Hank
Reichman is a prominent figure among university professors, though perhaps not
among academics. At least that’s what the title of his organization suggests,
the American Association of University Professors. These people are, steadfast.
That’s the term to use.
Hank is on the right and his interviewer is James Vernon. |
Hank has
remained steadfast in his silence and probable ignorance. But he has no power
over me. Does he have power over you? Do his AAUP union masters have power over
you? Or is it just your institutional employer and the bargaining unit is a
liberator?
If the latter, then read on and I’ll again try to rob you of that fatal fantasy by critiquing a recent interview Hank gives on academic freedom. Using a common formula on the PSA blog, there is direct quote from the interview followed by analysis, evaluation and prescription. Another related example can be found here where I treat a promotion video from the California Faculty Association.
So, let’s dance to the disaster de jour in higher education: academic freedom.
But before
the music begins, I feel an oft-repeated bridge coming on: The ills of
higher education are not to be fixed by upmarket band-aids like academic
freedom, shared governance, and tenure that are applied to an inheritance of
university and college professors, or more precisely, them and their
institutional employers that together form an unchallenged heritage of universitas.
The Professional Society of Academics (PSA) adopts and adapts a recognized alternative
universitas in the professions and applies it to higher education as a
formal, viable, desirable challenge to the continued assumption of our inheritance.
Cue music to an old familiar faculty chorus…