In Defense of Michael Chikindas

BY JOHN K. WILSON On Friday, Rutgers University demoted professor Michael Chikindas, banned him from teaching any required classes, and announced they would seek to suspend him for a semester, all because of his anti-Semitic comments on his personal social media. Based on his posts, I think Chikindas is an anti-Semite, and an idiot. Nevertheless,…

“Rutgers, Inc.”

For his piece in the September-October issue of Academe, William Vesterman looks back – way back – and learns contemporary lessons from early twentieth-century economist Thorstein Veblen. Vesterman, a professor at Rutgers, explains the shameful scandal of Mike Rice, the Rutgers basketball coach who was fired after his abusive practices became public. Unfortunately, the university’s…

Saving Rutgers-Camden

The following guest post is by Jean-Louis Hippolyte, an Associate Professor of French and Director of the European Studies program at Rutgers University-Camden. “Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us, to the end, dare…

It’s Not Much Fun to Lose Your Name

The following guest post was authored by Cary Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors. Will the day come when a successful student tells a prospective employer “I’m a graduate of Rutgers-Camden” and the employer answers “Never heard of the place?” That is the future New Jersey’s governor and some other state…