Walmart workers and labor supporters joined to protest Walmart’s poor labor practices. See http://forrespect.org for more information about Walmart workers’ organizing for respect.
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New Jersey college graduates rank 8th in the U.S. for student loan debt
By Alex Napoliello/NJ.com
New Jersey now ranks eighth in the country in terms of the highest amount of loan debt owed by its graduates, according to a new report released Wednesday.
The average debt owed by New Jersey college graduates in 2012 was $29,287, according to the Project on Student Debt 2012. That’s up from an average of $27,610 in 2011 and $23,792 in 2010.
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How much are Rutgers, NJIT spending on sports? Commission launches database
By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
NEW BRUNSWICK — The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics unveiled a searchable database today that gives the public a glimpse into how much state colleges are spending on sports.
The database — called the Athletic and Academic Spending Database for NCAA Division I – details academic, athletic and football spending data at more than 220 public Division 1 colleges. The information comes from several publicly-available reports.
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At Rutgers University, annual academic sending increased 12 percent per student (from $19,509 to $21,930) between 2005 and 2011, according to the database. Meanwhile, Rutgers increased spending on athletics by 106 percent per athlete (from $48,037 to $98,997) during the same time period.
The database also includes information on Rutgers’ spending on football scholarships, coaching salaries, instructional spending and debt on facilities.
Similar information is also available for New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, which is a Division 1 school without a football team. In 2011, NJIT spent $16,029 per student on academic spending while spending $41,902 per athlete on athletics, according to the database.
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Press release: Faculty & Librarians Vote ‘No Confidence’ in Kean University Academic Leadership
Allegations of plagiarism, academically unsound tenure denials cited in 96% rejection
UNION, NJ…Kean Federation of Teachers President Dr. James Castiglione announced the overwhelming results of a 96 percent no confidence vote in Kean University Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Jeffrey Toney’s leadership and the entire Office of Academic Affairs after a voting period ended Wednesday night. Despite his short service, Dr. Castiglione said Dr. Toney has amassed an unfortunate record of academic integrity scandals, has instituted policies that have jeopardized academics at Kean and used unsound academic judgment in rejecting 90% of candidates applying for tenure this year.
In October Dr. Toney recommended denial of tenure to nine of ten candidates, despite unanimous recommendations affirming they earned tenure from their colleagues on departmental and college tenure committees. Both the KFT union and the Faculty Senate have called upon the Kean Board of Trustees to respect the faculty recommendations at their meeting this Saturday in Ocean County and affirm tenure for the candidates. “Tenure is the result of a rigorous peer review process,” said Castiglione. “Those who have been continually reappointed until their tenure year and recommended by their departments should be granted tenure.” Dr. Castiglione further opined that Dr. Toney’s decision to override the majority of tenure decisions without stated reasons “is yet another indication that Kean University management operates without academic integrity and has little respect for the basic tenets of shared academic governance.”
More recently, the University was embroiled in scandal when it was alleged by the union that Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Katerina Andriotis had plagiarized nine out of 15 pages of an enrollment report verbatim from sources on the Internet. The day after the union brought a complaint Andriotis was no longer employed at Kean. In Dr. Castiglione’s opinion the blatant plagiarism of Dr. Toney’s second-in-command “is testament to the culture of academic fraud that pervades university administration under his leadership,” said Castiglione. “We teach our students to be ethical and scrupulous, and we expect our university officials to uphold higher, not lower, standards.”
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Report: One-quarter of N.J. teachers rated below levels needed to keep tenure
By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
More than a quarter of teachers who were reviewed in a two-year pilot program of the state’s new evaluation system were rated only “partially effective” or worse, levels that place their tenure at risk, according to a new report.
Early results of the controversial teacher evaluations will be discussed in Trenton today, when the Evaluation Pilot Advisory Committee’s report is presented at the monthly state Board of Education meeting.
The report chronicles the state’s testing of the new evaluation system, which is being used in every school district this year.
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Rutgers’ top aides back Hermann amid probe
By Keith Sargeant
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Before the meeting, representatives of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT held a protest outside Barchi’s Old Queens office urging the university president to settle with the faculty on fair terms. The organization, which represents more than 6,000 faculty and staff across Rutgers’ three campuses, has been bargaining over employment conditions, including a January 2012 salary freeze, job security, fair pay and consistent procedures, since July 2012.
In addition to publishing an open letter in the Rutgers student newspaper, the Daily Targum, in Tuesday editions, several AAUP-AFT members gathered to draw attention to the stalled bargaining.
“We find the glacial pace of bargaining and the intransigence of the administration’s team to be at odds with the values you expressed about nontenure-track faculty careers to the Board of Governors in July,” read the letter, in part.
Rutgers officials responded with a statement. “The parties are meeting on a regular basis and exchanging proposals,” said Rutgers spokesperson E.J. Miranda. “We look forward to a timely resolution of the issues. It is our intention to discuss all relevant labor issues at the negotiating table and not in other forums.”
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Newark Teachers Join Call to Reclaim Promise of Public Education
Campaign launches with weekly outreach and community rally
NEWARK, New Jersey – Calling for an end to school closures and budget cuts in New Jersey’s largest school system, Newark teachers are taking to the streets outside their schools Friday, Dec. 6 and supporting a community rally Monday, Dec. 9. Restoring local control is seen by many as the solution to a host of problems in the district, according to Newark Teachers Union (NTU) President Joseph Del Grosso, including a shift in resources to charter schools and an overemphasis on high-stakes testing.
The coordinated action initiated by the Newark Teachers Union, an American Federation of Teachers local of more than 4,500 teachers, aides and clerk starts Friday, Dec. 6 and is based on outreach before and after school to parents and community members. Del Grosso said that union members want to take the message that Superintendent Cami Anderson has failed the district to the public. “Parents and residents need to see our members in the neighborhood and talk about how the district’s policies are hurting Newark’s children,” he said.
For Monday, Dec. 9, NTU is joining a community coalition including the Newark Students Union, New Jersey Communities United and the Newark NAACP to participate in a national day of action after school. The groups will meet downtown and march to reiterate the call for community control and decry disparities in racial equity and funding.
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Rutgers Faculty Denied Opportunity to Address the Board of Governors
Representatives of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, feeling stuck in protracted negotiations with the Barchi administration, plan to present petitions to the BOG on Tuesday signed by faculty, students, staff and alumni urging Barchi to settle with the faculty on fair terms.
Bargaining over non-tenure track faculty employment conditions has been dragging on for 16 months. The January 2012 salary freeze settlement required these special negotiations to commence in July 2012, but Barchi’s negotiating team has stalled and delayed negotiations with no more than two hours committed to bargaining in any given month.
AAUP-AFT members and supporters will gather at noon in front of the President’s Office (historic Old Queens) to draw attention to stalled bargaining. Back in July there was hope for a settlement when Barchi told the Board of Governors that NTTs were not throwaways and needed to be part of the system.
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