In a commentary published yesterday by The Chronicle of Higher Education, an English professor at Utah State under a headline with lack of logic (English professors should know better, I can say that, I am an English professor), “Guns on Campus Have Already Curtailed Free Speech,” blames the right to bear arms on “feminist and…
It’s October. For millions of American high school seniors, choosing what to do after receiving the high school degree begins now. It represents the first life-altering decision made by you about which you get to call the shots. Here are some important points to think about as you move into the decision-making season. The first…
Robert Kreiser, a former staffer of the American Association of University Professors Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance, spoke at an Illinois Conference annual meeting. I expressed an opinion that one of the AAUP’s most eloquent and powerful statements on academic freedom appeared in one of its lesser known Redbook documents: Academic Freedom in the Medical School. He…
Last week, at a meeting of the Academic Freedom Committee of the Professional Staff Congress (the CUNY faculty union), the name Anita Sarkeesian came up. Though she is not an academic (in the sense of being employed by a college or university), she felt forced to cancel an appearance at Utah State University due to threats…
This past week at the Austin airport I was trying to grab a fast lunch with decent coffee without have to do so in two places. So I approached a wide open counter advertising java, with glass cages filled with all sorts of baked goods. Without having heard even what I wanted, the fast food…
I had hoped to be scared this Halloween by maybe taking a creepy clown up on his offer to hug me in what looks like a setting out of some Masterpiece murder mystery. Of course clowns like mimes are creepy even if they don’t touch. But Googling Halloween and education, I need not have…
In addition to submitting articles to Academe Blog, scholars interested in academic freedom may want to know about these opportunities: The AAUP has issued a call for proposals for presentations and panels at the AAUP’s annual conference on higher education, June 11-13, 2015 in Washington, DC. Deadline is December 10. The Journal of Historical Sociology is…
In the spirit of Halloween, mischief its obligatory companion, it is only suitable to note the labyrinthine ways of parking instructions on college campuses all across America. In honor of one of the colleges from which I graduated, I will use it as an exemplar. I am certain many of you have your own spooky…
The following chart is taken from a new report by the Pew Research Center, measuring public trust, by political ideology, in various media outlets. The takeaways from this survey are fairly obvious from the chart. On the whole, UK-based news sources are trusted by a broader range of Americans than U.S. news sources. Those who…
In Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010, Charles Murray argues that the “elite” ought to get out more. He has no quarrel with the idea or efficacy of an elite, he simply believes that its members in contemporary America have too little experience of the rest of the world. One of his acolytes,…