BY DANE KENNEDY The George Washington University faculty and staff ain’t got no culture. Or worse, we’ve got a negative culture. This was the verdict of the Disney Institute, which the president of our university commissioned last year to assess the culture on our campus. Fortunately, the institute, which is the “professional development and external…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today is Student Press Freedom Day, which promotes the importance of protecting the rights of student journalists. Today was also the start of questioning in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, where a key issue has been Trump’s extraordinary efforts to obstruct Congress and silence government employees by banning them from revealing the truth…
BY JOHN K. WILSON When the Annals of Internal Medicine published an article last fall declaring no serious evidence linked eating red meat to health problems, it sparked enormous controversy and criticism from many experts in the field. Now, the critics are being attacked. In an open letter headlined, “Texas A&M Chancellor Calls on Harvard to…
BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE The higher education news from China late last year was chilling to all who value academic freedom. Three major universities—Fudan, Nanjing, and Shaanxi Normal—under the direction of the government’s Ministry of Education, deleted “freedom of thought” from their charters and added pledges to follow Communist Party leadership, according to reports from Reuters.…
BY JOERG TIEDE The AAUP released a report on the dismissal of Jane Harty, a part-time faculty member with forty years of service in the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). The report found that the PLU administration had acted in violation of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure when…
BY HANK REICHMAN Over two years ago, on November 3, 2017, I posted an item to this blog about the ordeal of Georgette Fleischer, a Barnard College adjunct writing instructor who was summarily dismissed from her position after 17 years of successful teaching. Here, from that post, is the background: For seventeen years Georgette Fleischer…
BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this month the AAUP released an important statement, In Defense of Knowledge and Higher Education, prepared by Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The statement has now been endorsed by these organizations: American Federation of Teachers American Historical Association Association of American Colleges and Universities American Society of Journalists and…
BY HANK REICHMAN On March 21, 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that he claimed would require colleges and universities to uphold free speech or risk forfeiting federal support. When Trump first announced his intent to issue the order at the Conservative Political Action Conference the AAUP and eleven other groups issued a…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a sudden and unexpected move, Heather Hiles, president and CEO of Calbright College, California’s new online community college, has resigned after less than a year on the job. The college’s board voted unanimously yesterday to accept a separation agreement with Hiles, who will step down effective March 31 but be on…
BY HANK REICHMAN Over the past decade Audrey Watters has proven to be one of our most knowledgeable, insightful, critical, and, well, just plain entertaining commentators on educational technology. Her Hack Education blog is a must-read for anyone who cares about teaching and learning at any level. One terrific feature of that blog has been…