BY HANK REICHMAN In a victory for academic freedom and faculty rights, a California State University, Fullerton part-time anthropology lecturer facing dismissal after a fracas at a campus demonstration in February has been reinstated by order of an arbitrator. The university’s College Republicans had accused Eric Canin of striking one of them at the demonstration.…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On July 8 I was interviewed on “Resistance Round Table,” a weekly radio broadcast on WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut, by AAUP member Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. We discussed current issues in academic freedom and free expression on campus. To listen to the half-hour interview go to this link: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/190984 A…
BY HANS-JOERG TIEDE In a victory for academic freedom, the administration of Trinity College in Connecticut acknowledged today that Professor Johnny Williams’s social media posts “were protected by academic freedom and did not violate Trinity College policies.” The administration’s statement observed that “Our understanding of academic freedom in America today is rooted largely in a…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Update, July 14: Trinity Dean of Faculty Releases Report after Review of Recent Social Media Activity July 14, 2017 To the Trinity College Community, Freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression in pursuit of the truth are essential, not only to the health of the academy but also to…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following letter in support of the University of North Carolina Law School’s Center for Civil Rights, which the university’s Board of Governors has threatened,was sent on Tuesday. To: The University of North Carolina, Board of Governors Date: July 11, 2017 We write to you in our capacity as law professors,…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The plenary panel at the 44th Annual Conference on Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, held March 27 at CUNY Graduate Center in New York, was devoted to “The Impact of Anti-Intellectualism on the State of Higher Education.” The panelists were Susan Jacoby, the best-selling author of The Age…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On June 14 the AAUP and the Newseum co-hosted a symposium on current challenges to free expression on college campuses, the First Amendment’s role and the future of the student press at American universities. The program consisted of two panels, one on free speech and the second on the student press. …
BY MICHAEL C. BEHRENT On Defending UNC-Law School’s Civil Rights Center Against a Political Attack North Carolina has, in recent years, been subject to increased political meddling in its higher education system. After the attack on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Poverty Center, the Board of Governors has now trained its sights…
BY HANK REICHMAN Right-wing media organizations and some conservative faculty members often have been quick to condemn student protesters and allegedly “leftist” faculty members for their efforts to disrupt or silence conservative speakers as well as for their sometimes silly demands for so-called “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings.” Much of this criticism is well-merited; even…
NOTE: These two letters were read to the audience directly prior to the votes to censure Community College of Aurora and Spalding University at the AAUP Annual Meeting, June 17, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Statement from Nate Bork Community College of Aurora, Aurora, Colo. Prior to AAUP’s presence in Colorado, all higher education faculty in…