From Kansas, the state that gave us the most repressive social media policy in the country, a negative model for defenders of academic freedom everywhere, now comes HB 2234, a proposed piece of legislation that declares: The state board of regents, the board of trustees of any community college, the board of regents of any…
The Board of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies on Tuesday released a “detailed clarification” of its controversial decision to reject an offer by Professor Stephen F. Cohen, his wife, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and the KAT Foundation to fund a dissertation research fellowship program named for Cohen and his late mentor, Robert…
“Brian Williams Admits He Wasn’t on Copter Shot Down in Iraq,” says the headline in The New York Times. The newscaster “apologized Wednesday for mistakenly claiming he had been on a helicopter that was shot down.” A decade-and-a-half ago, Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Ellis apologized for having claimed in his classrooms to have served in…
Although they have continued to provoke some controversy, school dress codes have become commonplace in primary and secondary schools. But at the college level, dress codes would seem very anachronistic. So, when I came across a small item that suggested that a student dress code had been proposed but not adopted at Purdue University, I…
L’Amour, Louis. Bendigo Shafter. New York: Dutton, 1978. Literary critics have generally disregarded Louis L’Amour as an author of very formulaic novels in a sub-literary genre. Certainly, his prodigious output might suggest a more workmanlike than reflective approach to writing fiction. For over three decades, L’Amour produced at least three novels each year, becoming…
Marquette University Dean Richard Holz has written a letter to Professor John McAdams, announcing that university will revoke his tenure and fire him. The AAUP recently wrote a letter to Marquette objecting to the suspension of McAdams without adequate cause or hearing. This latest development is far more alarming. AAUP regulations, and Marquette’s own policies,…
The Hiring Policies and Processes Review Committee is a faculty committee impaneled last October by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty senate and Provost Phyllis M. Wise. It has recommended the University of Illinois System Board of Trustees no longer approve new faculty hires and cease all personnel decision-making below the position of an…
Last week, I reported on the case of Western Illinois University suspending the Western Courier editor-in-chief Nicholas Stewart because he sold video he took of a riot on campus. This week, WIU decided to reinstate Stewart. WIU student services vice-president Gary Biller informed Stewart, “a preliminary review … has revealed that no complete policy exists within…