POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is excerpted from a piece published earlier this month in University World News by Ole Petter Ottersen, rector of the University of Oslo, Norway. How should universities confront a post-truth world? By Ole Petter Ottersen In a world characterised by increasing turbulence and conflict, and of inequities and dissatisfaction,…
BY MICHAEL MERANZE The following guest post by UCLA history professor Michael Meranze is reposted from his Remaking the University blog. As you have probably seen, George Ciccariello-Maher, a political scientist at Drexel University has come under fire for tweeting “all I want for Christmas is white genocide,” following his tweet and his condemnation at…
BY HANK REICHMAN “All I want for Christmas is white genocide.” That was the content of a tweet posted Christmas eve by George Ciccariello-Maher, associate professor of politics and global studies at Drexel University. Ciccariello-Maher was trying to make an ironic political point and was not in fact calling for mass killing, but that didn’t…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Threats to Academic Freedom from the Government Threaten American Principles MADISON, WI—Dec. 21, 2016 The American Association of University Professors UW–Madison Chapter reaffirms the critical importance of preventing government overreach that would restrict the rights of our students to a high quality education that values and encourages critical thinking. When our…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a victory for both academic freedom and science an appeals court ruled today that climate change scientist and AAUP Committee A member Michael Mann can sue two conservative writers over allegations that they defamed him. The case centers on posts written by Rand Simberg in a Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) blog…
BY HANK REICHMAN Is a faculty handbook a legally binding contract? The question is not an easy one to answer, as the law may vary from state to state. In 2015 the AAUP’s legal department updated its Faculty Handbooks Guide, which includes basic information for each state, although the Guide “is not exhaustive and is…
BY HANK REICHMAN Words: On November 17, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger spoke to attendees at the university’s annual Hamilton Award Dinner. Here is part of the Columbia Spectator’s report on his remarks: “The University is not a political institution—we do not take positions on political issues. But when you have a position that…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Last week I posted an item about Kristina Bogos, a former New York University (NYU) student now a graduate student at Georgetown University, who was denied entry to Qatar, where she sought to continue research on the conditions of migrant workers that she began as an undergraduate at NYU’s campus in…
BY HANK REICHMAN In March I am scheduled to participate in a plenary panel on “The Impact of Anti-Intellectualism on the State of Higher Education” at the annual Hunter College Conference on Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions in New York. To prepare I’ve been reading (I’m embarrassed to admit, for the first…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Ibram X. Kendi, assistant professor of African American history at the University of Florida and winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction for Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, will be the plenary speaker at the AAUP’s Annual Conference on the State of…