Dan Mithcell’s UCLA Faculty Association Blog:

  • The Way We Live Now
    UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONAL POLICY: ANNUAL REMINDER ABOUT THREATS TO ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYThis is a reminder from the University Committee on Educational Policy (UCEP) to all University of California faculty to be vigilant about the threats to academic integrity and intellectual property posed by online services where students share copyrighted course materials and […]
  • Straws in the Wind – Part 496
    From The Dartmouth: Dartmouth Dialogues, College President Sian Leah Beilock’s signature initiative to promote meaningful dialogue across differing perspectives, launched a new certificate program for students on Sept. 14. The purpose of the Certificate in Principles of Dialogue program is to train Dartmouth students to “feel confident” in “productive dialogue around complex topics,” manage their […]
  • Calculations
                             UCLA       USC ——————————————Students/Faculty         18.3       7.1Faculty/Employment        4.6%     25.2% Part-Timers/Faculty      17.1%     29.5%Degrees/Faculty          10.2       3.7Undergrads/Total         70.7%     45.7——————————————-Source: LA Business Journal, Sept. 14, 2026, p. […]
  • The Bond – Part 2
    Gov. Newsom has come out in favor of Proposition 38 on the November ballot: a measure to authorize $8.4 billion in state general obligation bonds for immunology and immunotherapy research, split between a University of California-affiliated nonprofit institute and a grant program for public or nonprofit research institutions. The Institute will be housed at the […]
  • Straws in the Wind – Part 495
    From Inside Higher Ed: A group of current and former Lincoln University students filed a federal lawsuit… against the state of Missouri, seeking $548.7 million owed to the Black land-grant institution for funds the state neglected to allocate to the university between 1987 and 2020, plus interest.The filing marks the beginning of a campaign by […]

Chris Newfield & Michael Meranze’s Remaking the University

  • Liner Note 58. Academic Freedom and Democratization
    by Chris Newfield
     Golden Gate on October 7, 2026This is the text of a short talk I gave in a UC Berkeley Mellon Sawyer seminar last Friday. The seminar's overall title is “Neutrality: The Problems and Challenges of the Public University.” Friday’s topic was “institutional neutrality,” and the reading included the Kalven Report (1967), discussed below, the Woodward […]
  • Liner Note 57. Selling the Do-It-Yourself Public University
    by Chris Newfield
      Cambridge, England on September 26, 2026  With everything going on in the world, from war to AI grasping at everything, it’s more important than ever for universities to have the money to think and work independently.  That’s not where they are or where they’re headed.  This is particularly clear in my case study, the most […]
  • Move Your Money Now! (guest post)
    by Chris Newfield
         L3 Harris-Palantir Demo Video Sept 2026   By: Hannah Appel (UCLA), Seeta Chaganti (UCD), Charmaine Chua (UCB), Noah Zatz (UCLA)Many thousands – perhaps the majority – of UC workers, decry the violence that surrounds us. We protest the masked ICE agents who kidnap our neighbors, students, and family members. We protest the concentration camps […]
  • Liner Note 56: The AI Industry Is Dumping its Knowledge Crisis on Humanity
    by Chris Newfield
     Terme di Caracalla, Rome on May 12, 2026 The recent convergence of two kinds of AI news has unnerved a lot of us. The first kind is magic math solutions, like OpenAI’s claimed proof of the Navier-Stokes equations on fluid movement. These stories ask us to accept that AI superintelligence is indeed at hand. The second kind is news of […]
  • Liner Note 55. In the Empire of AI, Universities Will Reinvest or Die
    by Chris Newfield
    Leonora Carrington, Crookhey Hall seen July 17 2026  I want to talk about the relations among AI, university teaching, and university budgeting. These links are not getting nearly enough combined attention.College graduates are chief among the frontline victims of the AI story, joining non-college workers in a new phase of disposability (see Heck et al. 2026 for Brookings, […]

National higher education blogs of interest, starting with AAUP’s Academe Blog:

  • Frederick Douglass, Censorship, and Humanities Education
    by Guest Blogger
    BY JOE LOCKARD Book bans and censorship in middle and high schools also affect higher education. They shape the reading knowledge of students who graduate and enter colleges and universities. An absence of knowledge about racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual diversity and histories among incoming students creates learning gaps and campus culture problems. Crucially, censorship…
  • From the Editor: The Fight for Democracy
    by AAUP
    BY MICHAEL FERGUSON Following is the editor’s introduction to the fall 2026 issue of Academe, “The Brave New World of Higher Ed,” out this week. The full issue and table of contents can be found here.  This issue of Academe arrives at a pivotal moment for US higher education—and for democracy. As midterm elections approach, the federal…
  • My Year of Workshopping Lectures
    by Guest Blogger
    BY MELISSA CHADBURN In 2023, I was confounded by my humanness as I entered my first full-time visiting faculty position in my mid-forties. The brain fog. The creeping anxiety. Feeling my confidence and capacity to speak in front of other people vanish, even though I had a lot of experience with public speaking, panels, and…
  • Race to the Bottom Continues with Revised SACSCOC Accreditation Standards
    by Guest Blogger
    BY KATIE RAINWATER This post follows up on, and covers new developments related to, the author’s June 15 Academe Blog post. In June, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC)—the traditional accreditor for the Southeastern United States, now also called the Commission on Colleges and Universities (CCU)* —released a first draft of new standards…
  • You Already Work at Two Universities
    by Guest Blogger
    BY D.J. HOPKINS AND ZACH JUSTUS It’s time for your department to produce its annual assessment report. You and your colleagues have agreed on the learning outcomes to measure, and you have the data, but no one looks forward to this task, so you put it off. You answer emails, do some compliance training, and…

Higher Ed Labor United:

  • Pennsylvania Higher Ed Workers, Students, and Communities Come Together on September 28
    by info4de9e1dcddf
    By Seth Kahn, APSCUF member and faculty at West Chester University I knew we were in for a good day before the “Affordable College Now!” rally even began. By the time our bus of about 60 students, faculty, and staff from Cheyney and West Chester Universities got there, the scene was already LOUD. A student […]
  • November 7 – HBCU Organizing Strategy Session
    by info4de9e1dcddf
    HBCU Organizing Strategy Session | Morning of November 7 HBCU leaders will come together to move from conversation to action. We will: Beyond Atlanta The goal is not another one-time meeting. We are building a network that can help HBCU workers organize, support each other’s campaigns, develop new leaders, share strategies, and build worker power […]
  • October 21 – HELU Open House
    by info4de9e1dcddf
    Higher Education Labor United (HELU) invites you to join us for our next virtual Open House on Wednesday, October 21. The Open House is an opportunity to learn more about HELU, meet leaders and organizers from across our network, and hear about the work higher education unions are taking on together across the country. We’ll […]
  • Support transformational learning: Lower class sizes at Western Carolina University
    by info4de9e1dcddf
    From our colleagues at Western Carolina University AAUP: Since August 2026, Western Carolina University AAUP members have been fighting back against gen ed course capacity increases. On average, Fall 2026 gen ed course capacities increased by 13% year-over-year. These capacity increases will diminish students’ educational experiences, force additional work on already-overworked and underpaid faculty members, […]
  • HELU Wall-to-Wall & Coast-to-Coast Report: August 2026
    by info4de9e1dcddf
    Higher ed labor is organizing. Learn more and join us. August 2026 HELU Chair’s Message From Levin Kim, HELU Chair and member of UAW 4121:   Next Thursday, August 27, HELU member unions will be coming together at our third General Assembly of the year. We’ll reflect on our work over the first half of […]