The Limits of Academic Freedom in the UAE

BY HANK REICHMAN In April I was privileged to appear on a program on academic freedom at New York University with Matthew Hedges and his wife, Daniela Tejada, sponsored by NYU’s AAUP chapter.  Hedges is a British scholar who was held in solitary confinement in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for almost six months after…

NYU AAUP Statement on Steven Thrasher Case

BY THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY CHAPTER OF THE AAUP The AAUP is not solely a faculty organization. It exists to protect the speech of all members of the academic community, and it must speak in defense of student voices, who are among the most vulnerable, and often the most subject to censure from university administrators.…

In Defense of Steven Thrasher

BY JOHN K. WILSON Steven Thrasher, a student graduation speaker who received his Ph.D. from New York University last week, sparked enormous controversy with his speech. Thrasher expressed support for “the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Apartheid State Government in Israel” and declared, “We must stand together to vanquish racism and Islamophobia…

NYU Journalism Faculty Ends Ties With NYU-Abu Dhabi

BY HANK REICHMAN Members of the New York University (NYU) faculty have begun to speak out more forcefully against religious discrimination and limitations on academic freedom at the university’s United Arab Emirates (UAE) branch campus in Abu Dhabi.  Last week a majority of the senior faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute signed a…

Important Legal Victory for Faculty Rights

BY HANK REICHMAN Is a faculty handbook a legally binding contract?  The question is not an easy one to answer, as the law may vary from state to state.  In 2015 the AAUP’s legal department updated its Faculty Handbooks Guide, which includes basic information for each state, although the Guide “is not exhaustive and is…