Where Did the Time Go? CitizenSE Is 4!

Or was on December 1st. Wonder what I'm getting it for its birthday.

The SUNY Fredonia Student Association Strikes Back!

They're taking the battle for the future of SUNY to youtube:



Here's a link to the statewide SUNY SA!

The Arts and Humanities Strike Back!

At places like Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brandeis.... And this will stop this--

"If, because of cutbacks and lack of support from the federal government, literature and the arts and other aspects of the humanities become just parlor musings of the wealthy, we would have made a huge mistake," Dartmouth's president, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, said in an interview. "Literature and the arts should not only be for kids who go to cotillion balls to make polite conversation at parties."

--how?

I mean, more power to y'all, but now it's time to throw your weight behind public higher education and try to influence state and federal governments' decision-making and resource-allocating, right?

OMG, This Is Fracking Awesome

Although why they don't just have the prof say "fucking," I have no idea!

SUNY Under Siege

It's fitting that my last post as chair of the SUNY Fredonia University Senate would tie into my first this semester, in which I don't do much more than call your attention to the fine SUNY Under Siege site. I'll leave it to you to make the connection!

Why Middlesex Matters

John Protevi explains. If SUNY is forced by Sheldon Silver, David Paterson, and the rest of NY's political elite into layoffs and retrenchments, we're all going to need to become familiar with arguments like Protevi's and organize like the Middlesex students and faculty in Philosophy have done--preferably before the cuts have been decided on, rather than after. Looks like campus governance bodies and leaders will have to be particularly vigilant and active this summer.

[Update 1 (2:15 pm): Bob Samuels shows that at UCLA, coalitions between faculty and students, public protests and demonstrations, and alternative forums have made a big difference.]

[Update 2 (3:23 pm): Michael Meranze shines the spotlight on the Governator's budget proposal, demonstrating why those of us in public universities need to understand the big picture.]

[Update 3 (3:49 pm): I don't share Harry's confidence over at Crooked Timber that already-partially-privatized public universities in the U.S. are therefore insulated from what's going on in their more government-dependent counterparts in the UK.]

[Update 4 (3:53 pm): For more on Middlesex, check out Infinite Thought (thanks to one of Harry's commenters for the tip!).]

[Update 5 (3:58 pm): Interesting that elite universities in the UK are demanding the power to set their own fees--sounds like what SUNY's been up to lately. Here's my own basic take on the proper relationship between the state and the state university. Here's a sequel.]

[Update 6 (5/19/10, 2:23 pm): Must-read by Christopher Newfield in the new Academe.]

Question for SUNY Campuses: Since Albany Profits from the Current System, Why Retain Lobbyists?

Let's see: SUNY is looking for more autonomy from Albany, so System Administration spends $600K to lobby lawmakers while individual SUNY campuses spend at least another $1M on hired guns. Let's hope this is a temporary state of affairs. Look for these costs to go up if key measures from the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act are not passed in this year's budget, however. Which may actually be what the state government wants. Maybe it's time to stop feeding the beast!

[Update 1 (10:17 am): If anyone can get me a full-text version of this May 2010 Harper's article on the ingrained corruption in Albany, I'd really appreciate it!]