BY KELLY HAND With the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump just two days away, and with legislators in several states targeting higher education—through efforts to eliminate tenure (Iowa and Missouri) and specific courses or programs (Wisconsin and Arizona)—there is an urgent need for faculty to take action to protect academic freedom and quality higher education. The…
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…
BY MICHAEL DECESARE Just about 18 months after ending up on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is once again in the news. Many readers of this blog will recall that the center’s embattled president, Dr. Ronald DePinho, figured prominently in the April 2015 report produced by…
BY AARON BARLOW According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Republican state legislators in Wisconsin “are threatening to pull any hope of more state funding unless a new course at UW-Madison called ‘The Problem of Whiteness’ is canceled.” This, from a movement that claims to want more freedom and less law. One legislator wants to go a step further, scouring “other…
BY AARON BARLOW The first ‘bigly’ Twitter and academic freedom case was that of Associate Professor Steven Salaita just two-and-a-half years ago (there were others earlier, including that in 2013 of Professor David Guth that resulted in a policy instituted by the Kansas Board of Regents that “faculty members and other employees can be fired…
BY PETER N. KIRSTEIN Jacqueline Stevens and her attorney Rima Kapitan had contacted Illinois Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure concerning violations of AAUP standards at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Academe blog covered elements of her case, and this is an update of the Association’s engagement in the matter. Professor Stevens was forced to undergo…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Over the past few years this blog has posted a number of items related to the work of the conservative North Carolina-based John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. In March, 2015, John Wilson reported that the center had praised the decision of the University of North Carolina Board of…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Most Americans know California’s Napa Valley as a tourist destination and the source of many of the country’s finest wines. But people live there too, of course, and many of them go to school. Specifically, many attend Napa Valley College, the local community college. Last week Doug Ernst, the public information…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Some politicians make good college presidents, at least on paper. As Rick Seltzer reported in Inside Higher Education last week , the best possess many of the same skills as successful college and university presidents. They are typically well connected with outside stakeholders, enjoy good name recognition, and know how to…