It was just more than a week ago that I sat down with Cary Nelson, the outspoken president of the American Association of University Professors, for an hour long chat about the state of higher education.
….A little more than a week ago, many of Nelson’s comments seemed a bit much, a bit too sensational. Today? In Wisconsin? Maybe not so much.
When asked how higher education can fight back, Nelson said: “Get faculty to pull their heads out of the sand and take back the campus. Devote yourself not to complaining about the money that’s not arriving from the state. Devote yourself to spending the money you do have ethically and well. Find ways to limit administration salaries and the salaries of coaches. Don’t let your university take on gratuitous projects designed to be a president’s legacy. Devote yourself to figuring out how the campus is spending the money it has. Reach out and connect with your students and build coalitions around issues that matter. Just take back the campus.”