The AAUP’s Absolutist Antiboycott Policy Reexamined

BY DANIEL A. SEGAL At a moment when the Israeli assault on Gaza has destroyed every university that had existed in Gaza, and the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement again calls on academics outside of Palestine to support the nonviolent strategy of institutional academic boycotts, it is time for the AAUP to reconsider…

Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida

BY HANK REICHMAN On Monday, February 26, I’ll be talking about the AAUP’s recent special investigation report, “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System,” online with John A. Douglass of the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education.  Here’s the Center’s description of the event: In their self-proclaimed “war on…

Boris Kagarlitsky Sentenced to Five Years

BY HANK REICHMAN I’m a historian of Russia by training, but I guess I didn’t realize that there’s apparently no double jeopardy rule, at least with respect to sentencing, in Russia.  Turns out that I—and many others—celebrated too soon when back in December we learned of the release of renowned Marxist sociologist and university professor…

Buildings at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, with trees and grass in the foreground along with two parked cars and a small construction crane

In Defense of Melissa Goldberg and Academic Freedom at Catholic Colleges

BY JOHN K. WILSON Last week, the Catholic University of America (CUA) fired psychology professor Melissa Goldberg one week after she invited doula Rachel Carbonneau to address her class, Psychology 379: Lifespan Development. Doulas coach women during the birthing process, and Carbonneau discussed helping “birthing persons” deal with having abortions and assisting transgender men. One…

upright straw broom with wooden handle against a gray background

All of Them Should Go

BY DANIEL A. SEGAL The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and MIT did a famously terrible job responding to Representative Elise Stefanik’s questions at the congressional hearing on “antisemitism on college campuses” this past December. But so far, their failure has been treated either as a case of incompetence in the realm of…

From Florida to Barnard

BY HANK REICHMAN Today the New York Times published an article recounting the continuing struggle at Barnard College, the women’s college of Columbia University in New York, over the academic freedom and free speech rights of faculty and students.  To briefly summarize, three weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Department of…

Indiana state flag with blue background and golden torch surrounded by golden stars appears over a white backgrouns in distorted form, suggesting an incomplete or erased image of the flag with jagged edges

In Defense of Abdulkader Sinno

By JOHN K. WILSON In a breathtaking assault on academic freedom, Indiana University has suspended Abdulkader Sinno, an associate professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies, for the crime of reserving a room for a speech that the administration (in direct violation of the First Amendment) attempted to ban. Sinno reserved a room for…

Watching Fascism in Real Time

BY JENNIFER RUTH I think he meant “scalped.” Right-wing activist Chris Rufo posted “SCAPLED: Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns” on X at 10 am today. He then reposted someone saying, “Claudine Gay’s is a huge scalp. No doubt about it. Especially when combined with Liz Magill’s a week ago. But we cannot rest on our…