In recognition of Banned Books Week, September 21-27, librarians at Columbus State Community College (CSCC) in Ohio have developed this quiz which playfully helps you learn which banned book bests fits your personality! Try it here: http://www.playbuzz.com/columbusstatelibrary10/which-banned-book-are-you CSCC is one of seven organizations to win Banned Books Week grants from the Freedom to Read Foundation’s…
On September 17, 2011, three years ago today, protesters gathered in downtown Manhattan intending to Occupy Wall Street (OWS). They ended up in nearby Zucotti Park, where they remained until forcibly evicted by police two months later. The Wall Street action inspired similar Occupy movements in dozens of cities across the country, including on some…
The following is an op-ed piece prepared by the Berkeley Faculty Association, which was published today in the Daily Californian, an independent student-run newspaper that covers both the University of California, Berkeley campus and the city of Berkeley. This fall, the campus celebrates the achievements of the 1964 student movement that made Berkeley famous for…
Should instructors allow students in their classes to use electronic media devices — laptops, tablets, smartphones — in class? That question has often been a hot one among teaching faculty and opinions vary widely. Recently Clay Shirky, who teaches telecommunications and journalism at New York University, decided after many years to ban the devices from…
Yesterday I posted a statement by the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), issued in response to a September 5 message to the UC Berkeley campus from Chancellor Nicholas Dirks that called “civility” and free speech “two sides of a single coin.” Also yesterday Dirks sent an email message to faculty, staff and…
The following is the text of a statement issued on September 11 by the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA): On Friday Sept. 5, Chancellor Dirks of UC Berkeley circulated an open statement to his campus community that sought to define the limits of appropriate debate at Berkeley. Issued as the campus approaches…
The following is the text of an open letter to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees from Safiya Umoja Noble, Assistant Professor, UCLA, and former faculty member, student, and development staff member at UIUC. The letter appeared on Noble’s blog. Dear University of Illinois Board of Trustees Members, I spent the last eight years…
Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times is one of my favorite newspaper columnists. This week he ran an excellent piece on what I’ve started calling the emerging “civility doctrine” in higher education. Here are some excerpts: When someone in power praises the principle of free speech, it’s wise to be on the lookout for weasel…
Two days ago I posted a piece on this blog that asked, “Is ‘Incivility’ the New Communism?” In that post I suggested that recent attempts to enforce standards of “civility” at colleges and universities, often, as in the Salaita case at Illinois and the Marzec incident in Ohio, in response to pro-Palestinian expression, recalled previous…
During the great red scare of the late 1940s and 1950s, many otherwise “liberal” politicians and, sadly, more than a few academics argued that faculty members who were Communists (actually in practice those who declined to publicly state they were not Communists or even those who refused to denounce others) forfeited the right to academic…