How The University Works

An award-winning play about organizing grad employees opens May 3 in Philadelphia.
ADMINISTRATOR: Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste. I go by many names. Doctor, Boss, Sir, Chairman, Gentleman, Scholar, Dean, Pillar of the Community, Cheap Bastard, but you can call me the Administrator. –Joe Camhi, “Screw U, […]

McGill grad employees have been picketing since April 8
This is an era of executive license, exemplified by the Bush mob’s trampling on labor rights, habeas corpus, international law and even the remnant trappings of democracy in the U.S. and in its various client outposts across the globe.
Now the McGill administration seems determined to show […]

Ted Kennedy says that workplace rights for graduate employees improve undergraduate education.
So I’m back from Illinois and Ohio with some kind of Andromeda strain eating away at my lungs and sinuses, but wanted to quickly post the interesting news that Ted Kennedy has–after several years’ dithering–at last waded into the fray over bargaining rights for […]

University of Chicago grads march on the provost to protest unequal stipends
Chicago remains one of the few bastions of labor militancy in the United States and graduate employees have had enough at the biggest private and public campuses in the city.
Last week at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where unionized graduate student […]

So I’m French Canadian by extraction, not very recently, but I’m pretty much related to everyone with my last name in North America. We spend every summer in the Laurentian foothills, a couple of hours from Ottawa, three from Montreal. (I have the heritage, but my spouse has the language skills.)
It’s far from a perfect […]

This week’s posts are all inspired by the Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value conference in Minneapolis April 11 to 13.
One of the sessions will feature Jeff Williams, Heather Steffen, David Cerniglia, and Eric Leuschner on the importance of engaging undergraduates in debates about the meaning, purpose, funding, and nature of higher education.
This is […]

As a couple of folks have noticed: I haven’t issued a new video in a while, despite having fifteen or so great interviews backed up on my monster new 750-gig external hard drive.
The videos will begin releasing again in May, about 1 per week. They include great interviews with AAUP past president Jane Buck and […]

Frank Donoghue argues that  professors of the humanities have already “gone too far to rescue themselves.”

This week’s posts are all inspired by the Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value conference in Minneapolis April 11-13. In attendance will be plenty of Minnesota folks, like Paula Rabinowitz and Lisa Disch as well as a great […]

If you’re trying to get the book from an online bookseller and seeing an estimated delivery of 1 week, it’s because the first printing of HTUW has sold out. The second printing was due in warehouses April 4, and should be shipping shortly. (The best price–$15.84 to $17.60–is at Barnes and Noble. Ordering directly […]

Friday April 11, 4:30 pm “Extreme Work-Study.” Panel presentation. University of Minnesota. Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value. CSOM, room L-110.
Saturday April 12, 12:45 pm. “The Faculty Organize, But Management Enjoys Solidarity.” Keynote Address, 54th Annual Meeting of Michigan Conference AAUP. Marriott Hotel, Eagle Crest Resort, Ypsilanti.
Wednesday April 16, 4- 5:30 pm. “Permanently Temporary: How […]

I posted yesterday on the campaign of 900-member United Part-Time Faculty at Wayne State, an AFT affiliate, to win job security for faculty serving contingently. Like workers in most fields, they believe that serving part-time doesn’t exempt faculty from workplace due process, seniority, and continuing appointment.
I wrote my letter to WSU president Irvin Reid and […]

In recent years, faculty serving contingently have rung up a series of important successes through unionization, often raising salaries substantially. They’ve also begun to bargain for job security. At some public institutions, notably Cal State, faculty have a contractual pathway to renewable appointments. At private schools, the UAW contract with the New School guarantees not […]