Richard Vedder: The Academic War in Wisconsin
[Richard Vedder is director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and professor of economics at Ohio University.]
...Writing last Friday for the Times, Krugman lamented the efforts of a Republican party operative to get a hold of the e-mail records of U. of Wisconsin professor William Cronon. Cronon has been highly critical of the Wisconsin governor’s initiatives, including restricting public employee collective bargaining. Krugman gratuitously added that “we can be sure that people like, say, Richard Vedder of Ohio University wouldn’t be subject to equivalent scrutiny.”
I laughed reading this, because Krugman shows here a lack of perception that almost equals that shown in his views on the economy. Remarkably, like Cronon, I have been forced, by a public records request, to make available vast numbers of e-mails to a critic. A former student who became a minor Ohio political operative—and a Republican one at that—with whom I publicly disagreed once accused me of being “a slobbering, drunk old fool.” When a newspaper reporter asked me to comment, I replied, “I don’t slobber.” The critic got mad and tried to intimidate me by demanding my e-mail records.
I would agree with Krugman that this sort of tactic is an inappropriate way to deal with critics, and even is inconsistent with academic freedom broadly defined. I certainly agree that Cronon has a right to speak his mind. But Professor Cronon, like me, is subsidized in his speaking and writing by the public, including taxpayers, and they believe that they have a right to know what the people subsidized by them are doing. I don’t like it, Krugman doesn’t like it, and Cronon, no doubt, doesn’t like it, but that happens when public employees start speaking up on policy issues on what some taxpayers perceive to be their dime. The more higher education is dependent upon government support, the more the freedom of expression of those within the academy is likely to be subject to scrutiny....
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
...Writing last Friday for the Times, Krugman lamented the efforts of a Republican party operative to get a hold of the e-mail records of U. of Wisconsin professor William Cronon. Cronon has been highly critical of the Wisconsin governor’s initiatives, including restricting public employee collective bargaining. Krugman gratuitously added that “we can be sure that people like, say, Richard Vedder of Ohio University wouldn’t be subject to equivalent scrutiny.”
I laughed reading this, because Krugman shows here a lack of perception that almost equals that shown in his views on the economy. Remarkably, like Cronon, I have been forced, by a public records request, to make available vast numbers of e-mails to a critic. A former student who became a minor Ohio political operative—and a Republican one at that—with whom I publicly disagreed once accused me of being “a slobbering, drunk old fool.” When a newspaper reporter asked me to comment, I replied, “I don’t slobber.” The critic got mad and tried to intimidate me by demanding my e-mail records.
I would agree with Krugman that this sort of tactic is an inappropriate way to deal with critics, and even is inconsistent with academic freedom broadly defined. I certainly agree that Cronon has a right to speak his mind. But Professor Cronon, like me, is subsidized in his speaking and writing by the public, including taxpayers, and they believe that they have a right to know what the people subsidized by them are doing. I don’t like it, Krugman doesn’t like it, and Cronon, no doubt, doesn’t like it, but that happens when public employees start speaking up on policy issues on what some taxpayers perceive to be their dime. The more higher education is dependent upon government support, the more the freedom of expression of those within the academy is likely to be subject to scrutiny....