BY JOHN AUBREY DOUGLASS There is much to worry about as we approach 2024: attacks on academic freedom, on free speech, on open societies, and attempts to degrade democracy, and not just here in the United States. As I discuss in my article “Here and Abroad, Universities Face an Autocratic Playbook” in the recent issue…
BY JONATHAN GRAUBART The horrifying violence in the Hamas-Israel war has aroused great passions across the United States. Both Hamas and Israel have plenty of blood on their hands. What concerns me here is the restricted space for discussion. Almost all politicians restrict their condemnations to Hamas and have little tolerance for those who address…
BY ELI MEYERHOFF AND ISAAC KAMOLA Learning is under attack. Right-wing politicians, activists, and well-funded political organizations have organized assaults on schools, universities, and libraries with book bans, surveillance and harassment of teachers, canceling classes, and “divisive concepts” bills that limit teachers’ rights to talk about topics of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The AAUP…
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES AAUP CHAPTER The following Statement on Hamline University’s Recent “Academic Freedom and Cultural Perspectives: Challenges for Higher Ed Today and Tomorrow” Event – Sep 29, 2023 appeared on the website of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities chapter of the AAUP. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities chapter of the American…
BY BERNIE MACHEN The following is the text of remarks by University of Florida President Emeritus Bernie Machen at a naming celebration for the Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies at UF on September 7, 2023. The Jewish people are integral to the development of our world and have made many contributions over the ages. …
BY DONALD A. DOWNS In late August, John Wilson posted a critique of the recently published Princeton Principles for a Campus Culture of Free Inquiry. I have long respected Wilson’s views on higher education. In this case, however, I find his critiques misplaced. The Principles’ authors had two main objectives: garnering support for the Principles…
BY HANK REICHMAN A bit over two years ago I posted to this blog a piece about a decision by Russia’s prosecutor general to designate New York’s Bard College as an “undesirable organization.” Since 1997, Bard had been collaborating with St. Petersburg State University, offering a program of open enrollment liberal arts courses for students…
BY KEITH E. WHITTINGTON It is not every day that a government minister writes to an American university president demanding that a book be immediately removed “from the curriculum of any of its courses” and that the institution “conduct a thorough review of the academic materials” used in its classes. But such is the demand…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Written by a who’s who of conservative and centrist campus free speech advocates—including Donald Downs, Robert George, Alan Charles Kors, Greg Lukianoff, John Tomasi, and Keith Whittington—the Princeton Principles for a Campus Culture of Free Inquiry released this month follow in the wake of the Chicago Principles, saying they “affirm this…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On August 14, the Cornell Free Speech Alliance (CFSA) issued a report, “Lifting The Fog: Restoring Academic Freedom & Free Expression At Cornell University,” that made policy recommendations for how Cornell can improve its climate for free speech. Keith Whittington at Reason called the report “a valuable agenda for faculty across…