BY HANK REICHMAN The headline on Inside Higher Ed was provocative, if not downright inflammatory: “AAUP vs. FIRE.” But rather than the knockdown drag-out contest between two national organizations celebrated for their defense of intellectual freedom implied by the headline, the article that followed offered something much more modest. The AAUP chapter at the University…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY Faculty members who would have been Professor Nikole Hannah-Jones’s colleagues at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina have written a powerful statement voicing support for her decision not to accept the tenured position she was offered last week at their school. After a demeaning and…
BY MIMI V. CHAPMAN The following letter was sent by University of North Carolina faculty chair Mimi V. Chapman to the faculty. July 1, 2021 Dear Carolina Community: At last, a difficult chapter has come to a conclusion. Yesterday, the UNC Board of Trustees met to consider Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure dossier and then voted to grant…
BY HANK REICHMAN Greg Lukianoff, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and three co-authors have written a piece, “13 important points in the campus & K-12 ‘critical race theory’ debate,” discussing the avalanche of proposed and, in some cases, already enacted legislation governing classroom instruction in both higher ed and…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Pennsylvania House Bill 1532, introduced earlier this month, has received widespread criticism after Jeffrey Sachs on Twitter wrote that “not only does it prohibit universities from promoting any of the usual forbidden concepts, it also prohibits them from hosting speakers or assigning readings that do.” If anything, Sachs and other critics understate…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last week the AAUP, joined by more than 90 other groups, issued a powerful “Joint Statement on Legislative Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism and American History.” And, of course, it’s not only legislation. The continuing controversy over the failure of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees to approve a…
BY HANK REICHMAN In an unprecedented move, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors has refused to re-appoint a respected law professor to the University of North Carolina Press Board of Governors. The reason seems to be the professor’s public statements on the legality of the UNC System’s controversial handling of the Silent…
BY HANK REICHMAN The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia today (June 21) recognized New York’s Bard College as an “undesirable organization.” According to the ministry, Bard’s activities in Russia “pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security” of Russia. The designation threatens, and may well guarantee, the termination of a longstanding…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Last year my book, The Future of Academic Freedom, received the American Library Association’s Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award for best published work for the previous two years in the area of intellectual freedom. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic the awards ceremony had to be cancelled, but now, a year later…