BY JOHN K. WILSON Colleges are increasingly looking at antibullying policies to respond to abusive treatment on campus. In my article in the latest volume of the Journal of Academic Freedom, “The Danger of Campus Bans on Bullying,” I argue that universities must be wary of such rules. My argument is not that bullying on campus…
BY ROBERT E. BIONAZ Robert Bionaz is a retired Chicago State University professor who made the original investigation about plagiarism in the dissertation of then-Chicago State interim provost Angela Henderson, who received a $694,000 settlement from the University of Illinois at Chicago because they revealed that they were examining her dissertation. This is his response…
BY JOHN K. WILSON It is shocking that the University of Illinois at Chicago would waste $694,000 in taxpayer funds to pay off a disgraced Chicago State administrator over a frivolous lawsuit. Angela Henderson was the acting provost at Chicago State when faculty critical of her took a look at her UIC dissertation and discovered…
BY ROBERT BIONAZ After four-plus years, our First Amendment lawsuit against the unethical practices of the lead defendant, former Chicago State University president Wayne Watson, finally ended with the school agreeing to pay $650,000 in attorney’s fees and damages. Additionally, Chicago State likely paid close to $1 million to the private law firm that defended…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Writing for PBS News, Ben Markus of the Hechinger Report, highlights the uneven degree to which cuts in state subsidies to public colleges and universities have impacted the institutions that serve the highest numbers of economically disadvantaged, academically at risk, and non-White students. In the first half of the essay, Markus…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Crain’s Chicago Weekly published a fascinating, head-scratching and troubling opinion piece recently by two professors from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University critical of the “wealth hoarding” of large private research institutions. They note: “In the past few weeks, as faculty at Chicago State University reviewed their…
Chicago State University (CSU) administrators have sent another letter attempting to shut down or censor the CSU Faculty Voice blog. In November, AAUP VP Hank Reichman called CSU’s earlier letter to the blog “a thuggish effort to bully and frighten, with no legal or moral justification.” This new letter is even worse, and clear evidence…
First of all, let me thank the administration of Chicago State University for calling my attention — and the attention of thousands of others — to the informative and entertaining blog maintained by Chicago State faculty as a forum for “the faculty’s uncensored voice.” As the Chicago Tribune, insidehighered, and the Chronicle of Higher Education…
UPDATE: Yesterday, Chicago State reversed course and eliminated this policy. On March 22, Chicago State University’s Office of Marketing & Communication announced a new Communications and Media Relations Policy that may be the most repressive speech code ever enacted at a university. Taken literally, it appears to ban all faculty communications, anywhere. AAUP president Cary…
Last week, an Illinois court ruled (pdf) for the first time enforcing Illinois’ law protecting college newspapers (a law passed in the wake of a 7th Circuit ruling against freedom of the student press). The court ruled that former faculty advisor Gerian Steven Moore, who had been fired from his post, must be reinstated. As…