In this New York Times piece, Fish tries to nuance the debate over academic freedom, specifically over whether a professor should be allowed to espouse political positions in the classroom. Using a Wisconsin professor who spoke in his class of 9/11 as an inside government job, he draws a productive distinction between a professor being an advocate for "extremist" or minority views, and taking these views (which often have wide cultural currency) as objects of analysis. He d

Dear UFCT Members: The following message was sent to me from Tony Wildman who is the head of the Higher Education division of New York...

Dear Pratt Faculty Colleague [with a special nod to our full-time faculty brethren]: For over two years the UFCT has been chasing-down the arrogant, bizarre and surreal actions of the Pratt Administration regarding their unilateral practice of conferring to the "excluded" various [so-called] "faculty" actions; most notably, the conferral of tenure to non-faculty. How is it that Pratt's management is granting to the ineligible what they are instinctively loath to confer to th

I have been asked to write a letter of solidarity for the Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153 at Pratt Institute, which represents all clerical, secretarial and technical academic support staff. I am all too happy to oblige. As many of you are aware, they are currently engaged in a tough negotiation with the Pratt Institute Administration and have been without a contract since June 30, 2005. You might recall that during the recent transit workers strike, politicia

Dear members of the faculty: After a great deal of thought, I have decided to resign my seat on the senate. The following are some of my reasons (not necessarily in order of importance): 1) The senate has become predominantly an organ of the administration. This is something it does well, but is not what its role should be. 2) In statistics, there is a concept for testing a hypothesis: If the likelihood of an event is too small it is declared to be not true — like the first

A few points regarding the full-time/part-time faculty ratio: 1) The UFCT does not hire faculty, appoint faculty or determine a faculty...

There is general confusion amongst faculty members regarding the collective bargaining agreement and the so-called ‘faculty’ handbook....

The content of the following 'Protecting the Contract' posts are gleaned from the last two academic years' grievance reports, the first for the 2004-2005 academic year, the second for 2003-2004 (a complete report for the last 2005-2006 academic year will be posted shortly): PROTECTING THE CONTRACT [Grievance Report: 2004-2005] The enforcement and protection of the faculty contract [the collective bargaining agreement, the CBA] is the single most important function of the Unio

PROTECTING THE CONTRACT [Grievance Report: 2003-2004] Grievances: [A Summary] [I have omitted all references to the individual parties involved in the following grievances and arbitrations]… 1.) Workloads: The vast majority of faculty grievances deal with workloads – the under and/or over-loading of part-time faculty. There are two part-time statuses, visiting and adjunct. Status is one’s employment level and determines the percentage of a full-time workload the part-timer ma

Status is one's employment level. Certain rights and/or protections whether implied or actual are associated with one's status. The discussions about visiting status have been illuminating and expansive, and often referenced other issues such as: FT: PT ratios, peer review, evaluation, promotions and/or changes in status. It is clear that all of these considerations are inextricably linked to one another, and are all imbedded in notions of advancement. Pratt's faculty get ve