By Andrew Scheinman A few weeks ago, the AAUP released its Report on the Steven Salaita affair at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in which it concluded that UIUC and its Chancellor Phyllis Wise violated Salaita’s academic freedom and committed serious breaches of governance when they “un-hired” Salaita by Wise’s not forwarding his hire…
Those who insist that “Deflategate” as a news story of national importance. Those who speculate with any level of seriousness whether it is possible that George Zimmerman may be simply a victim of repeated ill will or bad luck. Those who wonder out loud whether Bruce Jenner’s coming out as transgender means that he will…
Mrs. Obama’s commencement address has drawn criticism from the Far Right because she focused on the ways in which she, as First Lady, has been racially caricatured by not just her husband’s political opponents but by even the “mainstream” media. Once again, an attempt to focus much-needed attention on what should be fairly obvious and…
In a column last week Los Angeles Times op-ed writer Michael Hiltzik (whose work is almost always a must-read) exposed the fraud behind the latest assault on the political activity of teacher unions. It involves a lawsuit, Bain v. California Teachers Association et. al, which purports to defend the “free speech” rights of its plaintiffs,…
On January 30, I posted an item to this blog under the title “The Troubling Case of Professor Stephen Cohen and the American Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.” The post recounted the background to a decision by the Association’s Board to reject an offer by Professor Stephen F. Cohen, his wife, Katrina vanden…
From the Conclusions of the report, “Academic Freedom and Tenure: Felician College (New Jersey)”, May, 2015: In terminating the appointments of sixteen fulltime faculty members, seven of whom sought the Association’s assistance, the administration of Felician College attributed its action simply to “the exigency of the college’s financial status” without any further explanation. The administration’s…
From the Conclusions of the report, “Academic Freedom and Tenure: The University of South Maine” of May, 2015: In terminating the appointments of sixty of the 250 full-time faculty members and eliminating, reducing, or consolidating numerous academic programs, allegedly on financial grounds, the administration of the University of Southern Maine acted in flagrant violation of…
The issue of Saida Grundy’s “anti-White” tweets has received extensive coverage on FOX News and in the Washington Times, and David Horowitz has predictably weighed in to bemoan still further evidence of the Far-Left bias in higher education. The website driving the outrage at Saida Grundy’s tweets is SoCawlege, the purpose of which has been…
What follows is an open letter from the President Robert A. Brown of Boston University in response to the controversy surrounding “anti-White” tweets made by incoming assistant professor of African-American Studies Saida Grundy. I could be wrong, but I believe that in reaffirming the university’s stance against racially charged language and attitudes, President Brown quite…