September–October 2015 Academe

Advocacy and organizing, the twin activities at the heart of the AAUP, will be fully effective only when faculty members everywhere challenge the portrayals of educators by those who would dismantle the American system of education. The September–October 2015 issue of Academe (http://www.aaup.org/issue/september-october-2015) looks at how we can sharpen our professional focus and resist the remaking of our universities on the corporate model.

The issue starts off with a warning from journalist Juan González that we have “come too far and fought too hard” to stop fighting for real and vigorous education. His article is followed by a piece from Steven C. Ward, who warns us that the reforms of public education that began during the Bush era are now affecting higher education.

Mihran Aroian and Raymond Brown look at student evaluations of teachers—a potentially useful but flawed tool. David Schultz, in the article that follows, describes what he sees as the coming demise of the corporate university. On a different track, Carrie E. Rood and Michelle L. Damiani discuss one means for increasing disability awareness on campus. Inclusivity, of course, is based on the need for diversity, and Donald Earl Collins follows with an exploration of how historically black colleges and universities can improve their contemporary standings.

Vicki L. Baker and Peter Boumgarden describe one context in which colleges and universities can appropriately work with business, showing how the liberal arts can augment corporate goals. Jacob Felson, next, wonders why educators have not yet developed tools that match the possibilities of today’s digital world.

Kamala Visweswaran wraps up the print articles with a description of another area where politics affect education: the struggles of Palestinian academics under Israeli occupation. This issue also includes two online-only articles: Jid Lee’s examination of the small fights we all participate in when we should be concerning ourselves with larger issues and Faiza Abdur Rab’s plea for a reevaluation of how academia treats research in developing countries.