Purdue University’s new president, Mitch Daniels, released an open letter Friday, a week into his presidency, in which he noted that he very much approves of the Purdue tradition of skipping inaugurals. In the letter, he set out a series of strong criticisms of higher education, as well as various expert opinions on why higher education is in for a period of profound and possibly traumatic change. read more >

After two years of preparation, 90 percent of teachers—and 98 percent of those voting—voted to authorize a strike. read more >

"The balance between people who are actually in the trenches and those who are overseeing that work has gotten grossly out of line," says Robert E. Martin, Emeritus Boles Professor of Economics at Centre College and an author of the study. "That imbalance is one of the primary reasons for why costs grew so out of control over the last three decades." read more >

Lectures remain the dominant form of instruction, the survey found, but the results also show increases in the number of professors who use discussions and other alternatives, like cooperative-learning projects, in their classes. read more >

In 2009 Human Resources changed the PSU policy on access to faculty unearned sick leave advance bank to require faculty members who voluntarily purchased Short term disability (STD) to exhaust that disability, and then exhaust Long term Disability (LTD), before being eligible to access the statutory Unearned Sick Leave advance bank. They did not notify PSU-AAUP of the policy change as required by law and the CBA, and we only learned of it when a very sick faculty member was harmed by the policy in 2011. read more >

Senate Bill 242 created an opportunity for OUS to look at alternatives to PEBB. David Hansen, SBA and Phil Lesch, PSU-AAUP Executive Director were voting members of the committee that worked for over one year with health benefits consultant Gallagher Benefit Services to evaluate PEBB and our benefit programs. The committee's final draft report recommends sweeping changes to the purchase and management of health care benefits for the 13,500 OUS employees in the 2012 $206,000,000 program. read more >

As commissioner, Avakian oversees a department that enforces civil rights and workplace laws and teaches employers how to comply with them. The position also provides a minor bully pulpit and the opportunity to pursue targeted legislation. Avakian, to his credit, has pushed successfully to boost funding for high school vocational programs and intends to encourage lawmakers to contribute further during the 2013 session. read more >

A campaign to ensure that all workers in Portland earn paid sick time – inspired by similar campaigns in San Francisco and Seattle – is just getting its footing, with advocates still discussing how they plan to proceed. Lisa Frack, communications director for Family Forward Oregon, a group pushing for more family-friendly policies in the workplace, said her group is reaching out to small businesses, unions and other groups to hammer out a strategy as well as raise awareness about the issue. read more >

Read the article and weep about what those colleges have for faculty that we do not. read more >

A Romney presidency would pose an obvious hardship for the country’s public colleges and universities. Romney and Ryan, austerity candidates, make no secret of their desire for further cuts in public spending (with no exemption for higher education). But Romney’s now-famous “47-percent comment” highlights the danger ahead for the private revenues that public-college leaders have counted on to replace shrinking public support. read more >

See our Op-Ed piece at Oregon-live.com! read more >

We just learned that a faculty member's ability to appeal the outcome of the student conduct code hearing will not be impinged by a shorter appeal deadline. At PSU-AAUP's request, PSU has agreed to retract their proposal to reduce the appeal deadline for findings of the student conduct code hearing from 10 days to 5 days. The appeal timeline will remain 10 days. read more >

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