By Collin Tong | Crosscut.com | August 18, 2011
In her ten years of teaching students in Seattle Central Community College's award-winning film and video communications program, Sandra Cioffi has reason to be proud of her proteges. [read full article]
June 22, 2011
Opinion by John Burbank
Two weeks ago, Gov. Chris Gregoire convened a press conference with corporate leaders from Microsoft and Boeing. They were celebrating a breakthrough in higher education.
It was a breakthrough, all right -- like 60,000 high school graduates walking out onto thin ice and breaking through. The troika offered a life ring for 1,000, through "Opportunity Scholarships." The other 59,000? Let them swim ... or sink. [read full article]
April 11, 2011 | by Daron Anderson | The Daily UW
Rozanna Carosella, an extension lecturer in the ELP, was a driving force behind the development of the first lecturers union. Photo by Tarik Walmsley.
Because the group consists of extension lecturers, which are instructors from the UW Educational Outreach program, they were not previously represented as UW employees.
Read full article.
Danny Westneat | The Seattle Times Opinion | April 5, 2011
For decades now we've heard the demand that government needs to be more like business. Can't it be more self-sufficient, more attuned to the bottom line? Well, yes it can. This is what it looks like.
You know how the UW is turning away local valedictorians in favor of high-priced, out-of-state students, and everybody's gone Husky purple with rage?
"This is an outrageous and egregious abuse of power," read one of the 700-plus Web comments on an article about the UW's policy last weekend. [read full article]
November 12, 2010
by Chris Thomas, Public News Service-WA
SEATTLE - It's an idea that, in this economy, is bound to raise some eyebrows. A new book by a University of Washington economist suggests that the way to get education out of its slump is to pay teachers more - a lot more.
Dick Startz, Castor Professor of Economics and author of "Profit of Education," says his national research found if teachers were paid like other types of highly educated professionals, they would be making about 40 percent more than they do now. Because Americans think of teaching as a calling, like the ministry or charitable work, schools often pay accordingly, he explains, so it's hard to keep the best and brightest in the classroom.
Click here to read the full article.
When the Legislature cut funding to higher education last year, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (the governing body for our 34 community and technical colleges) dup up an obscure state law from the 1980s. (read more)
Watch a video on YouTube of Hilda, a student whose ESL classes have been cut due to the state budget crisis.
Our state was recognized by AFT at their 80th annual convention in Chicago this July for our leadership on the Faculty and College Excellence (FACE) Campaign (read more).
In case you didin't know, two of our members are regular contributors to the AFT FACE Blog, Phil Ray Jack from Green River CC and Lila Harper from Central Washington University. Here are their recent entries:
Dropping Dead: A Contingent Faculty Member's Retirement Plan by Lila Harper
A New Beginning by Phil Ray Jack