Out d’Coup LIVE | Brian Bailie on Attacks on Higher Education and the Fight Back | February 2, 2021

On today’s show, I welcome Brian Bailie back to the podcast. Bailie is an Assistant Professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash College. Brian’s latest articles include,“Are We an Academic Journal? Editing as Ethical Practice for Change,” co-authored with Steve Parks, in Reflections: A Journal of Community Engaged Writing and Rhetoric, and the ever-timely piece in Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society, “So, Richard Spencer is Coming to Your Campus. How He was Allowed on, and How You Can Confront Him.” 

I wanted to have Brian back on the show to update us on some of the many assaults on public higher education during the pandemic. Tonight we’ll talk about the attempt by lawmakers in Iowa to strip tenure from faculty in all state public colleges and universities. Then we’ll ask why a dead professor is teaching an art course for Concordia University. Then there’s the U of Florida installing "tattle buttons" to narc on faculty who moved some in-person classes on-line. Oh, yea, then in our backyard the PA State System of Higher Education is gutting faculty and staff at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. But we won’t leave you with all doom and gloom. We'll talk about the fight back. UC students with Boldly Bankrupt are doing great work and building coalitions.

A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann

• Check out Boldly Bankrupt: https://boldlybankrupt.cargo.site/
• Dead professors teaching at Concordia University: https://slate.com/technology/2021/01/dead-professor-teaching-online-class.html
• Iowa attack on tenure: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/education/iowa-lawmakers-advance-bill-to-eliminate-tenure-20210126
• IUP Cuts: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/us/college-coronavirus-tuition.html (we didn't get to talk too much about this tonight. I'll focus on it on another show).