Putting the ‘Public’ Back in Public Higher Education: Broadening our Lens, Advocating for Change

Putting the ‘Public’ Back in Public Higher Education: Broadening our Lens, Advocating for Change
Putting the ‘Public’ Back in Public Higher Education: Broadening our Lens, Advocating for Change
Monday, March 8, 2010 @ 2:00 p.m.

UIC Professors Nena Torres and Dick Simpson
Report back presentations from faculty delegations that will have met with public officials and local stakeholders earlier in the day to make the case for the importance of public higher education in the priorities of the City and State.

Roundtable Discussion
Partial list of speakers:
Professor Nelson Maldonado-Torres is an Associate Professor in Ethnic Studies at University of California, Berkeley. A graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, and Brown University, he is author of Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity, and a forthcoming book on aspects of the philosophy of Franz Fanon. He has been active in the campus struggles in the UC system in response to the budget crisis.

Jes Cook, UIC graduate student and representative of the Graduate Employees Organization (invited) Jitu Brown is an organizer with the respected Kenwood Oakland Community Organization on the south side of Chicago. He has organized successful campaigns to stop school closings in Black and Brown communities throughout Chicago, as well as historic efforts to increase meaningful parent and community voice in local schools. He also teaches at St. Leonard’s Adult High School, the only accredited HS in the U.S. for the formerly incarcerated.

Kevin Kumashiro is a Professor in UIC’s College of Education and interim co-director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy. He researches approaches to teaching and teacher education that challenge different forms of oppression in schools and society. He has authored or edited six books and is the founder and director of the independent Center for Anti-Oppressive Education. His most recent book is The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right has Framed the Debate on America's Schools (Routledge; 2008).

Gary Rhoades is the general secretary of the AAUP. He is currently professor of higher education at the University of Arizona (on leave) and director of the university’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. Rhoades’ research focuses on university restructuring, and science and technology issues in higher education. In a project funded by a National Science Foundation grant Rhoades and his colleagues have been studying the