BY LORI ALLEN When the topic of “academic freedom” appears in the UK media, it is often buried in the education section or overlooked until left-leaning publications like the Guardian pick it up. There may be a public perception that academic freedom is a matter primarily for elites, a concern of professors and pontificators worried…
BY EMILY K HOBSON AND JENNA N. HANCHEY Since August 2017, when one of our students became a symbol of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) has seen a rise in white nationalist activity and hate speech on our campus. Yet, UNR is just one target in…
BY SHERRYL KLEINMAN Years ago a colleague scolded me for saying that UNC employees can’t have a union. Yes, they can, he said; it’s collective bargaining that’s proscribed. Rudy Fichtenbaum, national president of the AAUP, reminded us of that message this past weekend at the annual meeting of the North Carolina state AAUP conference, attended…
BY ROBERT A. SCOTT The length of service for college and university presidents seems to be getting shorter and shorter. Almost weekly, and in some weeks more often, we read about a campus president being fired or put on leave. There are books on failed presidencies and books on leadership. Why are there failures? What…
BY ALFRED BABO Last June 1, 2019, a significant turn in Ivorian higher education went unnoticed. Indeed, it was probably the first time that the Federation of Students of Côte d’Ivoire (FESCI), a powerful and controversial union, was sponsored and officially supported by the Ivorian government—to which it does not have close ties—to organize its…
BY FRANK BALDWIN The Hollywood Ten knew they were on a blacklist. The House Un-American Activities Committee held televised hearings to vilify screenwriters and other cinema professionals and cited them for contempt of Congress. Studio executives fired the group in a press release, a warning to the film industry that subversives were not employable. Public…
BY JOHN STREAMAS After writing my Journal of Academic Freedom article, “A Vision for Scholar-Activists of Color,” I learned that my university has launched a new campaign to “recruit and retain” a diverse faculty, and now I serve on a subcommittee. At the same time it is also redefining standards for school-wide curricular requirements, and…
BY CHRISTOPHER S. ROSE Christopher S. Rose is a postdoctoral fellow with the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His 2019 dissertation, “On the Home Front: Food, Medicine, and Disease in World War I Egypt,” examines the impact of the war on the Egyptian civilian population. The following, which began…
BY JOHN F. COVALESKIE In “Speech, Academic Freedom, and Privilege,” in the current issue of the Journal of Academic Freedom, I argue that “colleges and universities should actively place themselves on the side of victims of systems of oppression.” Over the last couple of generations, a movement has developed to make college campuses more welcoming…