Back in October, I was speaking at the University of Illinois in the early weeks of Occupy Wall Street, and one thing I recommended to students was creating registered student organizations to turn the energy of the 99% Movement into a permanent force on campuses. Apparently some students at the University of Chicago had the…
The rise of China’s influence in the world includes its connections with American universities. And the Chinese government’s attacks on free speech make this a troubling development for academic freedom. Bloomberg reports on how China is funding Confucius Institutes in America, and seeking to limit academic freedom. When China demanded that a Stanford professorship it…
On November 20, the national Council of the AAUP passed the following resolution: Statement in Support of Free Expression in the University of California On November 9, police officers dispatched by the administration of the University of California, Berkeley violently assaulted students and faculty who were peacefully protesting. The assaults are clearly documented in video…
It’s tough to be a man. That’s the message of male conservatives who worry about how terribly oppressed men are on college campuses facing the evil feminist conspiracy. Even though the people who run universities—presidents, trustees, coaches, even tenured faculty—are overwhelmingly male, we keep getting told this myth about the victimization of men. This week…
You have to say this for George Mason economics professor Daniel Klein: at least he’s willing to admit a mistake. In the Atlantic, Klein discusses his major mea culpa retracting a study last year that he trumpeted as proof that liberals are stupid about economics. Last year, I wrote a lengthy blog post condemning Klein’s…
I can’t quite decide what I find more repulsive: Yale University’s decision to ban “Sex Week” from campus, or the Yale Daily News’ approval of this decision as defending “free speech.” In an astonishing act of repression and lack of respect for student rights, Yale president Richard Levin has banned a student group from holding…
Over 600 University of California at Berkeley faculty have signed this letter in protest of the police violence against the Occupy Cal demonstration: November 11, 2011 Open Letter to Chancellor Birgeneau, the UC Berkeley administration, and the UC Regents: We, the undersigned faculty, lecturers, and graduate student assistants—all of whom teach at Berkeley and are…
The Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Faculty Association issued this announcement: The faculty strike at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is over. The SIUC Faculty Association’s Departmental Representative Council (DRC) voted tonight to end the strike after it was presented with a revised administrative proposal will form the basis of a tentative agreement to be…
Cary Nelson has taken a lot of criticism for defending the free speech of Julio Pino, a Kent State professor who said “Death to Israel” to an Israeli speaker at an extracurricular event on campus. At Minding the Campus, K.C. Johnson attacks Nelson for stating, “Calling out a political slogan during a question period falls…