POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of a press release issued yesterday by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). For background on this case see this previous post on Academeblog. Delegates to the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Council voted today to censure the University of Toronto because of the…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a statement, “On Academic Freedom for our Higher Education Users,” Zoom has announced that it will leave content moderation issues to universities for virtually all matter “related to the institution’s academics or operations” and engage in content-based censorship only under rare, clearly delineated conditions. In short, the company now says it…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Responding to the AAUP’s statement opposing Florida’s “viewpoint diversity” legislation, a colleague teaching at a major research university sent me this poem. The would-be poet wishes to remain anonymous; something about preserving dignity. This year marks the 25th annual April celebration of National Poetry Month, so I thought it worth posting. …
BY HANK REICHMAN On March 17, President Elizabeth Hillman of Mills College announced that the trustees of the 169-year-old women’s college in Oakland, California, had decided to close admissions after this year and stop conferring degrees no later than Fall 2023, thereby effectively closing the school. According to Hillman, an undefined “Mills Institute” will continue…
BY HANK REICHMAN Bandy Lee, a former Yale University faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, filed suit in federal court March 22 against the University alleging “unlawful termination… due to her exercise of free speech about the dangers of Donald Trump’s presidency.” Lee charges that Yale fired her in…
BY HANK REICHMAN Today more than 3,000 student workers at Columbia University in New York City went on strike after more than two years of unsuccessful negotiations over the university’s first graduate student labor contract. The walkout comes more than four years after student workers voted to unionize, forming the Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto…
BY HANK REICHMAN The AAUP issued the following statement today. Three proposals currently under consideration by the Iowa Legislature raise troubling concerns about academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus. One bill would end tenure for professors at the state’s three public universities. Tenure provides that after a suitable probationary period a faculty member…
BY HANK REICHMAN The termination earlier this month of University of Mississippi assistant professor of history Garrett Felber, ostensibly because he declined to communicate orally with his department chair while on leave, has attracted considerable attention, including an open letter to the administration protesting his termination, which has to date attracted over 5,000 signatures. Because…
BY HANK REICHMAN Back in October when Lora Burnett, a history professor at Collin College in Texas, was hounded by internet trolls for a comment she made about Vice-President Mike Pence’s appearance during the vice-presidential debate, her administration buckled under the pressure and publicly denounced her, ignoring their own policy’s written commitment “to uphold vigorously…