Karen Miksch, associate professor in the Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, gave two presentations at the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s annual meeting. On November 17, Karen was part of a symposium on “How should law and policy align to promote shared governance in a time of budget cuts?” which was the opening event for the Public Policy Forum. She discussed the definition of financial exigency, the American Association of University Professor’s Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure, as well as the role of faculty.
On November 18, she presented a paper, “Affirmative Action and the Media: A Mixed Method Analysis of News Coverage of U.S. Supreme Court Cases.” Presenting with Mark Pedelty, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, she discussed The Chronicle of Higher Education’s coverage of Michigan affirmative action cases. They found that the news stories continued to cover affirmative action as a highly contentious debate, even after the court decision. Coupled with earlier research that shows many administrators in higher education rely on The Chronicle for legal information, this may explain, says Miksch, why after the Michigan cases were decided, many race-conscious programs were closed out of fear of negative publicity or a legal challenge.