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Benno Schmidt, what university are you a trustee of? by Corey Robin 31 JUL Benno Schmidt has an oped in the   Wall Street Journal   that’s filled with a lot of nonsense. The sun also rises. But this passage caught my eye: The greatest threat to academic freedom today is not from outside the academy, but from within. Political correctness and “speech codes” that stifle debate are common on America’s campuses. Schmidt is the   chair of the Board of Trustees at CUNY . CUNY is the home of Brooklyn College. Brooklyn College is the home of my department. My department was the target last semester of powerful New York City politicians who were angry about our co-sponsoring a panel on the BDS movement. Some of them even threatened to withhold funding from CUNY in response. I know Benno’s a busy man, what with being the chairman of “ a worldwide system of for profit, private K-12 schools .” But that whole BDS thing was   kind of a big deal . Even the   mayor of New York knew abou

President Replaces Department Chiefs, Changes Curriculum By NEANDA SALVATERRA July 19, 2013 The removal of department chiefs and changes to curriculum have roiled Brooklyn College, where the administration is seeking accreditation for popular majors at one of the City University of New York's largest senior branches. Brooklyn College President Karen Gould has rejected the faculty-elected department chairmen for three departments for the next school year, including the college's top majors—finance and business management and accounting—as well as the smaller department of modern languages and literatures. The president also removed the director for the children and youth studies program and almost halved the program's course offerings. "The administration's exercise of power is arbitrary and it has major implications, not just for professors but also for students," says Gertrud Lenzer, who was removed on July 1 as program director for child

Why is the public university investing so much money in a celebrity hire? By Kieran Lalor / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS    Former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus. Friday, July 12, 2013, 4:30 AM It takes a lot to put liberal college professors, a Democratic candidate for mayor and a conservative Hudson Valley assemblyman on the same page. The City University of New York has done just that through its decision to hire retired Gen. David Petraeus for an enormous sum — and its incoherent explanations about the hiring since. I am joined by the American Association of University Professors and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in criticizing the bloated $150,000 payday CUNY has handed Petraeus to teach a single, once-a-week class. The seminar at CUNY’s Macaulay Honors college will be nice for the bright young students enrolled in it in the fall (16 have enrolled so far) and spring. Petraeus is a brilliant man with tremendous experience in the military and a famou

While the details of Petraeus’s hiring remain sketchy, a real issue has emerged about the source of his $150-200,000 salary, itself supplemented with teaching assistants and research support. The information provided in the documents obtained by Gawker raise more questions than they answer. The latest information is from an apparent letter or email dated July 1 st   from the Macaulay Dean, Ann Kirschner, posted by CUNY in response to the Gawker article , and possibly communicated before that date . This document claims that the salary will only be $150,000, part of which will be donated to veterans. How much? No one will say. It goes on to state that: Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has provided private funding for your position, which will be paid through the CUNY Research Foundation. How do we know, however, that the Chancellor has secured the private donations to cover all of the expenses associated with this hire? For years the Research Foundation (RF), a private entity not di

Outrage over Petraeus's appointment to the Macaulay Honors College has exploded since Gawker published the salary and employment negotiations that led to his accepting the job. To entice Petraeus to CUNY, Matthew Goldstein and Macaulay Dean Kirschner offered Petraeus either $200,000 or $150,000 to teach a single three-credit course, meeting either for one or two semesters. Petraeus has also been offered assistants to do his grading, course administration, and even research, leaving him with what is truly a three-hour/week appointment. At approximately $3,000 per course, average adjunct salaries are, unsurprisingly, considerably less than this. For more on the scandal, and particularly Assemblyman and Iraq Veteran Kieran Michael Lalor 's outraged response, and the CUNY's evolving claims over Petraeus's salary , see Corey Robin's typically excellent blog post . Undoubtedly, Professor Robin will continue to update his blog as more information becomes available. Hun