Program Cuts

AAUP Joins Week of Action for Higher Education

Just as states and the federal government announce that college degree completion is the key to U.S. competitiveness in the global economy, colleges and universities are disinvesting in the faculty and staff members responsible for helping students meet educational goals.

From the President: The Last Chance

Incremental state funding of public higher education is over. The annual legislative battle for a percentage increase in higher education budgets is now a losing proposition. That is one cold lesson of the last two years. The era of the state funding budget cycle for higher education has, for all practical purposes, come to an end. Public funding is being inexorably replaced by incremental cost shifting from states to students, with tuition revenue and student debt replacing tax dollars.

From the General Secretary: Countering The Fear

There is a great deal of fear in American higher education today. It stems from an economic environment in which the basic conditions of employment are threatened, from job opportunity and security to retirement and health-care benefits. It stems from a political environment in which the work of professionals is being attacked by political and religious groups that demonize proponents of particular social and scientific perspectives and by policy makers who wish to expand student access even as they work to reduce higher education to workforce development.

From the Editor: Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

Even in the face of increasingly cataclysmic news for the humanities, and despite having two university degrees in underperforming esoterica—that is to say, French—I still feel defiant instead of resigned.

And yet. What a bloodied state we’re in.

Mass Layoffs Rescinded at Florida State

Recent months have witnessed a depressing series of cutbacks in state funding for higher education that resulted in mass layoffs of tenured professors at major public universities. A welcome major exception, however, occurred in November at Florida State University, where twenty-one tenured professors who had been notified of layoff learned that they could remain in their positions with their tenure intact.

A Faculty Agenda for Hard Times

Thirty ways to leave higher education . . . in better shape than it is now.

Crisis In Public Higher Education

Public education in many states is facing a crisis, with sharp budget cuts, unprecedented attacks on faculty status and rights, and swelling enrollments.

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