Back in the 1980s, Reed Irvine’s right-wing group Accuracy in Academia (AIA) caused controversy by recruiting students to spy on left-wing professors. With the growth of the internet, AIA can do the spying online, but its attacks on academic freedom continue to this day. One of the most disturbing features on the AIA website is…
In a victory for free speech, the University of Wisconsin at Stout has reversed its earlier decision censoring posters put up by professor James Miller. FIRE, which led the crusade against the censorship, announced the reversal today and posted the letter from leading administrators: UW-Stout has reconsidered its decision to remove the two posters from…
Jane Mayer has an important article in the New Yorker about the influence of millionaire Art Pope in North Carolina politics and higher education. Pope funds the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, where director of research George Leef has been one of the loudest voices calling for the defunding of higher education…
My essay on due process violations at Northwestern University in the cases of David Protess and Michael Bailey appears at InsideHigherEd today. You can read more about the Protess case at my blog College Freedom. Peter Kirstein wrote about academic freedom and the Bailey case at his blog. While the two cases are very different…
Vanderbilt University has been under attack from FIRE and other conservatives for requiring all student groups to follow the campus non-discrimination policy in their constitutions. The Christian Legal Society, which imposes a Statement of Faith on all campus student leaders, has objected. I can never get anyone to answer my question about what I see…
Laura Clawson at DailyKos writes about part-time student graduation rates and notes, “don’t try to pretend that economic factors aren’t affecting college completion rates.” Roger Shuler writes about being threatened with a libel suit by Ted Rollins, the CEO of a student-housing development company. Updates on the Cincinnati State strike: “‘We love our teachers,’ says…
It’s always disappointing when advocates of the First Amendment find an excuse to fall short of full freedom. Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center wrote a column last week arguing, “Teachers should have more academic freedom than they presently enjoy. But when religion is involved, teachers should not be free to impose either a…
The National Association of Scholars has announced a project “examining the curriculum, student activities, and campus values of Bowdoin College.” I am sure that Peter Wood and the research fellow he has hired will attempt to do a thorough and fair job. But obviously they bring certain biases to their approach. And one concern I…
Some upcoming events (email us at academeblog@aaup.org if you have more events to recommend): In the Chicago area: On Mon Sept 26, at North Central College the newly constituted AAUP chapter is holding a fall kick-off event: North Central College will host a talk by Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors.…