Local News

Arizona is one of two dozen U.S. states where coronavirus cases have been on the rise for the past week. Governor Doug Ducey points to increased testing as the cause, but local health experts say hospitalizations are increasing, too. In KNAU’s weekly update on the science of COVID-19, Melissa Sevigny speaks with University of Arizona epidemiologist Dr. Purnima Madhivanan about what’s driving those numbers, who it’s affecting, and why.

Tenured faculty once made up the majority of teachers at American universities. But over the last several decades, non-tenure-track jobs have been on the rise. Universities have come to rely heavily on a group of teachers called “lecturers” who work on short term contracts, and have much lower salaries than tenured professors. They often teach large lectures of freshmen and help young students navigate college life far beyond the classroom. But their positions are vulnerable, as the coronavirus pandemic made clear when universities began to cut budgets drastically. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports on more than 100 of those job losses at Northern Arizona University.