Book Review: Equality for Contingent Faculty
Edited by Keith Hoeller, Vanderbilt University Press, 2014, paperback. by Deborah Straw In Equality for Contingent Faculty, edited by Keith Hoeller, longtime academic labor activist John Hess is quoted as saying, “No contingent faculty is…
Book Review: Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education
by Mark Edmundson. Bloomsbury, 2013. Hardcover. Review by Deborah Straw In “A Word to the New Humanities Professor,” Mark Edmundson, Professor of English, recommends the way to consider the job and the students. “He must take very…
teaching college is hard as shit, and students are afraid to be creative.
by Ama McKinley
I’m a first semester instructor this fall, guiding 106 students as they learn Human Communication and Graphic Design. Sometimes, this job still feels like i’m being punked.
When I was in college, I was…
Hey Control Freak Profs., Quit Hassling Students By Taking Attendance
I’d like to pose some questions to my colleagues: have you ever been sick, had an emergency, missed your train, had a death in the family, been in a car accident, or simply needed a mental health day? Have you ever had to cancel a class,…
Book Review: Bully in the Ivory Tower, How Aggression and Incivility Erode American Higher Education
by Dr. Leah Hollis, Ed.D, Patricia Berkly L.L.C., 2012. Review by Deborah Straw As an adjunct teacher at several colleges, I have been bullied more than a few times. A colleague, a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures, responded when I…
Open Letter to Jeremy: Teaching College is Frustrating and Yet Rewarding
As I write this, I am a little over a week past turning in final grades. I had more “earned” Fs from my classes this semester than ever before. When I say “earned,” I mean 1) some people attended the whole term but didn’t turn in all the…
Are Professors Tyrants? Conservative Students Say, “Yes!”
by Jennifer Kabbany
Droves of open-minded students are often won over to the progressive narrative because they’re browbeat with it for four consecutive years and never exposed to alternative arguments.
Now comes more bad news — the…
NSF Receives Reports of 16 Cases of Alleged Harassment by Grantees in First Year of New Rules
Harassment is a serious and growing problem at U.S. universities. The latest survey by the Association of American Universities, a consortium of 62 leading research institutions, found that 13% of students reported being the target of…
Why I’m Voting Against the “Historic” PSC-CUNY Contract for Adjuncts
The contract I will vote against is likely to pass because of a consensus of indifference to changing the conversation around what is “teaching,” and fear of an unknown worse case. No doubt naively, I vote “NO,” hoping to join with others…
Book Review: Should I Go to Grad School? 41 Answers to an Impossible Question.
Edited by Jessica Loudis, Bosko Blagojevic, John Arthur Peetz, and Allison Rodman. Bloomsbury USA. 2014. Review by Deborah Straw Should I Go to Grad School? is a fun book to read. The writing is good; the stories are fascinating; there is a…
