POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of an August 8 press release from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT): This week, the California Federation of Teachers filed a substantive new complaint against the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, arguing that the accreditor of California’s community colleges has failed so completely…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is a partial transcript of Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis’ remarks at a news conference yesterday in response to the new Chicago Public Schools budget: I am Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. I am joined by fellow officers, Vice President Jesse Sharkey and Financial Secretary…
BY HANK REICHMAN Advocates of academic freedom generally find freedom of information laws beneficial. Such laws enhance public knowledge and debate on the workings of government agencies, including public universities. But as a 2013 amicus brief filed by the AAUP and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) pointed out, “in evaluating disclosure under FOIA, the public’s right to know…
POSTED BY HENRY REICHMAN The following piece by Steve Lubet, Williams Memorial Professor of Law at Northwestern University, was posted originally on The Faculty Lounge. It is reposted with his permission. The Mess at Oberlin Oberlin College just announced that Professor Joy Karega will be suspended with pay for the coming semester, pending the result…
BY HANK REICHMAN Amid the growing controversy over the leak of thousands of emails hacked from servers at the Democratic National Committee, apparently by a group linked to the Russian government, comes this report in The Times of London: President Putin has launched a secret propaganda assault on Britain from within its own borders, The Times can…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the Fall of 2014 I posted several entries to this blog (see here, here, and here) suggesting that “recent attempts to enforce standards of ‘civility’ at colleges and universities, often . . . in response to pro-Palestinian expression, recalled previous efforts in the 1940s and 1950s to exclude alleged communists from…
BY HANK REICHMAN I am old enough to remember August 1, 1966 — fifty years ago today — when a mentally disturbed ex-marine, Charles Whitman, climbed to the top of the tower at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) with an arsenal of high-powered weapons and began shooting. For 96 terrifying minutes, Whitman fired…
POSTED BY HENRY REICHMAN The following is the text of a letter signed by 114 members of the faculty at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in response to a campaign appearance at the university by Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump. July 28, 2016 Dear Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak, With the pending visit of the Republican nominee…
POSTED BY HENRY REICHMAN The following is the text of a letter sent today (July 25) to President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and signed by nearly 400 U.S. academics, including AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum, AAUP First Vice-President Henry Reichman, AAUP-CBC Chair Howard Bunsis, AAUP General Counsel…
BY HANK REICHMAN The following comes from a story published yesterday by The Hill: Republican pollster Frank Luntz on Tuesday told delegates at the Republican National Convention that the GOP has “lost” the millennial generation of voters. Addressing the South Carolina delegation, Luntz attributed the Democratic Party’s hold on younger adults to colleges and universities…