BY HANK REICHMAN In a February 2016 post, “Academic Freedom Threatened in Poland,” I reported on how academics in Poland were coming to the defense of Polish-American scholar Jan T. Gross, Professor of History at Princeton University and one of the world’s leading Holocaust historians, after reports that Poland intended to withdraw a national honor…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the wake of a series of incidents in which provocative and often offensive individuals, mostly from the right side of the political spectrum, have been prevented from speaking at college and university campuses, a number of state legislators have proposed — and a few have passed — legislation that would ostensibly…
The following is the text of a letter sent yesterday to Joanne Berger-Sweeney, urging her to immediately reinstate professor Johnny Eric Williams to his normal faculty duties. Professor Williams, an associate professor of sociology with twenty-one years of service at Trinity College, was placed on leave Monday evening after being targeted with a flood of…
The following statement on the suspension of Professor Johnny Williams was issued by the Executive Committee of the Trinity College AAUP chapter. This morning Inside Higher Ed reports that “Williams said he was told by a dean that he was taking leave whether he wanted to or not, and that Trinity made its decision in…
BY HANK REICHMAN The shocking story of Trinity College professor Johnny Williams, target of racist harassment and death threats that led to a one-day shutdown of Trinity College, has taken another ominous turn. Today Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney issued the following statement: June 26, 2017 To the Members of the Trinity Community, As a…
BY HANK REICHMAN Besieged Trinity College professor Johnny Eric Williams yesterday issued a statement apologizing for his use of a controversial hashtag on a Facebook post, even as he remained in hiding out of fear of death threats made against him and his family. Those threats, as I reported Wednesday, compelled Trinity to shut down…
By JOERG TIEDE The following petition is being circulated by the AAUP. Sign to stand against threats and harassment. We are dismayed that another faculty member, Johnny Eric Williams of Trinity College, has become the target of a flood of threats following reports about his social media postings by the right-wing media outlet Campus Reform. In…
BY MICHAEL C. BEHRENT Interviewer Michael C. Behrent of Appalachian State University is vice president of the AAUP’s North Carolina state conference. Several months ago, something strange happened to Jay Smith, a tenured professor in UNC-Chapel Hill’s History Department: he found out that his dean made his chair cancel a class he had been scheduled…
BY HANK REICHMAN Just days after Professor Dana Cloud of Syracuse University became the object of an organized campaign of right-wing online harassment for a Twitter post, Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, closed its doors today “until further notice” in response to threats made after a professor’s Facebook post attracted attention in right-wing media. “Given…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On January 31, the AAUP issued a statement on “Targeted Online Harassment of Faculty,” which decried how a growing number of faculty members nationwide “have been subject to threats of physical violence, including sexual assault, through hundreds of e-mails, calls, and social media postings” in response to viewpoints expressed on electronic…