I had originally begun politely with a news hook quoting William J. Bennett on the common core, and will return to it, but as things are in our society, I think the following will give the common core more publicity: As reported by Eric Owens, education editor of The Daily Caller, in “Common Core is…
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure is apparently investigating the Steven Salaita case. What will be achieved is unclear since the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, the highest unit an appointee can appeal a dismissal on campus, has already cast its unseemly vote to dismiss the professor eleven…
Hank Reichman, the First Vice-President of AAUP and a frequent contributor to this blog, is marking his retirement by teaching a seminar on the history of academic freedom in the American university. Unprompted, his provost handed him a sizable check and invited him to organize a broader symposium, a speakers series, on the history of…
A few days ago I posted a brief piece, “Which Banned Book Are You?“, that linked to a quiz posted by librarians at Columbus State Community College to promote the annual Banned Books Week, which runs through tomorrow. My post has since had over 5,000 visits and has been the most visited post on this…
There are certain debates in a representative democracy that are eternal for a reason–and that reason often lies the nature of humanity and human vanity. One of these debates, in the United States, was first apparent in the animosity between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. It was recapped a little less than a century ago in Walter Lippmann’s…
UPDATED ITINERARY SEPTEMBER 24, 2014: Professor Steven Salaita, who had been appointed as an associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is planning a five-day speaking tour in Chicago not only to seek a reversal of the sudden cancellation of his appointment, but also to defend other critical-thinking academicians who dare challenge the ideological preferences of chancellors,…
Christopher Kennedy, chair of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees has never responded to my request for him to debate me when I speak on Monday in Urbana (Sept. 22, 7pm, Allen Hall, 1005 W. Gregory), but he has spoken to the Chicago Tribune and now the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette about his decision. His interview…
In a recent opinion piece by William J. Bennett in the Wall Street Journal, “The Conservative Case for a Common Core,” with an unfortunate double-entendre title that misfires, one statement makes good sense: “Nearly all Americans agree that to prepare a child for civic responsibility and competition in the modern economy, he or she must be…
The American Association of University Professors censured Northeastern Illinois University at its annual meeting this past June. The annual meeting launched the centennial celebration of the Association’s founding. The censure was an appropriate sanction for the tenure denial of John Boyle, a linguistics professor at the university, who has since moved on to another institution.…
This is a letter from the University of Iowa AAUP chapter to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise seeking reinstatement of Professor Steven Salaita. It is admirable that an AAUP chapter from another campus would engage itself in this manner. I think chapter solidarity in upholding AAUP principles and statements is essential in affirming the…