All day the talking heads on cable news have been debating whether the new Indiana law protecting “religious freedom” is actually a bill sanctioning biased treatment of LGBT individuals. A number Far-Right mouthpieces have tried to mount a defense of the law and of Indiana Governor Mike Pence, whose inability either to provide any coherent…
The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice announced the indictment today of Graeme Phillip Harris for hanging a noose and an obsolete Georgia state flag with the confederate stars and bars over the iconic statue of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. Mr Meredith integrated the Oxford, Mississippi institution in 1962, amidst klan-imposed death and…
If college campuses are to be safe spaces, the goal needs to be to make them safe for everyone—even faculty. With tenure reduced and enfeebled and secret investigations commonplace, I have seen seasoned professors tremble with fear. They feel unsafe and unsupported by administrators and staff and have seen how processes meant to protect can…
Remarks U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, Induction of Senator Edward M. Kennedy Into the Department of Labor Hall of Honor, Washington, D.C., March 12, 2015 [as prepared for delivery] Thank you, Chris. Mrs. Kennedy, Teddy, Patrick, Secretary Brock, Secretary Herman, friends, colleagues, thank you so much for joining us today. I looked…
The AAUP today sent a letter to South Carolina legislators urging them to reject a panel’s proposal to close South Carolina State University (SCSU), which was founded in 1896, and is the state’s only publicly funded historically Black university. The letter notes that historically black institutions (HBIs) like SCSU came into being as a result…
Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I have hardly been reluctant to address issues that have arisen at my own university. So I was not surprised when I received several e-mails asking how—not if—I was going to address the latest incident that has brought Wright State national attention that it…
This post is an addendum to Aaron Barlow’s post on the attacks on Prof. Bebout’s course on “Whiteness,” a post which you should probably read before reading the rest of this post, especially if you are unfamiliar with the controversy. The most obvious irony is, of course, that this sort of virulent response to Prof.…
Professor John McAdams on his blog this week harshly criticizes the Marquette University Climate Survey on sexual identity at the Jesuit institution in Milwaukee. He has every right to articulate his views on this matter, and professors should freely engage in institutional criticism and practices. It is a fundamental right of academic freedom and shared governance. Yet one is free to critique…
Here’s a headline from today’s New York Times: “Wisconsin Sees Presidential Ploy in Walker’s Push for University Cuts.” Only to be expected, of course: to his critics, Mr. Walker, in both his proposed cuts and his aborted effort to overhaul the Wisconsin Idea, is trying to capitalize on a view that is popular among many conservatives: that…
Today Diane Ravitch has made several posts to her blog that mark Martin Luther King Day. The first [http://dianeravitch.net/2015/01/19/in-honor-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/] provides a link to Dr. King’s speech that was the culmination of the March on Washington [http://www.ibtimes.com/mlk-i-have-dream-speech-full-text-read-martin-luther-kings-entire-march-washington-1787100 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs], as well as to the text of his “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail” [http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu:5801/transcription/document_images/undecided/630416-019.pdf]. The second…