Second application for a job: Worked for me!

In this article on Vitae, Karen Kelsky encourages academic job applicants to apply for a job a second time if there’s no hire the first time, but with a caveat: only if you’ve got six new things on your C.V. or have some new angle.  It’s great advice, or at least, was in my case, […]

News Flash #234,234,867: Administrative Bloat Is What Causes Increase in Costs

OK, so maybe this story hasn’t been reported over 200 million times.  But still, in this recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, further evidence that a) most of the increased costs to students in education have come from the combination of increased administrative personnel and salaries and, in the case of public institutions, […]

Survey says… tenured faculty are long-term employees (who knew?)

Here’s what in journalism would be called a “dog-bites-man” story: a study has found that somewhere, some long-term employees may not be pulling their weight.  If this study were in any line of work but academia, it might not even be reported upon.  But because it’s about tenured faculty, the story line gets taken that […]

Solution for… bad op-eds in the N.Y. Times?

In the New York Times, University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Adam Grant has proposed “A Solution for Bad Teaching.”  It’s yet another intriguing, provocative blaming of tenure for poor teaching.  It’s also a prime example of having something outlandish to say (which the Times loves) but not actually saying anything important, or for that matter, […]

Bailyn’s Ideological Origins at Nearly 50: Brilliant Book of Bygone Age

Although I haven’t had the privilege of teaching a course on the American Revolution for a few years, this semester I’m leading a graduate student on an independent study of the Revolution, and among the books we’re reading is Bernard Bailyn’s The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.  Because it’s insights have become so central to […]