BY HANK REICHMAN A growing number of college and university presidents have spoken out against the Trump administration’s efforts to ban and deport immigrants and refugees. Some leading research universities have filed an amicus brief in support of the legal challenge to the initial ban. But a mere handful have been as outspoken about the…
BY JOERG TIEDE If teachers do not stand fighting in the front rank for freedom of intelligence, the cause of the latter is well-nigh hopeless, and we are in for that period of intimidation, oppression, and suppression that goes, and goes rightly, by the name of Fascism and Nazi-ism. — John Dewey, 1935 The American Association of…
BY HANK REICHMAN This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students, issued by the AAUP and other organizations. That statement spelled out clear guarantees of freedom of association for students. Those rights were called into question in December when Fordham University refused to permit students to create…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following letter by forty-eight US university presidents and chancellors was sent to President Trump on February 2. President Donald J. Trump The White House United States of AmericaDear President Trump: We write as presidents of leading American colleges and universities to urge you to rectify or rescind the recent executive…
BY ANTON FORD Yesterday, John K. Wilson posted a critique about those opposed to having former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski speak at the University of Chicago. Wilson asked Anton Ford if he wished to respond. Below is his email, and below that is the letter that was sent to the Institute of Politics. Dear…
BY JOHN K. WILSON In a few minutes, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will be speaking at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP). A group of student organizations wrote to the University of Chicago calling for Lewandowski to be banned from campus. I think they are deeply misguided. They argue, “Nothing about…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Following are excerpts from an amicus brief filed yesterday in the case of Hameed Darweesh and People of the State of New York v. Donald Trump by seventeen prominent private research universities, including all eight members of the Ivy League. The amici are: Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago,…
BY HANK REICHMAN Iowa State University has lost an appeal in a federal free speech lawsuit that affirms student rights regardless of political viewpoint, the Des Moines Register reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled February 13 that school administrators, including President Steven Leath, violated the First Amendment rights of two…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Late last year I posted a piece about climate scientist and AAUP Committee A member Michael Mann’s important victory in his ongoing libel suit. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in a 111-page opinion that Mann can sue two conservative writers over allegations that they defamed him. The case centers on…
BY HANK REICHMAN In November I posted to this blog the text of a letter from an imprisoned Turkish scholar, Dr. Sedat Laçiner,. The following is the text of a blog post written by Dr. Laçiner, shortly before his imprisonment: Opponent or Terrorist? Dramatically Changing Nature of Turkish Democracy Sedat Laciner In advanced democracies, the…