BY HANK REICHMAN Amidst all the bashing of professors as left-wing ideological thugs (but also sensitive “snowflakes”) who seek only to indoctrinate vulnerable students, the reality that the great majority of faculty members go out of their way to advise, mentor, and assist their students, regardless of politics or personal characteristics, frequently without remuneration for…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday the company that owns and publishes the Arkansas Times filed suit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring government contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel or reduce their fees by at least 20 percent. The Times initiated the suit after the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College,…
BY HANK REICHMAN Two faculty members dismissed from their positions in apparent violation of their academic freedom have won restitution. A professor in Kentucky, who had criticized the governor’s Medicaid plan, won a substantial financial settlement and a return to his university, while a California community college professor fired for challenging student beliefs about sexuality…
BY HANK REICHMAN On September 6, 2018, the student newspaper at the University of North Alabama (UNA), The Flor-Ala, reported that the school’s administration had improperly withheld public documents about the resignation of the vice president of student affairs. A week later, the student journalists, members of the communications department, and The Flor-Ala media adviser…
BY HANK REICHMAN A little more than a year ago the AAUP released a report, “National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom,” prepared by a subcommittee of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The report documented “the Trump administration’s alarming hostility to science” in international scientific exchange and the field of climate…
BY HANK REICHMAN On December 1, Central European University (CEU) announced that, after a lengthy struggle, it would abandon its Budapest campus and relocate to Vienna. “Basically this is a dark day for freedom in Hungary,” said Michael Ignatieff, the president and rector of CEU. “And it’s a dark day for academic freedom.” CEU said…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last week The Atlantic magazine announced a year-long reporting project, “The Speech Wars,” exploring questions of American free expression and public discourse. It is funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Fetzer Institute. According to the magazine, “The project will unfold across TheAtlantic.com,…
BY HANK REICHMAN If you’re an academic on Twitter, especially an historian, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered and perhaps even followed Princeton University historian Kevin Kruse. As the Pacific Standard put it introducing an interview with him, “Over the last few years, Kruse and other experts have been bringing evidence and expertise to well-curated…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the fall of 2016 the AAUP, the College Media Association, the Student Press Law Center, and the National Coalition Against Censorship issued a report, Threats to the Independence of Student Media. The report declared, “Candid journalism that discusses students’ dissatisfaction with the perceived shortcomings of their institutions can be uncomfortable for…
BY HANK REICHMAN The question in my title is central to a report released this week by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Report on the Implications for Academic Freedom in the Case of Andrew Potter at McGill University, prepared by professor Mark Gabbert of the University of Manitoba, has important implications for U.S.…