The thought on many an academic's mind today is how to stop it. The "it"? The barrage of reports, papers, and interviews stating that higher education needs to embrace "disruptive change," treat students like customers, and become more entrepreneurial. In short, colleges must adopt a business model, or like blacksmith…

In this article, Robert Golden envisions the current trends in practice at State University of New York (SUNY) in Plattsburgh, being so firmly entrenched as to still be the same practices in place 60 years into the future. He notes the decline of full-time faculty, the rise in the numbers of contingent faculty, the increasing use of massive open…

Asserts that pressing the corporate model onto the university world jeopardizes the preservation of precious academic values and broader democratic rights, stating that the corporate model concentrates power, restricts the production and application of knowledge, and increases uniform behavior, self-censorship, and when needed outright…

Describes the rise of an academic-industrial complex through which American and multinational corporations siphon the publicly created resources of universities and thereby convert publicly financed research into private gain. Asserts that this new corporate dominance represents an unprecedented intrusion into the heart of academic freedom which…

Asserts that in the wake of increasing corporate influence from the outside and corresponding pressure for corporate support from within, universities are allowing academic freedom to be diminished. Discusses how this threat to academic freedom has taken at least three forms: suppression, erosion, and corruption. Describes the historical and…

Describing economic and professional marginalization of adjunct faculty and reluctance of tenured colleagues and administrators to work for change, calls for institutional caps on percentage of courses taught by adjuncts, a pay rate closer to 75 percent of tenured salary rather than the current 25 percent, and time limits on adjuncts teaching full…

Describes changes and program cuts at the University of Rochester as an illustration of a university being invaded by the corporate ethos, with the result that the school resembles an airport mall more than an institution of learning and community. Asserts that academics have a particular role to play in creating alternatives to a homogenizing…

Asserts that faculty must become engaged in helping the university meet the challenges of the 21st century without losing the university's historic purpose and perspective to an ever-growing corporate mentality. Proposes four guidelines to addressing the problem, covering corporatization, academic freedom, students' role, and knowledge production.…

Argues that higher education's response to change is resulting in the disappearance of tenure, and provides a bibliography of actual institutional and faculty decisions in relation to tenure since the mid-1970s. Focus is on six issues: changes in the meaning of tenure; management of tenure decisions; financial exigency or discomfort; faculty…

In an interview, the president of the National Education Association (NEA) discusses issues in higher education, including the NEA's role, relationships between higher education and elementary-secondary education, professionalism and the union, technological advancement, the role of postsecondary education, allocation of educational resources,…

The real challenge to higher education in America is coming to terms with the fragmented and contested terrain of learning resulting from profound social and cultural change. Teaching anything has become difficult in a culture that has devalued learning. Once the public acknowledges this, reforming the system will be seen in a new light. (MSE)

Planning for higher education in Washington State is described, including the structure of higher education, the state board's master plan, and progress to date in implementing that plan in a context of rapid and unforeseen economic and political change. Issues discussed include tuition trends, student financial aid, and task force recommendations…

A new climate of racism on college and university campuses is seen as mirroring dominant patterns in society as a whole, which in turn reflects frustration, confusion, and anger over pervasive economic difficulties. Suggestions for campus response that is transformative rather than reactive are offered, including study of cultural identity through…

Unless the higher education community itself, primarily students and faculty, responds immediately and forcefully to the issue of underfunding and widespread retrenchment, higher education as we know it will cease to exist. Problems include shrinking state financial and political support and absence of a compelling national security need.…

The progressive gains of college faculty since the 1960s (affirmative action, ethnic studies, expansion of access to higher education, emergence of faculty unions) are threatened by social and political shifts toward conservatism. Senior, tenured faculty are challenged to use their privileged positions and the gains made in recent decades to…