BY JOHN K. WILSON Last month, University of Mississippi assistant professor of history Garrett Felber was fired in one of the most remarkable attacks on academic freedom in recent memory, a dismissal that violates the First Amendment, academic freedom, shared governance, the faculty handbook, AAUP guidelines, and basic principles of intellectual standards, fairness, and justice.…
BY HANK REICHMAN The termination earlier this month of University of Mississippi assistant professor of history Garrett Felber, ostensibly because he declined to communicate orally with his department chair while on leave, has attracted considerable attention, including an open letter to the administration protesting his termination, which has to date attracted over 5,000 signatures. Because…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Northwestern University professors Jackie Stevens and Jorge Coronado, two officers of the Northwestern AAUP chapter, have an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times today titled “Hey, Northwestern students, choose your own grade point average!” The article criticizes a new Northwestern University policy adopted by the administration during the pandemic. As faculty members…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The David Horowitz Freedom Center this month announced yet another campaign aimed at censoring free speech on college campuses. The latest effort is a Facebook ad targeting four left-leaning “America-hating” professors that the Horowitz Center claims has reached 100,000 people. One ad warns the University of Washington, “You have an AMERICA…
BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Here is our press release, sent yesterday. It is good news for our 4,600+ adjunct colleagues, a salute to the years-long effort of AAUP Colorado Community College System (CCCS) chapter members and the Colorado Conference Executive Committee. Contact: AAUP Colo. Conf. Co-Presidents Caprice Lawless, coloradocaprice@gmail.com Steve Mumme, Stephen.mumme@colostate.edu Dec. 21, 2020 FOR…
POSTED BY JOHN K. WILSON We are members of a collective called International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India) and are a diverse group of diasporic Indian academics who are deeply concerned about the increasing assaults on academic freedom in India, in particular the attacks on, and incarceration of, anti-caste academics and scholars…
BY MICHAEL DECESARE Please mark your calendars: the AAUP will hold its shared governance conference online June 14 through June 18, 2021, and we are now accepting proposals for paper presentations on topics relating to academic governance. In addition to paper presentations, the conference will include panels, plenary presentations, and workshops for current and future…
POSTED BY JOHN K. WILSON The following open letter in support of Prof. Garrett Felber, to University of Mississippi Chancellor Boyce and the chair of the history department, was written in response to the news that Felber has been fired as an assistant professor of history. Although this open letter has no connection to the…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The outrage machine against “cancel culture” has already been put into full motion with Joseph Epstein, an emeritus lecturer at Northwestern University who retired from the English Department almost 20 years ago but still manages to annoy people with his rather stupid op-eds in the Wall Street Journal. The latest essay…
POSTED BY CAPRICE LAWLESS Below is a letter sent last week by the AAUP Colorado Conference to James W. C. White, the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His reported plan to reduce tenure and tenure-track positions has received local and national coverage. James W. C.…