Tag: Faculty

  • Five-Minute Starts: Fifteen Ideas to Ignite Your Class – Faculty Focus

    Five-Minute Starts: Fifteen Ideas to Ignite Your Class – Faculty Focus

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  • A Wicked Perspective: Faculty and Leadership in Academia – Faculty Focus

    A Wicked Perspective: Faculty and Leadership in Academia – Faculty Focus

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  • Direct and Indirect Assessment Measures of Student Learning in Higher Education – Faculty Focus

    Direct and Indirect Assessment Measures of Student Learning in Higher Education – Faculty Focus

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  • Assume the Best: Trust-Based Strategies for Empowering College Students – Faculty Focus

    Assume the Best: Trust-Based Strategies for Empowering College Students – Faculty Focus

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  • Why Data Alone Won’t Improve Retention – Faculty Focus

    Why Data Alone Won’t Improve Retention – Faculty Focus

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  • Being Genuine in the Classroom  – Faculty Focus

    Being Genuine in the Classroom  – Faculty Focus

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  • Using Generative AI to “Hack Time” for Implementing Real-World Projects – Faculty Focus

    Using Generative AI to “Hack Time” for Implementing Real-World Projects – Faculty Focus

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  • Univ. of Arizona Global Campus faculty respond to professor

    Univ. of Arizona Global Campus faculty respond to professor

    In a recent article, “Dear Prospective UAGC Students: Stay Away,” a professor from the University of Arizona discourages students from attending the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC). Unfortunately, this article was based on the author’s perspective rather than on facts and thus lacked the academic rigor of factual data from credible sources. This opinion piece was a collection of baseless assumptions, completely overlooking the true mission of UAGC, its faculty, and the diverse students we proudly serve. Frankly, the article has no merit.

    There is power in knowledge and truth. As such, the article could have accurately depicted the realities of UAGC instead of relying on inaccurate critiques about educational quality, enrollment numbers, adjunct faculty, and alleged student dissatisfaction. To set the record straight, UAGC is committed to providing online higher education for non-traditional students, including working adults, military personnel, parents, and underserved communities. Our students juggle countless responsibilities, and UAGC offers the flexibility and support they need. UAGC is vital in making higher education accessible to those who need it most, breaking barriers that traditional institutions often ignore.

    Furthermore, UAGC is unwavering in its commitment to supporting students, staff, and faculty, ensuring consistent educational quality and professional growth. As we continue to evolve, we focus on transparent evolution and collaboration, learning from past oversights to create an environment where our students can improve employment opportunities. Our pursuit of high-quality education is not a destination but an ongoing journey to which UAGC is deeply committed. Like any reputable university, we conduct regular course and program reviews, embrace continuous improvement, and acknowledge areas for development as a perpetual process. This commitment to educational quality is a cornerstone of our institution, ensuring our students receive the best education possible and can be confident in our dedication to their success. 

    The UAGC faculty, the backbone of our institution, is growing increasingly weary of misleading and disparaging remarks against the university and the faculty. It is time to move forward constructively and collegially. In the name of higher education, we implore you to stop defaming our university, staff, faculty, and students. To that end, we welcome meeting and educating any skeptical faculty or staff on our university’s mission and approach to serving non-traditional adult learners. Above all, we’re eager to clear any misconceptions by providing accurate data, helping to ensure that your words align more closely with the truth moving forward.

    As we look to the future (Dr. Cabrera), the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the unprecedented G.I. Bill into legislation, stated, “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” (Roosevelt, n.d.).”


    Yvonne M Lozano, Ph.D. UAGC Faculty Council Co-Chair
    Teresa Handy, Ph.D. UAGC Faculty Council Representative
    Deanna Lauer, UAGC Associate Faculty Council Representative
    Carl Marquez, UAGC Faculty Council Representative
    Cara Metz, Ph.D. UAGC Faculty Council Co-Chair
    Darla Branda, Ph.D. UAGC Program Chair

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  • College faculty are more likely to self-censor now than at the height of McCarthyism

    College faculty are more likely to self-censor now than at the height of McCarthyism

    For a number of faculty members, the threat of censorship is so pervasive on campuses across America that not even the cloak of anonymity is enough to make them feel safe expressing their ideas.

    This year, FIRE surveyed 6,269 faculty members at 55 major colleges and universities for “Silence in the Classroom: The 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report,” the largest faculty free speech survey ever performed.

    What we found shocked even us here at FIRE. A deeply entrenched atmosphere of silence and fear is endemic across higher education. 

    We found that self-censorship on US campuses is currently four times worse than it was at the height of the McCarthy era. Today, 35% of faculty say they have toned down their written work for fear of causing controversy. In a major survey conducted in 1954, the height of McCarthyism, by the sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Wagner Thielens, only 9% of social scientists said the same. 

    Front page of The Michigan Daily newspaper on May 13, 1954.

    In fact, the problem is so bad that some academics were afraid even to respond to our already anonymous survey for fear of retaliation. Some asked us by email, or in their free response replies, to keep certain details they shared private. Some asked us to direct all correspondence to a private personal email. Others reached out beforehand just to confirm the results would truly be anonymous. Still others simply refused to speak at all.

    For some, the danger is clear and concrete. As one professor wrote, “I am not at liberty to even share anonymously for fear of retribution.”

    For others, it’s more nebulous, but the fear is no less real. 

    “I almost avoided filling out the survey for fear of losing my job somehow‚” one professor told us, adding that they “waited about two weeks before getting the courage to take the risk.”

    It is totally unacceptable that this is a reality on today’s campuses.

    For what I’m paid to teach the courses that I do, it’s just not enough to outweigh the risk of potential public excoriation for wrong-think and its personal and professional impact on myself, my family, and my business.

    We at FIRE even had to devise additional ways of disguising academics and their schools so others could not “out” them using their responses, including by describing certain schools in general terms such as “a flagship state university in the south.” As one professor remarked, “The fact that I’m worried about even filling out polls where my opinions are anonymous is an indication that we, as institutions and as society, have lost the thread concerning ideas.” This person isn’t wrong.

    So the next time you’re talking politics with friends or having dinner conversation, remember this fact — four times as many faculty are scared to speak candidly than at the height  of McCarthyism!

    FIRE SURVEY: Only 20% of university faculty say a conservative would fit in well in their department

    Press Release

    A third of faculty say they self-censor their written work, nearly four times the number of social scientists who said the same in 1954 at the height of McCarthyism.


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    Few other university issues — arguably, few other issues in America, period — matter more. The exchange of ideas and information is the entire reason universities exist. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” For more than a third of faculty, that ending has already begun. 

    Consider this final heartbreaking message from an educator who told us they felt the urge to self-censor on the survey even though it was anonymous. 

    “I had already decided that this year will be the last one I teach at the university,” they reflected. “For what I’m paid to teach the courses that I do, it’s just not enough to outweigh the risk of potential public excoriation for wrong-think and its personal and professional impact on myself, my family, and my business.”

    Read the full report and learn more about the full extent of what the climate of higher ed is doing to faculty’s search for truth in higher education today.

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  • Embracing the Silence – Faculty Focus

    Embracing the Silence – Faculty Focus

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