could be described as a bold and provocative approach to protesting the college's mandatory in-person teaching. 

• 
• SOURCE: Contingent
  1/1/2021
  

  Strange Beasts of Columbia

  by Eduardo Vergara Torres

  "According to the administration, the typical Columbia student worker must be an eyeless, toothless, infertile male creature bred on the cold shores of New England, who is about to inherit a fortune amassed by generations of well-educated ancestors."

• 
• SOURCE: Elle
  12/15/2021
  

  The Secret Lives Of Adjunct Professors

  by Gila Berryman

  "What kind of role model was I? I was a Black woman teaching working-class Black and brown students the importance of learning to write clearly so they could get a good job, yet I couldn’t support myself on my own salary."

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  12/14/2021
  

  The 20-Year Fight to Unionize Grad Student Workers

  by Rebecca Nathanson

  "The 3,000-person strike at Columbia University is the largest active strike in the U.S. and marks a decades-long struggle to recognize grad-student labor," as Rebecca Nathanson explains. 

• 
• 12/5/2021
  

  Universities Operating Like Businesses Seems Inevitable. Can They Choose Better Businesses to Follow?

  by Elizabeth Stice

  "If universities behaving more like businesses is the future, we must then aim to imitate sustainable businesses which understand and utilize their unique advantages."

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  11/29/2021
  

  A New Force in American Labor: Academics

  A member referendum in the United Auto Workers could make the union more amenable to direct democracy, and potentially make academic workers a major power bloc in the union. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  11/8/2021
  

  I'll Retire if My University Pledges to Replace Me

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  Can senior professors contribute to solving the academic jobs crisis by tying their retirement to pledges by universities to replace them with tenure-track faculty? 

• 
• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  11/9/2021
  

  UC Churns Through a Quarter of its Lecturers a Year. Like Me.

  by Diane Mendoza Nevárez

  "When UC treats lecturers as gig workers, they deny students access to the mentorship crucial for student retention and success."

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  10/18/2021
  

  My University's Policies Undermined the Lessons I Was Trained to Teach, so I Quit

  by Cornelia Lambert

  "I could use our own university system as a case study in how political power often wins out over scientific knowledge. This would be a powerful lesson, one students would be unlikely to forget. But did I want to be part of that?"

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  10/12/2021
  

  "The Chair" Creator: How to Fight Adjunctification

  by Annie Julia Wyman

  "The academic job market had collapsed -- indeed, it has been collapsing for more than a decade. Even L.A., where people famously go to get their dreams stomped on, seemed like a better bet."

• 
• SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  10/4/2021
  

  Georgia State Professor Files Complaint over Denied Request to Teach Remotely

  “I would like to be at a place where my administration cares about my health, my basic fundamental health, and is not willing to put my life at risk for a Board of Regents political policy,” historian Dan Immergluck said.

• 
• SOURCE: Dissent
  10/4/2021
  

  The "Eds and Meds" Sector Needs a New Deal

  by Ian Gavigan and Jennifer Mittelstadt

  COVID has given university administrators license to escalate their war on unionized labor in all facets of operations, from instruction to food services. All university workers need to recognize their common interest and organize to make universities pay living wages, offer fair benefits, and support equitable community development.

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  9/23/2021
  

  Academic Tenure: In Desperate Need of Reform or of Defenders?

  by Steve Mintz

  Tenure's defenders need to link the protection not only to the interests of the select few faculty who enjoy its protections but to the broader trajectory of academic institutions. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/22/2021
  

  With Students Back on Campus, Faculty Push Back Against COVID Policies They Consider Inadequate

  "Many are enjoying seeing students back on campus. But for others those scenes are fraught."

• 
• SOURCE: The American Prospect
  9/20/2021
  

  The Failure of Financialized Higher Ed

  by Kelly Grotke

  "Higher education has been captured by a vicious circle of financialization, which is destroying it as an affordable and widely available right of the citizenry, and as an engine of social mobility."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/20/2021
  

  Fights over Tenure Aren't About Tenure

  by Molly Worthen

  "The fight over tenure is not really about tenure. It’s a proxy for a larger debate about the meaning of academic freedom and the priorities of higher education." If academics want to successfully protect tenure, they must engage the culture war battle, too. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Monthly
  9/17/2021
  

  Adjunct Professors Need a Better Ground Game

  by Mia Brett

  If universities aren’t going to invest in tenure track teaching lines, then we need to make sure that they participate in and support the professionalization of adjuncts. Statewide adjunct unionization may be the way to make that happen. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  9/13/2021
  

  If/When COVID Ends, What Will Be the Future of Academic Conferences?

  "Thinking through how to proceed with annual conferences during and after the pandemic means thinking about why people want to attend them in the first place."