A tear in a green paper folder reveals the words "final thoughts" typed in black on white paper

Put Democracy in the Lecture

BY MATTHEW BOEDY You may remember several years ago a phenomenon called “the last lecture.”  It began with the heartbreaking story of Randy Pausch, who was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with cancer and literally gave his last lecture in September 2007. That became a book in 2008…

Buildings at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, with trees and grass in the foreground along with two parked cars and a small construction crane

In Defense of Melissa Goldberg and Academic Freedom at Catholic Colleges

BY JOHN K. WILSON Last week, the Catholic University of America (CUA) fired psychology professor Melissa Goldberg one week after she invited doula Rachel Carbonneau to address her class, Psychology 379: Lifespan Development. Doulas coach women during the birthing process, and Carbonneau discussed helping “birthing persons” deal with having abortions and assisting transgender men. One…

Image of a person examining a printed bar graph with a small pile of coins on the right. The person has one hand on an open laptop.

Higher Ed’s Quantification Problem

BY ERIC SCARFFE AND KATHERINE VALDE After the initial draft of House Bill (HB) 999 began circulating online last year, talk of Florida could be heard in the halls of almost every institution of higher education in the United States. As acting chapter president of the United Faculty of Florida at Florida International University, for…

Image of the cover of the winter 2024 issue of Academe magazine, "The Higher Ed Data Juggernaut." Ocean waves are overlaid with data points. The words "The Higher Ed" are in white font, and "Data Juggernaut" is in yellow.

From the Guest Editor: The Higher Ed Data Juggernaut

BY SIOBHAN SENIER Following is the guest editor’s introduction to the winter 2024 issue of Academe, out this week. The full table of contents for the issue is available here.  In memoriam David Golumbia* In December 2020, a group of leading scholars of educational technology, including Jesse Stommel—a contributor to this special issue—held a landmark teach-in #AgainstSurveillance. The…

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All of Them Should Go

BY DANIEL A. SEGAL The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and MIT did a famously terrible job responding to Representative Elise Stefanik’s questions at the congressional hearing on “antisemitism on college campuses” this past December. But so far, their failure has been treated either as a case of incompetence in the realm of…

The Glover Gate at American University, reading "The American University"

Suppressed Student Speech at American University

BY THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AAUP CHAPTER The following statement was issued January 29, 2024. In 2022, American University reaffirmed its commitment to freedom of expression, stating in relevant part: When we engage in inquiry, we may have to confront truths that are unpleasant and ideas and perspectives with which we disagree or even find loathsome. When we…

From Florida to Barnard

BY HANK REICHMAN Today the New York Times published an article recounting the continuing struggle at Barnard College, the women’s college of Columbia University in New York, over the academic freedom and free speech rights of faculty and students.  To briefly summarize, three weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Department of…

view of Harvard Yard with dormitories and Harvard Computer Society building with gray winter sky and bare trees

Harvard’s Misguided Guidance on Protest and Dissent

BY JOHN K. WILSON On January 19, 2024, PEN America held a major summit on free expression at Harvard University. But it seems top administrators at Harvard are the ones who really need a lesson on the topic, since that same day they announced a new “Guidance on Protest and Dissent” that restricts the right…

Crowded school hallway

Put Democracy in The Community

By MATTHEW BOEDY Last month I encouraged faculty to put democracy on the syllabus.  In that post, I wrote: “No one is coming to save us. We all have to do this together.” To further that call, I urge faculty now to put democracy in the community.  AAUP unions and advocacy conferences do a lot…