POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is taken from an op-ed piece, “Top 10 ways tenure benefits students and all Iowa residents,” by Katherine Tachau and Lois Cox of the University of Iowa AAUP chapter, published yesterday in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The University of Iowa chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday a minor moronic bigot by the name of Milo Yiannopoulos was prevented from speaking at the University of California at Berkeley campus by protesters, some of whom set fires, smashed windows, and attempted to assault police officers. Yiannopoulos has gained undeserved notoriety through his vile assaults on liberals, minorities, women, gays,…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following statement was issued by the AAUP earlier today, February 1, 2017. The 2016 election has exacerbated a political climate that was already inimical to academic freedom. Six years ago the American Association of University Professors conveyed its concern that “the war on terror, the conflict in the Middle East,…
BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of a talk I delivered on January 30 at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. I want to thank the Whitman AAUP chapter, the faculty committee on academic freedom and due process, and the Whitman administration for their invitation, hospitality and support during my illuminating two-day visit.…
BY STEVE MUMME The author of this guest post is Steve Mumme, Co-President of the Colorado Conference of AAUP. One week into Donald Trump’s presidency it is clear that the new administration intends the harshest attack on American universities since the McCarthy Era. Enamored of Alt-Facts and an unhealthy skepticism of science itself, the new administration has…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of an online petition initiated yesterday, which, as of this writing (10 a.m. PST January 28), had already attracted nearly 3,000 signatures, including 12 Nobel laureates, John Bates Clark medalists, members of the National Academy of Sciences and at least one MacArthur Fellow. To add your…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This series covers the issues that surfaced in 2015. I had it done at the beginning of 2016, but I have been somewhat slow getting it posted. Southwest Asia, Part 2 Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is an Indian-American who has lived in Qatar for more than a decade. Initially, she held an administrative…
BY J. MICHAEL RIFENBURG Guest blogger J. Michael Rifenburg teaches at the University of North Georgia. This is a letter he sent to the Dahlonega Nugget, the local newspaper in his community. It appeared there recently: I’ve only been a college professor for a decade, but as 2017 begins, I feel my colleagues and I are under attack…
BY MARJORIE HEINS Marjorie Heins is the author of Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge, a history of McCarthy era attacks on teachers and professors, of the Supreme Court’s initially acquiescent response, and of the Court’s eventual vindication of academic freedom in the 1967 Keyishian case. By Marjorie…
BY JOHN K. WILSON January 23, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, perhaps the most important case defending academic freedom in the history of law (see the essay by Marjorie Heins today about the case). Five years ago, I interviewed Harry Keyishian via email for AcademeBlog…