The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: the_geneticist on May 15, 2024, 05:00:42 PMSorry for the double-post, it's getting to be crunch time for our Spring term.

A TA just told me today (it's Week 7) that a student has been arriving at lab 30-60 minutes late EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  And the TA has been letting them participate.  And giving them credit for their "due at the start of class prelab".

Why didn't the TA tell me the first time this happened?  The official policy is that 10 minutes late = you can't participate.  And late pre-lab assignments = 0 points. 

And the kicker is the TA casually mentioned that the student has been copying their answers from other student worksheets all quarter.

Do these TAs get away with not following protocols? I would email TA with the list of above infractions and also CC the Chair/Grad Stu Advisor/Whoever else who should be aware of this so that there's a paper trail. You've probably documented this, but just my two cents.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 16, 2024, 01:22:51 PMLangue_doc: the Hamilton Hall arrests were the second batch of arrests at Columbia. More than 100 students were arrested a couple of days earlier.

Let's not go around rewriting events to suit the narrative.

See the timeline of the protests, the closing of campus, and the arrests.

Students who had paid their tuition, apartment/dorm rent, and other expenses with the expectation of a semester's worth of instruction and access to classrooms, libraries, dining halls, counseling centers and other campus facilities were abruptly denied access to these and other campus buildings because of the protesters who had taken it upon themselves to speak/act on behalf of their fellow-students. I recall a segment from our local news just before the first set of arrests where students who did not support the protests were complaining about not being able to get to their dorms and also not being able to access the dining rooms.

I don't think the faculty suffered any pay losses but the maintenance and other employees who weren't allowed to come to campus when it was closed probably did, especially the part-timers.

Columbia did ask the faculty to be flexible with their final exams and grading, but students who were expecting uninterrupted instruction, access to dorms and dining plans that they had paid for are the losers and are bound to sue the university.

Most people who live or work near NYC universities don't welcome these protests because they disrupt traffic and transportation. There were reports in the news about a group of protesters unaffiliated with Columbia trying to storm Penn station (I don't recall if this was before the first or the second "encampment") so that they could take the #1 train to Columbia. This was during rush hour, and everyone was relieved that the large group had been stopped before tying up traffic for people wanting to get home to the outer boroughs, suburbs, Long Island, and New Jersey.

Most New Yorkers had a similar reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests where a group of affluent people (many of those arrested had Manhattan or other upscale addresses) took over a park nowhere near Wall Street, and disrupted not only traffic but also prevented the employees from adjacents buildings/streets who usually took their lunch break there, as well as disrupting the sleep of the residents living along nearby streets with their constant drumming throughout the night.

Langue_doc: the Hamilton Hall arrests were the second batch of arrests at Columbia. More than 100 students were arrested a couple of days earlier.

Let's not go around rewriting events to suit the narrative.

Oh ffs! We've lost our minds.

In other news,

QuoteColumbia Faculty Group Passes No-Confidence Resolution Against President
Hundreds of professors at the university weighed in on the resolution, which said the president, Nemat Shafik, had committed an "unprecedented assault on student's rights."

She did throw some of the faculty under the bus during the hearings, but still...

QuoteThe Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University passed a resolution of no confidence in the school's president, Nemat Shafik, on Thursday, saying she had violated the "fundamental requirements of academic freedom and shared governance," and engaged in an "unprecedented assault on students' rights."

The move, while largely symbolic, underscores the anger that Dr. Shafik faces on campus as she tries to recover from her divisive handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and her public pledge to a congressional committee last month that she would discipline several faculty members who had espoused views against Israel that some have argued are antisemitic.

The no-confidence resolution was introduced by the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a professional faculty organization. Of the 709 professors who voted, 65 percent were in favor of the resolution and 29 percent were against it. Six percent abstained.

The resolution particularly criticized Dr. Shafik's decision to call the police into campus to clear a pro-Palestinian student encampment on April 18, even after the executive committee of the University Senate had unanimously told her not to do it. The resolution said that she had "falsely claimed" that the students were a "clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the university," arguing instead that they were peaceful.

She also violated the norms of academic freedom when she promised to fire faculty members in testimony before a congressional committee on antisemitism on April 17, the resolution said.

"The president's choices to ignore our statutes and our norms of academic freedom and shared governance, to have our students arrested and to impose a lockdown of our campus with continuing police presence, have gravely undermined our confidence in her," the resolution stated.

The police were called after a group of students and people unaffiliated with Columbia U had broken into Hamilton Hall, terrorized the employees working there, and had continued to barricade themselves in the building. There are no "correct" responses by college presidents because a president who agreed to the students' demands was put on leave:

QuoteCalifornia university president put on leave for 'insubordination' after meeting Gaza protesters' demands

QuoteCalifornia State University placed Sonoma State campus President Mike Lee on leave Wednesday after he agreed to protesters' demands to involve them in university decision-making and pursue divestment from Israel.

Lee sent a campus-wide memo Tuesday indicating that he had made several concessions to occupants of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. The memo was sent "without the appropriate approvals," CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement, adding that she and the 23-campus CSU system's board are "actively reviewing the matter."

"For now, because of this insubordination and the consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave," García said.

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 16, 2024, 11:00:08 AMFor whatever it is worth, got this in my email this morning:

QuoteWe regularly address these issues in Academe, the AAUP's magazine. These are just some of the resources you get as an AAUP member—and now, thanks to our affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers, all AAUP members also have access to all of AFT's member benefits.

What's your role in all of this? Become a member to help support efforts to protect free inquiry in higher ed and ensure that higher ed can serve the common good. We'd love to have you as part of the one of the strongest organizations fighting for the future of higher ed.

In solidarity,
Mariah Quinn, AAUP's digital organizer

Sounds like more about marketing than discussing the issues involved.
"BUT WAIT; THERE'S MORE!"

If you're old enough to remember, picture it being read in the voice of a K-Tel commercial.

 For whatever it is worth, got this in my email this morning:

QuoteDear Wahoo,

"I've been teaching for 34 years and I've never seen anything remotely like this, the willingness to hurt people, the willingness to hurt me, the willingness to stick a police club in the ribs of an 82 year old, the willingness to beat students. I saw one student from UCLA, wiping the blood off his face in an interview. We are in scary times and I'm really grateful to be part of AAUP. I hope that we can as a national organization make a concerted effort to work on these issues and respond to them."

That's Annelise Orleck, whose arrest at a May 1 protest at Dartmouth College garnered significant press coverage. She's a professor of history and co-president of the Dartmouth AAUP chapter.

Annelise is just one of many AAUP members who've been fighting to ensure that academic freedom, free speech, and the right to protest are protected on campuses across the country, in the face of increasing crackdowns and violent repression.

Join the fight. Rejoin or join the AAUP today.

As we said in a recent statement,

The AAUP and its chapters defend the right to free speech and peaceful protest on university campuses, condemn the militarized response by institutional leaders to these activities, and vehemently oppose the politically motivated assault on higher education.
Our colleges and universities are places of free and open expression, inquiry, and debate. Even in sharp disagreement, our goal is communication in service of learning and understanding. The critical evaluation of different points of view and the questioning of even the most deeply held beliefs are essential to learning. So too is our students' right to protest and to express their political convictions.
It's not just words. You can find many resources on our website about campus speech rights. We've been talking to faculty about their experiences in the protests on our podcast AAUP Presents, as well as examining the history and people behind the current wave of political interference and crackdowns. We regularly address these issues in Academe, the AAUP's magazine. These are just some of the resources you get as an AAUP member—and now, thanks to our affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers, all AAUP members also have access to all of AFT's member benefits.

What's your role in all of this? Become a member to help support efforts to protect free inquiry in higher ed and ensure that higher ed can serve the common good. We'd love to have you as part of the one of the strongest organizations fighting for the future of higher ed.

In solidarity,
Mariah Quinn, AAUP's digital organizer

My response:

QuoteI don't think these protests are doing Palestine, our colleges, our students, or our police any favors.  We should not demonize the police for enforcing the law.  We need to be more mature than this and to move past the protest milieu of the '70s, which is what this is. 

Thank you, Wahoo Redux

I think I posted this somewhere else, but the buyout at my wife's uni was targeted at specific departments in two successive waves.  First year 100% of 1 year's salary.  Second year, when everyone was good and scared, was 80%. I think almost everyone took the buyout because the threat, never put in writing, was that it was buyouts or retrenchment because of enrollment declines.

Spork speaks wisdom!

Our phased retirement plan is basically just a delayed buyout at 1 yrs. salary. Honestly, if I am ready to teach for 10 years, I'd start by asking for 10 years salary. I'd be laughed out of the office for that, but that's my initial bargaining position.