A weekly compilation of the interesting things I find around the web. Saw something interesting? Add it in the comments!

That xkcd cartoon I linked last week skewering university home pages has actually gained some traction in higher ed, leading to conversations about what the site should have.

An expert on university management suggests that two related “Hippocratic oaths,” one for faculty and one for administrators, could help defuse campus tensions.

Should professors have to ask permission of their universities to run for political office? Central Michigan University says yes. It’s faculty says no.

A university architect asks whether faculty really need private offices — would communal space work as well? The comments raise a lot of interesting points, including the tenure-track / adjunct divide, issues of different work expectations, and questions about student privacy.

David Hiscoe returned to academia after twenty years in corporate American to find that the things that drove him out have only gotten worse.

Claire Potter of Tenured Radical fame suggests dealing with academic overload by consciously — and routinely — tracking your work against department norms.

A weekly compilation of interesting, useful, and just plain amusing things I find around the web. Got one I missed! Add it to the comments!

XKCD does a Venn diagram of what college websites have on their home pages and what people go looking for. I’m not sure why I find it so funny, but I really do.

The stereotype of the cushy academic life is fading, but that’s partially because fewer and fewer people get to experience it that way. (subscription required)

The New York Times asked, what if tenure dies? This, unsurprisingly, created a rousing debate. Gabriella Montel rounds up some of the responses. Dean Dad weighs in on the side of abolishing tenure (the comments get quite heated, and he responds in a following post). Timothy Burke argues that tenure has, to all practical purposes, already been abolished.

An academic librarian asks us to answer the “so what” question for research.

A weekly collection of interesting stuff I find around the web. Found something you want to share? Put it in the comments!

What? What’s that you say? Today is TUESDAY? Yes, well, Sunday night found me stuck in Dallas and then rerouted to an airport 5o miles away from both my car and my luggage. Yesterday therefore did not go as planned. But we persevere!

All postdocs are different, but Zoe Smith and Ariana Sutton-Grier offer advice for maximizing yours.

Adjuncting is a tough position, but this article offers ways to make the experience better.

Despite its supposed time flexibility, the tenure track is not so hospitable to mothers, a new study shows, which explains why tenured faculty are still so often male.

Handling email as a faculty member is challenging, because you have to balance student desire for access with the need for faculty sanity — and sleep. How do you prevent it from creating a third shift?

An interesting review of an organization book that matches strategies to your personality type.

Despite the economic disasters putting diverse pressures on higher ed, some colleges are still rated by their employees as great places to work.