A vocation is an individual's sense of being called to pursue a given profession. Vocations are typified by passion, absorption in work, a desire for prosocial work, and a tendency to sacrifice for the vocation. Vocations have been linked to both advantageous and adverse effects, including the propensity for vocational workers to suffer workplace…

Writing Program Administration (WPA) is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the management and development of writing programs in educational institutions. WPA entails writing instruction pedagogy, curriculum design, assessment, and faculty development pertaining to the teaching of writing. Graduate students in Humanities and English-based…

Based on personal experiences garnered through years of adjunct instruction, the authors explore the challenges associated with working in academia without the guarantees of a long-term contract or tenure. Further, adjuncts are desperate to accept any position that is remunerative and this willingness undermines contract negotiation leverage of…

This article explores the issues casual academics face in Australia and whether these pose risks to teaching quality. The logic of the rampant casualisation in Australian universities is exposed first (i.e., mainly flexibility and cost saving to offset drops in government funding), followed by a discussion on the theoretical risks casualisation…

Departure among student affairs administrators in higher education has been an issue for decades (Evans, 1988; Lorden, 1998; Tull, 2006). Rates of departure from student affairs within the first five years of experience are estimated at 50% to 60% (Holmes, Verrier, & Chisholm, 1983; Lorden, 1998; Tull, 2006). However, there is very little…

Describes some of the efforts colleges have undertaken to ensure that clothing with college logos is not produced in sweatshops. Outlines work by the Fair Labor Association and the Workers Rights Consortium, organizations to which many colleges belong, to set up programs to monitor factories in the United States and other countries. (SLD)

Discusses how some prominent institutions prompt debate by subcontracting the labor-intensive work of putting documents online to vendors in developing countries. Libraries counter that contractors treat overseas employees well. (EV)

Colleges and universities are establishing policies to ensure that clothing carrying their names are not being manufactured with "sweatshop" labor. The colleges' policies attempt to set acceptable standards for manufacturers producing the lucrative licensed lines. However, institutions are finding that it is difficult to enforce those…

Expresses concern by chemists at Oakland University about the hazard of toxic substances, particularly as this concern is not shared by nonchemists in the occupational safety and health fields. Describes a four-year curriculum focused at producing occupational health generalists with a firm scientific foundation. (CS)

This book describes the compensation which chief administrators in American colleges and universities receive, the conditions under which they work, their attitudes toward these conditions, and their suggestions for improving these conditions. The study sample is composed of presidents, academic vice presidents, deans of liberal arts colleges,…

This volume contains policies and standards of practice formulated and approved by the national council of the American Association of University Professors and the annual meeting of the membership working with standing special committees and, at times, with other organizations. These reports and statements of principle appear under 7 topical…

General issues in manpower planning are outlined, Canadian efforts are reviewed, and suggestions for directions to be taken are offered. Focus is on the major questions of how and what manpower planning is done. (LBH)

Discusses the rapid growth of the Workers Rights Consortium, a student-originated group with 44 member institutions which opposes sweatshop labor conditions especially in the apparel industry. Notes disagreements about the number of administrators on the board of directors and about the role of industry representives. Compares this group with the…

The author had a conversation one late afternoon with an untenured colleague from another department regarding chili pepper ratings. Her colleague explained that the popular RateMyProfessor.com Web site allows students to rate faculty members not only according to standards of "clarity," "helpfulness," and something called "easiness," but also in…

This article encourages college presidents and trustees to prepare for public relations challenges by tracking issues through four distinct stages: fringe, emerging, getting hot, and white hot/too late. "Fringe" refers to, for example, people discussing an issue at conferences, in professional publications, or among a few concerned…