BY CAROLYN BETENSKY In recent times, university presidents and boards of trustees have not exactly covered themselves in glory. Last week’s news that University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel had engaged in a hypocritical and inappropriate relationship was only the latest example of ignominious behavior on the part of a university leader. Schlissel was fired…
BY STEVEN LUBET This essay was originally published on SAGE’s online network for social scientists, Social Science Space, and is republished with their permission. The right-wing Heritage Foundation has accused university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices of spreading anti-Semitism on campuses, but its recently issued report does not back up the claim. Although Heritage touts…
BY JENNIFER RUTH In a speech in Georgia on Tuesday, President Biden called voter suppression and election subversion “Jim Crow 2.0.” Criticism of the comparison was swift. The “worst hyperbole to date,” an op-ed in Boston Herald called it. Republican Senator Tim Scott* of South Carolina took to the floor to express his irritation and…
BY HARVEY J. GRAFF In my recent Washington Monthly essay, “The Banality of University Slogans,” I observed that “whether it’s ad campaigns for football season, gauzy reports from the provost, or bombast from the school’s president, higher education abounds with empty rhetoric.” In “Per Aspera ad Astra” Academe Blog contributing editor Hank Reichman shared and…
BY HANK REICHMAN Given the case’s high importance, a U.S. District Court judge says he hopes to issue an order by January 24 on a suit filed by a group of University of Florida professors to invalidate the school’s conflict of interest policy as an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of speech. “This is on the…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On Wednesday, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Review posted dueling essays by Northwestern law professor Andrew Koppelman and me (reposted from this blog) about the controversy over the Emory Law Journal. Prof. Koppleman and I decided to continue the discussion, and below is our back-and-forth exchange. John K. Wilson: You wrote…
BY HANK REICHMAN The indispensable Chris Newfield has a new post up at his blog Remaking the University, “Newsom’s *Big Funding* Budget for UC and CSU is Flat.” In it he picks apart the false promises in California governor Gavin Newsom’s initial budget proposal for higher education, although the focus is mostly on the University…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a recent zoom meeting I had occasion to meet Monica Casper, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University. Dean Casper mentioned that she had recently been the target of online harassment and controversy for some tweets she had posted. Curious, I looked into the case…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Yesterday, I published an opinion essay at Inside Higher Ed titled, “The Inevitable Problem of Self-Censorship.” I argue that surveys showing that a majority of college students report self-censorship are not meaningful ways to understand repression on campus because everyone self-censors to some degree. These surveys are also easy to manipulate.…
BY HANK REICHMAN Ohio State University professor emeritus Harvey Graff, who occasionally posts to this blog, has a smart and entertaining piece today in the Washington Monthly on “The Banality of University Slogans.” You know, the kind of mindless “branding” pablum like, “Here, everything is possible!” It brought to mind the time when my university,…