In Defense of Howard Zinn

By Peter N. Kirstein Peter N. Kirstein is a professor of history at St. Xavier University, and the vice-president of the Illinois AAUP. Mitch Daniels is president of Purdue University, and considered a moderate Republican. I am not sure what that says about immoderate Republicans, but his recently publicized efforts as governor to ban Howard…

What Mitch Daniels Doesn’t Know about History

By Michael Kazin Michael Kazin’s critique of Howard Zinn was cited by Purdue President Mitch Daniels in response to the controversy over Gov. Daniels’ emails attacking Zinn. Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown University and co-editor of Dissent magazine, wrote this reaction to the issue. I don’t know if Daniels should be fired, but…

AAUP Issues Statement on UC-Boulder Ideology Survey

Henry Reichman, chair of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, issued the following statement on July 1, 2013. On June 20, the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted unanimously to conduct a survey to determine whether political or ideological discrimination exists on its Boulder campus.  The survey, to be conducted this…

What Has Happened to the AAUP?

by Peter Wood This post was originally published on June 17 at Minding the Campus. Author Peter Wood is President of the National Association of Scholars. We asked for (and received) permission to re-post the article here, in light of a guest post by Allan Lichtman of American University that is a response to Wood.…

A Response to Peter Wood

By Allan Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History, American University In his response to my critique of the National Association of Scholars report, RECASTING HISTORY: ARE RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER DOMINATING AMERICAN HISTORY?, at the recent conference of the AAUP, NAS President Peter Wood harps on a remark that comprised well under 1 percent of my…

Analysis of the NAS Report on “Recasting History”

By Allan J. Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History, American University This analysis examines the report of the National Association of Scholars: RECASTING HISTORY: ARE RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER DOMINATING AMERICAN HISTORY? (January 2013). The report studies courses as the University of Texas, Austin and Texas A & M University. It concludes that introductory history classes…

The MOOC and the Meaning of “Teaching”

Professor Kaye Adkins, author of this guest post, teaches at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. In its May 15 edition, the Wall Street Journal  published an interview with Daphne Koller a co-founder and co-chief executive of Coursera (“Coursera Defends MOOCs as Road to Learning,” Managing, p. B5). In the interview, Koller explains “where teachers…

Review of Unlearning Liberty

By Steve Macek, Speech Communication, North Central College Review of Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (Encounter Books, 2012) A student expelled for a Facebook post criticizing the construction of a new parking ramp at his college, a faculty member reported to a “threat assessment team” for posting a…

The Case of the Disappearing Web Page: Shared Governance at UCONN

Guest blogger Gaye Tuchman is Professor Emertia of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. She is author of  Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University (2009) and Making News (1978). Not so long ago you could ask, “What’s black and white and read all over,” and everyone knew you were referring to a newspaper (well maybe a blushing zebra).  …