BY HANK REICHMAN In June 2014 the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure issued a report, “On Partnerships with Foreign Governments: The Case of Confucius Institutes.” That report warned that Confucius Institutes, then established at some 90 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, may “function as an arm of the Chinese…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following press statement was issued by a group of graduate students at Columbia University, announcing Academic Freedom Week, a series of panel discussions to be held at Columbia April 9-11. Your silence will not protect you. ― Audre Lorde, The battle for academic freedom at our nation’s universities has been…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Earlier this month, Dixie State University (DSU) in Utah announced the suspension and planned termination of music department chair Glenn Webb and director of vocal activities Ken Peterson. But the reasons for this extreme action are quite dubious, and the violations of academic freedom, due process, and DSU policies are alarming.…
BY HANK REICHMAN I’m often asked whether the AAUP is as willing to defend the academic freedom and due process rights of right-wing faculty members as we are of liberals and leftists, with whom most of our members tend to be more sympathetic. The answer is that we are and have done so repeatedly throughout…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday I had the privilege and pleasure of participating in a terrific panel discussion of “Academic Freedom in an Age of Political Polarization” at the Albert Shanker Institute in Washington, D.C. My fellow panelists were Sigal Ben-Porath, Professor of Education, Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and author of…
BY AARON BARLOW Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Tobacco. These are real collusions and they have had impact on all of our lives. But Big Academia? Jack Kerwick, one of David Horowitz’s followers at FrontPageMag, certainly seems to think so. He sees it, from the best I can glean from his confused piece,…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Last month, Northwestern law professor Steven Lubet wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune responding in part to my post defending the rights of Rutgers professor Michael Chikindas. I think Lubet makes two fundamental errors: First, he says anti-Semitic imagery is an act of instigating violence. Second, he argues that administrative…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last June I posted a piece to this blog praising conservative scholar Jonathan Marks for his forthright defense of the academic freedom of Black Lives Matter activist Lisa Durden, who was dismissed from her part-time teaching position at Essex County College in New Jersey after she argued with the odious Tucker Carlson…
BY MARIAH QUINN An article from Breitbart yesterday offers us a timely look at how targeted harassment happens and how it is perpetuated. The misrepresentations start in the headline. The piece, “American Association of University Professors Defends Prof Who Called for the Death of Congressman Scalise,” focused on the work the AAUP is doing to…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of John McAdams in his lawsuit against Marquette University. Marquette suspended McAdams because he posted a criticism of graduate student instructor Cheryl Abbate on his personal blog, Marquette Warrior. Marquette issued a statement today: Marquette University welcomes yet another chance to…