Canada—Capilano University In May 2014, George Rammell, a professor of art at Capilano University, discovered that a sculpture had been removed from his campus studio. The sculpture was of “school president Kris Bulcroft with her poodle Margaux wrapped in an American flag” (Hager). Rammell learned that the sculpture had been removed by campus security…
Canada—University of New Brunswick St. Johns Ricardo Duchesne, a sociology professor for more than two decades at the University of New Brunswick Saint Johns, wrote an article “that suggested an increase in Asian immigrants was threatening Canada’s traditional European makeup.” The article received national attention, and Kerry Jang, a faculty member at the University…
Canada—University of British Columbia [Part 2] About two months after the previously cited articles on the issues involving John Montalbano and Jennifer Berdahl was published, the following open letter by Martha Piper, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia was also published in the Vancouver Sun. At a time when administrators have…
John Bambenek has been appointed to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) by Gov. Bruce Rauner (but must still be approved by the Illinois Senate). Bambenek (an adjunct who teaches classes on cybersecurity at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is listed as the sole “representative of faculty” on the IBHE. Rauner wanted someone…
Canada—University of British Columbia [Part 1] After Arvind Gupta suddenly resigned as the president of the University of British Columbia, Jennifer Berdahl, a faculty member at the university, wrote a blog post in which she discussed the possibility that the president’s sudden departure had been linked to an entrenched lack of diversity at the university.…
The American Studies Association is being sued by some of its members for a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Kenneth L. Marcus, the president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law which is organizing the lawsuit, said: “People who join an academic association have a right to rely…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Professor Iymen Chehade, Columbia College Chicago, and I are members of Illinois AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. We are appearing on a panel in Chicago that is sponsored by the United Nations Association as part of their Global Conflicts Resolution series. The panel is April 13 in Chicago’s…
BY TOM MCBRIDE Guest blogger Tom McBride is professor emeritus at Beloit College in Wisconsin. In Chicago there’s a sports talk radio station with a couple of afternoon hosts who insist that their callers think critically about the topic at hand. When Patrick Kane, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey star, was accused of sexual assault, callers would…
BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of my keynote address at the annual plenary of the University Senate at the University of Pittsburgh on March 30, 2016. Some passages in the text are taken from my essay, “Does Academic Freedom Have a Future?,” published in the November-December 2015 issue of Academe. I am…
BY JOHN K. WILSON John McAdams of Marquette University has written a letter to President Lovell, refusing to go along with the administration’s demands. McAdam’s lengthy letter outlines why he objects to his suspension and dismissal on both procedural and substantive grounds. Unless Marquette backs down, it seems likely that the administration will refuse to let him…