BY JOHN K. WILSON Harry Keyishian was a special honoree at the AAUP’s annual awards luncheon today ‘for his courage, integrity, and unstinting commitment to academic freedom.” This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, which established academic freedom as “a special concern of the First Amendment.”…
BY JOHN K. WILSON At the 103rd Annual Meeting today, the AAUP members voted to pass resolutions on funding cuts to the University of Puerto Rico and Illinois colleges, imposed censure on two administrations, and removed two administrations from the censure list. The AAUP voted to impose censure on the Community College of Aurora in…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On Wednesday, June 14, 3-5pm at the Newseum in Washington DC, the Newseum and the AAUP are holding a special preview event for the AAUP annual conference, “The First Amendment on Campus: Freedom of Speech and the Press in Higher Education.” In order to attend this free event (which is open…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Earlier this year, the AAUP issued a statement against targeted online harassment of faculty. This statement has added significance with the news that Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has cancelled several speeches after receiving death threats in the wake of a commencement speech in which she called Donald Trump “a racist, sexist…
BY MICHAEL DECESARE Administrative encroachment. Governing board overreach. Political interference. In light of these and other ominous trends, the need has never been more urgent for faculty to reclaim a central role in the government of our colleges and universities. The May–June issue of Academe, now available on the AAUP website, is devoted to academic…
BY HANK REICHMAN “A university without student protests against visiting speakers would be like a forest without birds.” — Timothy Garton Ash, Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World, p. 155 This is the first of three four posts in a series. The issue of the right of controversial and sometimes deeply offensive invited…
BY DON ERON This guest post comes from remarks by Don Eron at the April 29 Academic Freedom Symposium at the University of Colorado Boulder. Don Eron is a retired University of Colorado Boulder writing instructor and a member of the national AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The AAUP I’d like to talk about…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Here are some upcoming 2017 events related to the AAUP and academic freedom: The AAUP Annual Conference is being held on June 14-17 in Washington DC. Register now: April 15 at midnight EDT is the deadline for early bird rates. Note that during this year’s event, there will also be a special…
BY THE NORTH CAROLINA AAUP CONFERENCE The following is, first, a press release from the North Carolina AAUP followed by the vision statement itself: Boone, NC/Chapel Hill, NC March 9, 2017 The state conference of the leading professional organization of American college professors has released a vision statement entitled “Reclaiming Higher Education for All North Carolinians”…
BY AARON BARLOW If you want to teach students to think, you have to challenge them—challenge their beliefs and assumptions. Confirming what they (or their parents, or their communities) already believe does not serve that purpose. You also need to teach students to be honest with themselves and to examine their own beliefs by standards…