Gearing Up for the UUP Delegate Assembly and the NYS Higher Education Summit

Hey all, CitizenSE is back in business! I've taken a long break from serious blogging on the funding of public higher education, especially in New York State, partly because I'm no longer Chair of the SUNY Fredonia University Senate, partly because I didn't have much to add to my previous writings on the subject, and partly because my family's move from Dunkirk to Hamburg and my adjustment to a new commuting schedule have forced me away. But we're hitting crunch time and it's about time I get back in the game, not least because I just got voted in as Vice-Chair of next year's Fredonia University Senate.

So expect a bunch of quick-hit but substantive posts from me in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out my comment on SUNY flexibility and autonomy, consider the differences between SUNY's and UUP's advocacy organizations, and send me questions or suggestions for future posts.

Crowd-Sourcing Academic Peer Review: Sympoze

A colleague of mine in philosophy has started an on-line peer-reviewed journal called Sympoze. They're looking for peer reviewers in every discipline. Here's their FAQ page, where they explain how crowd-sourcing academic peer review works and why they believe it will fix the bugs in traditional peer-review. I've signed up as a reviewer and I encourage you to, too.

The AAUP Gets It: Investigating SUNY Albany

Check it out: the AAUP is investigating the decision to close programs at SUNY Albany. More power to them!

I look forward to the investigating committee's report. There are a lot of thorny issues involved with the role of faculty and governance in decisions to shrink rather than grow a university that are very difficult to get a handle on. Here's hoping the AAUP can make their very useful Red Book even more relevant today by identifying some principles and practices governance leaders and bodies can use--as well as things administrators should endeavor to avoid or face censure.

The AAUP Gets It: Saving Public Higher Education

Check out the AAUP's defense of public employees, collective bargaining, and public higher education. And get involved!

Groundhog Day Symbolism

Yeesh, reading about the new Governor's proposals for the NYS budget and for SUNY and CUNY, along with the responses from the usual suspects, make me wonder if I'm in Groundhog Day the movie or if the huge winter storm western NY seems mostly to have weathered with minimal disruptions is a better indicator of where the state and its public higher education systems are headed.

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!