POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of a letter sent today to Senator Kevin de León, President Pro-Tem of the California state Senate, by the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), an AAUP partner organization: June 19, 2017 Senator Kevin de León State Capitol, Room 205 Sacramento, CA 95814 Fax: (916)…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Today the AAUP issued the following statement: The AAUP notes with sadness the death of long-serving former staff member Evelyn Miller in May at the age of 89. The Association’s operations in the areas of academic freedom and tenure received essential support for many decades from Miller, who was a member…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On January 31, the AAUP issued a statement on “Targeted Online Harassment of Faculty,” which decried how a growing number of faculty members nationwide “have been subject to threats of physical violence, including sexual assault, through hundreds of e-mails, calls, and social media postings” in response to viewpoints expressed on electronic…
BY HANK REICHMAN In two free speech decisions with minimal direct relevance to higher education, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled, first, that the federal government cannot refuse to register trademarks that the government deems offensive on racial, religious or similar ground and, second, that a North Carolina law making it a felony for a…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is a statement from the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers. The ‘code of ethics’ that the government of Israel is considering for the country’s academic institutions is a threat not only to academic freedom in Israel, but to Israel’s standing as a democracy. We join with colleagues in…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier today I was privileged to participate in a stimulating discussion of free speech on campuses on the radio call-in show “Your Call” on KALW-FM in San Francisco. Participating in the call were moderator Renee Kemp; Samantha Harris, director of policy research at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE);…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Albert Einstein was a member of the AAUP from 1935 until his death in 1955. The following questions about academic freedom and political inquisitions were posed to Einstein in the 1950s, during the McCarthy era. They come from a document held in the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center at…
BY HANK REICHMAN “The speech we must protect most forcefully is not the speech we hate the most, but the speech that is most endangered.” — CUNY Professor of History Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) on Twitter, April 25 “The countless fruitful discussions that happen all the time in college classrooms don’t grab headlines.” — UW Milwaukee…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a recent post to this blog, John K. Wilson took issue with the AAUP’s recommendation “that administrations and elected faculty bodies work jointly to establish institutional regulations that prohibit the surreptitious recording of classroom discourse or of private meetings between students and faculty members.” The recommendation came in the context of…