Academic Unfreedom--Indiana Style

Don't you just love the Hoosier State? First their newly-elected governor (yes, he's a Republican) abolished all union contracts with public sector employees. Now word comes that the Indiana University Labor Studies program is under the budget axe. According to an appeal from labor studies professor Ruth Needleman, several tenure-track professors have been laid off along with clerical and instructional staff.

Of course, budgets are tight everywhere. But this is just the latest installment in a nation-wide campaign by state-level Republican politicians to do away with academic programs that provide services to labor unions and working class communities. They may not be quite as openly involved in the Indiana case as governor-Terminator has been in California, but they get the same benefit.

Maybe it's not such a good time to take a job as a labor educator...oops. Too late!

Bughouse Editor Returns from Hibernation

Wow, it's really been a long time since I posted. Regrets to my audience of three commited readers. A lot has happened since my last visit to blogville, and I'll be posting about most of it in the future. But for now I just want to link to the Axis of Evel Knievel, who is linking to a new report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on employee sabotage of information infrastructure. Disgruntled workers--the next terror threat. The gears of reaction sometimes move slowly, but they eventually get down to business.