NYU President John Sexton warns striking grad students that they must resume teaching or lose their benefits. After weeks of marching outside Bobst library and refusing to teach classes, NYU grad students have been sent a letter from President John Sexton, warning them that any TA who does not return to work next week will lose their stipends and eligibility to teach next semester. Until recently, NYU was the only private school that allowed graduate teaching assistants to unionize, following a 2000 NLRB decision, which was subsequently reversed. NYU claims that it has negotiated in good faith and that the union's demands would limit decision making that should remain in the hands of academics, while the grad students argue that they cannot trust NYU's admistration to take care of them without unionization (and representation by the UAW). Meanwhile, many undergrads paying tuition upwards of 50K/year will have to retake classes or opt for pass/fail. Do you sympathize with highly educated American grad students who receive free tuition, health insurance, and stipends in exchange for modest teaching duties (when many other students depend on student loans), especially compared the with 19th century coal miners, third-world factory workers, and modern-day wage slaves we normally associate with unions and strikes?
posted by banishedimmortal on Nov 30, 2005 - 98 comments

Want an MBA - without spending half your life doing it? It seems as if Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey has put together a 12 week "no frills" program with "just the essentials" to get what they term a "mini MBA". Now I'm not sure what this "mini" certificate will mean when you go to apply for a job and show it to your prospective employer, but apparently some folks are filling out the classes for $2495 each term. You can read more about it in this pdf, check out page 3.
posted by djspicerack on Mar 10, 2003 - 13 comments

Keep your CEO out of grad school. I found this article to be provocative. Can the performance of a CEO be judged by just one number (i.e., return to shareholders)? Shouldn't the study be controlling for size of firm, industry characteristics, economic cycle etc.? What do you think?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy on Apr 29, 2002 - 2 comments