First Issue of Raging Chicken Press is Out!

The wait is over.  The first full issue of Raging Chicken Press is set to launch.  We’re going to call this one the July post-Corbett-PA-GOP-draconian-budget-signing issue.  Catchy, huh? Our first issue includes the following contributions: Kevin Mahoney, “Kutztown University, Shock Doctrine, and Snake Oil Tales” Wendy Lee, “An Open Letter to Governor Corbett” Seth Kahn, “[Self] Pep [...]

Read Full Post »

Gov. Corbett budget: Gov. Corbett budget proposal on higher education – mcall.com

Professor Jeffrey Weber, Chair of the Political  Science Department at East Stroudsburg University wrote this op-ed which appeared in the Morning Call yesterday. Gov. Corbett budget: Gov. Corbett budget proposal on higher education – mcall.com.

Read Full Post »

JKast – Paul Quinn on Corbett’s Budget (E016) | Mixcloud – Re-think radio

On Tuesday, shortly after President Cevallos’s “open forum” to discuss the impact of Governor Corbett’s cuts, APSCUF-KU president Paul Quinn appeared on KU Radio’s “JKast.”  Quinn’s interview is later on in the show, but the whole show is worth listening to.  If I can secure an MP3 I will also post just the segment with [...]

Read Full Post »

preparations for the flood

As readers of the XChange know, I am the chair of our faculty union’s Meet and Discuss team.  Over this past year, we–the APSCUF-KU Meet and Discuss team–have been pushing for the Kutztown University administration to articulate a coherent, transparent vision for the university.  Such as vision does not consist of the kind of platitudes [...]

Read Full Post »

West Chester budget documents

Earlier this week, West Chester managers received a “Budget Prognosis” from Bob Scanlon, the Managers representative to their University Budget Committee.  As you can see in the memo, there are some assumptions being made about the budget over the next several years (e.g. 3% annual increase in tuition, no faculty raises in FY 2012, and increasing [...]

Read Full Post »

Here Comes Trouble Asks: Who Does That Help?

Readers of the XChange: If you haven’t checked out Seth Kahn’s blog Here Comes Trouble, now is the time to do so.  In his most recent post, “Who does that help?,” he writes: At last weekend’s APSCUF Legislative Assembly, delegates were treated to a Q&A session from our recently hired Chief Negotiator Stewart (or Stuart?) [...]

Read Full Post »

request for definitions and meaning

At Meet and Discuss today, I will be circulating a document called “Request for Definitions and Meaning,” which concerns KU President Cevallos’s most recent “KU President’s Update,” dated 2/7/2011.  As readers of the XChange will know, one of our frequent and repeated requests at the table is that President Cevallos articulate some vision for the [...]

Read Full Post »

KU Provost Withdraws from Pres. Search – Western Illinois University

Just came across this announcement on the interwebs: Candidate Withdraws from Pres. Search – University Relations – Western Illinois University.

Read Full Post »

yet another busy meet and discuss agenda

Just because the semester is almost over, doesn’t mean the work is.  Today’s meet and discuss agenda is packed once again…and there are several items that may be added under “other” as well. APSCUF-KU MD 14 Dec 2010 Agenda

Read Full Post »

Carlos Vargas-Aburto – Presidential Search – Western Illinois University

There have been quite a few rumors going around about the Provost being on the market.  In order to move this out of the “rumor mill,” I offer you this: Carlos Vargas-Aburto – Presidential Search – Western Illinois University.  

Read Full Post »

emails from nowhere and the KU Foundation

Readers of the XChange will recall that in post right before Thanksgiving, I wrote about an anonymous, paper copy of an email I received outlining “problems” in the KU Foundation.  In that email, I said that Steve Schnell and I both thought we had received the email because we were members of APSCUF-KU Exec.  However, [...]

Read Full Post »

just when you’re getting in the holiday mood, you check your mail

Really. Today I made my annual appearance in Dr. Steve Schnell’s, GEG 225 Spaces of Globalization class.  I’ve been going to Steve’s class for several years to give some kind of talk on globalization, social movements, and rhetoric.  Today, I planned a talk that wove together questions of cycles of despair, Empire, and local/global activism. [...]

Read Full Post »

Failure Vision/Vision Failure

At our APSCUF-KU Meet and Discuss meeting yesterday, I was able to articulate something that I’ve attempted to say many times before, but rarely with such clarity (in my head at least).  We were on the second item on the agenda [APSCUF-KU MD 16 Nov 2010 Agenda] focused on retrenchment past, present, and future.  I [...]

Read Full Post »

Kutztown University Administration Cuts Early Learning Center

Despite the fact that the administration has consistently said that it was “still considering” what to do with the Early Learning  Center (that is, indeed a version of what KU University Relations told the press last week…at least according to the reporters I spoke with), it looks like the administration had already made its decision. [...]

Read Full Post »

PASSHE Board of Governors to meet at KU, Wed. 10/13/2010

That’s right folks…our dear friends on the PASSHE Board of Governors meeting will be holding their quarterly meeting at Kutztown on Wednesday, October 13 (yes, that’s right, later today).  Here’s is the agenda for the meeting: PASSHE BOG October 13, 2010 Agenda It also looks like PASSHE is streaming the BoG meeting live.  You can [...]

Read Full Post »

something’s gotta give

For those of you who follow posts dealing with APSCUF-KU Meet and Discuss, you may remember a recurring theme on our last agenda: we asked for the administration’s plans to deal with the consequences of their budget cuts.  For example, the administration took away the AWA (alternative work assignment…that is work that takes the place [...]

Read Full Post »

APSCUF-KU meet and discuss agenda for 9/14/10

Yup, it’s Meet and Discuss time again folks! Here’s a copy of the agenda for all you wonky union folks out there. APSCUF-KU MD 14 Sept 2010 Agenda One of the issues we will be discussing is the administration’s plans for the Center for Enhancement of Teaching (CET).  As many of you know, the administration [...]

Read Full Post »

draft of 8.24.10 meet and discuss minutes

Here is a DRAFT copy of the August 24, 2010 APSCUF-KU Meet and Discuss minutes.  Please note the word DRAFT.  Any corrections, clarifications, or additions to the minutes will be made by the end of the week.  The final draft of the minutes will be posted on the APSCUF-KU web site next week. Meet and [...]

Read Full Post »

brief report back from apscufku meet and discuss

Back to the office after meet and discuss and lunch with members of our APSCUF-KU meet and discuss team.  Today’s meeting was relatively short in comparison to many previous M&D meetings.  Nonetheless, the agenda was fairly robust and I wanted to report back on a few key issues. Retrenchment Letters: once again we asked if [...]

Read Full Post »

ku meet and discuss agenda 8.24.2010

I was hoping to have a little time to flesh out today’s Meet and Discuss agenda on the blog this morning, but time has run short.  In any event, here’s today’s agenda.  More later this afternoon. APSCUF-KU MD 24 Aug 2010 Agenda

Read Full Post »