POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Twitter has been central to a number of controversial cases that have tested the definitions and the limits of academic freedom. The brevity and compression of tweets means that they exist outside of any fixed context and they are therefore very frequently tonally ambiguous. What seems very provocative or even outrageous…
BY HANK REICHMAN Aaron Barlow (here and here) and Martin Kich (here) have already posted items to this blog about the recently renewed legislative threats to academic freedom in Wisconsin, with Aaron calling appropriate attention to the excellent op-ed piece published in today’s New York Times by UW-Madison professor Donald Moynihan. But because I and…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following statement was approved by the Council of the American Historical Association (AHA) at its meeting on January 5: The AHA upholds the rights of students, faculty, and other historians to speak freely and to engage in nonviolent political action expressing diverse perspectives on historical or contemporary issues. We condemn…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In yesterday’s Wisconsin State Journal, there is an article by Nico Savidge titled “Complaining of Bias on Campus, Republicans Push for ‘Intellectual Diversity’ at UW Schools.” Here are the opening paragraphs: “Conservative critics of higher education in Wisconsin have opened a new chapter of their longrunning complaints about institutions such as…
BY AARON BARLOW A few days before Christmas, I posted about Wisconsin lawmaker Dave Murphy’s attempted meddling in University of Wisconsin course offerings. I asked why he, a gym owner as well as a legislator, was in a position to determine what classes should or should not be offered. In the comments, someone tried to…
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. North Africa Terrorist attacks in Tunisia created considerable concern on Tunisian university campuses for several related reasons: some of the campuses are located close…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Sub-Saharan Africa, Part 2 In a March 2015 opinion piece for the Globe and Mail, Busani Ngcaweni and Robert Nkuna address the role of political dissent in the reshaping of South Africa’s universities and of the nation itself. Ngcawenu and Nkuna begin by drawing an unsettling contrast: “Allister Sparks believes apartheid…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On December 1, the AAUP, the College Media Association (CMA), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) released a report, Threats to the Independence of Student Media, shining a light on threats to student media and faculty and staff advisers. The report reaffirms and expands…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Sub-Saharan Africa, Part 1 In late spring 2015, tensions between the federal government of Nigeria and two group’s representing faculty at Nigerian colleges and universities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), became a very public issue. The federal government had failed to…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Currently featured on the website of University Business magazine is an article by Matt Zalaznick titled “‘New Voices’ Laws Aim to Ensure Student Press Freedoms in Higher Ed: College Media Outlets, However, Face More Threats than Just Censorship.” Zalaznick reports: “Campus newspapers face many of the same challenges confronting the professional…