Faculty Issues
CategoryProblematic Letters of Recommendation for Students and How to Handle Them
Here’s a story that involves a well-meaning professor who wrote a rather unusual letter of recommendation for a student, some other well-meaning professors at PhD programs the student applied to who notified him that the letter was (in the words of one of them) “unhelpful and inappropriate,” and a department chair who attempted to handle the situation. It ends with ..
Judge Upholds Marquette’s Suspension Of Prof Who Smeared Philosophy PhD Student
In November of 2014, Marquette University Associate Professor of Political Science John McAdams made a philosophy graduate student at his school the target of a politically-motivated smear campaign. In February of 2015, the university sought his dismissal. (It was not the first time he he had run into trouble for engaging in harassing behavior towards students.) In ..
Is Your Department on the Chopping Block?
Inside Higher Ed today discusses a report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) on faculty cuts at the College of St. Rose (previously). A number of faculty were let go, leading the AAUP to declare that at the College, tenure is “virtually meaningless.” Among the programs affected is philosophy:
This is not the first time a philosophy ma..
Children and the Flexibility of the Job
Professors generally enjoy quite a bit of flexibility regarding when they are on campus or in their office. This flexibility—and the expectation that professors aren’t around all the time—is one of the perks of the job, but what are the limits of the appropriate use of this flexibility? The question is prompted by the following query (by a philosophy professor a..
Open Letter on the Damage to UIUC
More than three dozen scheduled talks and multiple conferences across a variety of disciplines – including, for example, this year’s entire colloquium series in the Department of Philosophy – have already been canceled, and more continue to be canceled, as outside speakers have withdrawn in response to the university’s handling of Dr. Salaita’s case…
An open ra..
College Pressures Philosopher to Withdraw Novel
Stephen Grant, until recently a lecturer in philosophy at Richmond upon Thames College, was asked by the school to stop the publication of his novel, A Moment More Sublime. While a lecturer there, he was a union representative and involved in the labor disputes at the school, and the novel is partly based on his experiences working there. He says that the story of t..
Outrageous Firing of 8 Seminary Faculty (updated)
Eight of the ten full-time faculty teaching at General Theological Seminary, an Episcopal Seminary in Manhattan, have been fired after detailing the highly objectionable behavior of their newly installed Dean/President Kurt Dunkle in a letter to the school’s Board of Trustees. Here are some of their complaints against Dunkle:
“On numerous occasions, he has told t..