The Ryan budget: dumping access to art, humanities, and higher education in favor of plutocracy
There are several breathtaking elements here. One is the level of double-speak, the use of euphemism to claim that Ryan intends the exact opposite of what the budget actually does. He’s long been a budgetary charlatan in terms of the overall numbers, and this budget is no exception. The other thing is what, in fact, […]
NCAA athletes closer to unionization, closer to the workplace safety they deserve
Two days ago, adjuncts unionizing in DC, yesterday, a ruling from a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional director that college athletes may unionize. The ruling is essentially provisional, because Northwestern University, one of whose football players pushed for the union, will appeal the decision to the NLRB. The AP does a pretty good job […]
The real March Madness: BG-SU cuts faculty, amazingly still has $2 mill for new hoops coach
Just this past week, faculty at BGSU my fine university were given pink slips. Not for poor performance; it’s part of Mary Ellen Mazey our august university president’s campaign to cut full-time faculty. Last year, 72 faculty; this year, another 30. Why? The usual jumble of explanations that administrations give, sometimes based upon enrollment, other times […]
NY Times op-ed suggestion: reduce college costs for the wealthy, um, “middle class”
Today in the NY Times, Steve Cohen argues that the federal government should reform the criteria by which families’ “expected family contribution” (EFC) is determined. The EFC is the amount a family is expected to pay to a college or university for student costs, as opposed to what students can get from Pell Grants, loans, […]
You could look it up: lower state funding for higher ed, higher costs for poor students
Don’t just take my word for it. Two new online calculators show a) how state support of higher education as a proportion of universities’ budgets has plummeted, and b) how recent policies at the federal, state, and institutional level have combined to increase poor students’ costs in relative and even absolute terms compared to rich […]