BY MATTHEW BOEDY
The Georgia conference of the AAUP recently published its semi-annual newsletter and I thought readers of this blog might be interested in one element of it. The conference asked from the state university system all complaints concerning academic freedom and freedom of speech submitted to the system’s confidential ethics hotline within the past year.
We asked for reports dating back to last spring when the Board of Regents passed its statement of principles on academic freedom and free speech on campus. The university system sent more than fifty reports. While the conclusion of some of the investigations started by these reports were known to the conference, many others were new. One silver lining is that many of these investigations were closed quickly due to lack of evidence.
The types of reports against faculty are important to note. One person reported a professor for belittling “students on where they are going to school.” The matter was referred to the provost for more training. Another professor was reported for “aggressive and unprofessional demeanor.” The professor was counseled on their classroom tone. A Jewish student reported their professor for allowing a group during a class exercise to name their group “Hamas.” This was two weeks after the attack by Hamas on Israel. An administrator quickly intervened, the professor apologized to the class, and the case was closed.
A student reported an instructor for assigning too much work. Another professor was reported for comments they made on Facebook. The case was closed almost immediately. Another professor was reported for something they said at an event with graduate students. Another professor was reported for confusing assignments. A science professor was reported for their comments on female and male chromosomes in class. A professor was reported for gender discrimination. Another professor was reported for being an “academic imposter.” That professor was put on an improvement plan for unethical activities.
There were a handful of reports concerning race. A DEI skit was reported for its “perverted social justice agenda.” A professor was reported for emphasizing a racist word as they read from a text. A textbook was reported for being “racially prejudiced and unfairly” targeting “white students.” Finally a professor was reported for sharing their political beliefs in class, yet “it appears that critical context was missed.” The context was the professor was suggesting how a historical figure would see today’s political scene, not their personal political opinions.
If you would like to read any of these reports, please contact me.
These reports are a small slice into the wide ranging attacks on higher education and are indicative of a growing segment of the public—not to mention students—who think poorly of higher education and professors. But they also show the often misleading nature of the larger attacks. And they reflect what we all know as classroom actors—students sometimes don’t hear all we say.
Most troubling though is the presence of the reports themselves. While an ethics hotline is a good idea to catch corruption at any level of higher education, that the people who offered these complaints did not it seems address the issue with their professor or campus first shows the profound lack of trust we all must deal with. While we don’t know if indeed these complaints started at the hotline, it is a reasonable assumption based on reading them.
Lastly, some good news. The complaints in no way reflect the larger myth of indoctrination, political partisanship, or any element of the growing narrative against higher education. The statement of principles by the Georgia regents was passed at least in part implicitly as a response to that growing narrative.
The AAUP of course applauds any statement defending academic freedom. Though I won’t hold my breath waiting for a statement from higher education powers that be in Georgia or elsewhere that debunks the growing narrative, specifically pointing to the lack of reports found by the conference.
Matthew Boedy is the president of the Georgia conference of the AAUP and works at the Univeristy of North Georgia. He can be reached through email or his Twitter account @matthewboedy.
