BY JOHN K. WILSON Today on CBS Sunday Morning, the main cover story was devoted to “A war of words on college campuses.” It’s a completely one-sided war, if you listen to CBS, exclusively fought by leftists trying to silence conservatives. Unfortunately, this kind of media bias is common in covering political correctness, as it…
BY DAVID PALUMBO-LIU This essay by Stanford professor David Palumbo-Liu originally was published in the Stanford Daily. As anyone who has carefully read the U.S. Constitution knows, the right to free speech is a negative freedom — it protects us from any attempt by our government to stifle the expression of our ideas. The underlying…
POSTED BY JOERG TIEDE The AAUP is circulating the following petition on behalf of Laurie Rubel. Please sign and share with colleagues. The attacks directed at Dr. Rubel are an example of disturbing trends we will address during an upcoming week focused on the problem of targeted harassment. Together with the Brooklyn College chapter of the…
POSTED BY KELLY HAND The new issue of Academe considers the state of the academic profession in a political climate that has exacerbated existing threats to higher education. Articles focus on challenges to academic freedom and collective bargaining, the recent upsurge in harassment campaigns targeting faculty members, and faculty activism. Follow the links in the table of…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the AAUP report “National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom” issued last month readers will find the following: Dr. Eugene Gu is a surgical resident at Vanderbilt University whose research seeks to transplant healthy fetal organs in utero to fetuses with fatal congenital diseases so they can survive to…
BY AARON BARLOW It’s been a bad year. Not just for higher education. And not just at it winds down. The coming 2018 does not bode well for American colleges and universities. For one thing, the Janus case against agency fees (when unions can assess non-members for fees as a result of gains and benefits…
BY HANK REICHMAN George Ciccariello-Maher, associate professor of politics and global studies at Drexel University, has resigned his tenured position. In an announcement on Twitter posted today, Ciccariello-Maher wrote, “after nearly a year of harassment by right-wing, white supremacist media outlets and internet mobs, after death threats and threats of violence directed against me and…
BY WENDY LYNNE LEE There is a great deal to be said about the rise of the Alt-Right over this past year, and while I understand the argument for identifying its platform with the ascent of white supremacism, I’d argue that “Alt-Right” encompasses something far more ambitious and dangerous, especially with respect to the country’s…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Judith Butler’s essay, “The Limits on Free Speech,” has attracted a great deal of attention and numerous comments. Because it deserves a more extensive response than I could make in a comment, I wanted to offer this in-depth reply. I think Butler makes two fundamental errors in her analysis. First, she…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On Friday, Rutgers University demoted professor Michael Chikindas, banned him from teaching any required classes, and announced they would seek to suspend him for a semester, all because of his anti-Semitic comments on his personal social media. Based on his posts, I think Chikindas is an anti-Semite, and an idiot. Nevertheless,…