Annual faculty merit evaluations: rewarding productivity, or forcing mediocrity?
As with many university administrations, ours is deeply concerned with faculty productivity. There’s a prevailing attitude among upper administrators and, apparently, our Board of Trustees, that surely there are many faculty somewhere on campus not doing their jobs, especially in terms of research. Accordingly, the administration insisted on several principles in our contracts: continuing to have […]
Happy Birthday, OSHA! Now protecting workers for forty-three years
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) went live on April 28, 1971. In the years since, it has been OSHA’s mandate to protect workers from employers, whether through drafting and enforcing rules on workplace safety or health, or protecting whistleblowers. OSHA has become a conservative whipping-boy for having the temerity to enforce laws that can mean the […]