Tenure

Dozens of faculty members and grad student workers have faced discipline from colleges, universities and police since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Some have now returned to work. Others lost their jobs.

And no, Ellyn Lem writes, it’s not fine.

The Office for Civil Rights said it didn’t ask for the firing as part of a probe into how Muhlenberg College handled complaints related to a professor who allegedly made “pro-Hamas statements."

Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College may have become the first institution since Oct. 7 to oust a tenured faculty member for such statements, though the professor is appealing the decision and still receiving a salary.

After years of a disciplinary procedure, the lightning-rod law professor accused of “incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic actions and statements” is now being punished.

The university courted controversy by slashing programs and laying off both tenured and nontenured faculty members. More spooked professors are leaving in addition to those cuts, but so are key leaders who pushed them.

The number of unionized grad-student workers more than doubled in just over a decade, according to a new report on higher education labor. Most of the growth came at private institutions, where faculty unionization has also spiked.

The university says creative writing faculty recommended returning its Jones Lectureships to their “original intent” as short-term teaching appointments for talented writers. A lecturer of 20 years said he thinks there’s a “peasants and lords issue” in the program.