BY JOHN K. WILSON Last month, Northwestern law professor Steven Lubet wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune responding in part to my post defending the rights of Rutgers professor Michael Chikindas. I think Lubet makes two fundamental errors: First, he says anti-Semitic imagery is an act of instigating violence. Second, he argues that administrative…
BY JOHN K. WILSON This morning, about 100 student protesters at the University of Chicago (including UChicago YDSA, UChicago Student Action, UChicago Socialists, and Students Working Against Prisons) chanted “Disinvite! Disinvite! Disinvite!” and demanded that the administration ban an invitation from University of Chicago business professor Luigi Zingales for Steve Bannon to speak on campus. As…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of John McAdams in his lawsuit against Marquette University. Marquette suspended McAdams because he posted a criticism of graduate student instructor Cheryl Abbate on his personal blog, Marquette Warrior. Marquette issued a statement today: Marquette University welcomes yet another chance to…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today on CBS Sunday Morning, the main cover story was devoted to “A war of words on college campuses.” It’s a completely one-sided war, if you listen to CBS, exclusively fought by leftists trying to silence conservatives. Unfortunately, this kind of media bias is common in covering political correctness, as it…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Judith Butler’s essay, “The Limits on Free Speech,” has attracted a great deal of attention and numerous comments. Because it deserves a more extensive response than I could make in a comment, I wanted to offer this in-depth reply. I think Butler makes two fundamental errors in her analysis. First, she…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On Friday, Rutgers University demoted professor Michael Chikindas, banned him from teaching any required classes, and announced they would seek to suspend him for a semester, all because of his anti-Semitic comments on his personal social media. Based on his posts, I think Chikindas is an anti-Semite, and an idiot. Nevertheless,…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Roderick A. Ferguson is faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the co-director of the Racialized Body research cluster at UIC. In 2018-19, he will serve as president of the American Studies Association. AcademeBlog…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Is disrupting a speaker worse than rape? According to the University of Wisconsin Board or Regents policy passed last week, it is. Only one of them gets mandatory penalties. If a student is accused of rape, and even convicted of sexual misconduct twice, there is no requirement for an automatic suspension,…
BY JOHN K. WILSON At Minding the Campus, Peter Wood’s essay about “The Case for Colonialism” article argues this: “And perhaps we should not forget the names of those thousands who signed the petitions. It might be a good exercise for deans and provosts who have received from academic search committee recommendations to appoint candidates…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Milo Yiannopoulos’ much-hyped Free Speech Week at Berkeley has disappeared, not with a bang but with a whimper. The whimper came yesterday when Milo made a brief appearance on Sproul Plaza, where he sang the Star-Spangled Banner (without kneeling) and left about 30 minutes later. Berkeley spent an estimated $800,000 on…