BY TIMOTHY V. KAUFMAN-OSBORN A note from Academe Blog contributing editor Jennifer Ruth: This is the first part of a special two-part series by Timothy Kaufman-Osborn on the DeSantis plan for higher education. It is required reading for all of us working to thwart the state-driven fascism (or what I have been calling “subnational authoritarianism”)…
BY JENNIFER RUTH It’s worth highlighting an AAUP toolkit from the past in light of these two alarming articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education — “Public University Curricula are Government Speech, Florida Says” and “It’s Not Clear Whether Public-College Professors have First Amendment Rights When They’re Teaching”: The AAUP Action Plan for Protecting an…
BY GINA TIGRI Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party? This question was famously asked numerous times in the hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) amid the anti-Communist frenzy known as the Red Scare in the McCarthy era. A new higher education bill was recently…
BY THE AAUP The AAUP issued the following statement today. In an ostensible effort to protect “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on public college and university campuses, the Florida legislature has approved legislation that, like similar proposals this year in Iowa and elsewhere, amounts to what the AAUP has repeatedly described as a “solution in…
BY HANK REICHMAN Last year the AAUP’s Committee on Government Relations released a report, “Campus Free-Speech Legislation: History, Progress, and Problems,” which concluded that campus free-speech laws and academic freedom are “false friends.” Nevertheless, such legislation continues to advance in several states. Especially troubling is a proposal that has moved out of committee in the…
Intrastate athletic rivalries between public universities (e.g., Michigan-Michigan State) frequently spill over into the silliest sorts of comparisons between institutions, which usually ignore their differing missions. That some politicians embrace such comparisons may offer a small glimpse into the extent of their knowledge and the level of their insight into higher education. Take the case…
This is a re-post from the “On the Issues” blog of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org/on-the-issues/] A bill was recently introduced in the Florida legislature that would bypass the established system of accreditation and allow local state officials to accredit MOOCs and other online courses, including those from unaccredited for-profit providers.…
Diary reposted and revised from DailyKos Author: Bruce B. Janz, Winter Springs, Florida In Florida, my (adopted) state, we have a “blue ribbon panel” on higher education, appointed by Florida Republican Tea Party governor Rick Scott. It is modeled on the Texas blue ribbon panel, and based on the Heartland Institute’s policy briefs on the issue. For…