How to Institutionalize Academic Freedom

BY JOHN K. WILSON Tom Ginsburg, a professor at the University of Chicago, proposes institutionalizing academic freedom in an opinion essay for the Chronicle of Higher Education this past week: “Colleges must institutionalize the protection of academic freedom by devoting resources to training, establishing standards, and hearing complaints when norms are threatened.” According to Ginsburg,…

Censorship By Zoom And Other Private Platforms

BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ACADEMIC SENATE’S UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM The following statement from the University of California faculty senate Committee on Academic Freedom was sent on December 23, 2020, unanimously endorsed by the Academic Council at its January 2021 meeting, and forwarded to the University of California provost on Feb. 4, 2021…

UC National Labs Suspend Diversity Training in Response to Trump Order

BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this month the Trump administration instructed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity trainings that address topics like white privilege or employ critical race theory, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda.”  In response, AAUP President Irene Mulvey issued a statement that deemed the move “a naked attempt to politicize our national reckoning with…

empty board conference room

Do We Really Need Governing Boards?

BY HANK REICHMAN Responding earlier this month on this blog to an article by Professor Stephen Gavazzi, I noted the growing tendency of governing boards — and, in the public sector, legislatures and the governors who usually appoint those boards — “to tilt the scales against the faculty and, arguably, against the common interest of…