academic freedom

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• SOURCE: Washington Monthly
  7/12/2023
  

  Our Amicus Brief Against Florida's Stop WOKE Act

  by Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

  "The Supreme Court’s rejection of affirmative action in college admissions will provoke widespread debate. But not in the classrooms of Florida’s public colleges and universities, because the Stop WOKE Act prohibits it."

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• SOURCE: PEN America
  7/13/2023
  

  The Next Culture War Battle? College Accreditation

  by Jeffrey Sachs and Jeremy C. Young

  Officials in Florida and elsewhere are seeking to overthrow established relationships with accrediting bodies because those organizations help to shield universities against political censorship and interference with teaching and learning. 

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• SOURCE: Ohio Capital Journal
  5/31/2023
  

  Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike

  Ohio public sector unions say that a bill limiting faculty's power to strike is reminiscent of previous efforts to disempower public workers in the state, and are closing ranks around academic workers. 

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• SOURCE: PEN America
  5/25/2023
  

  DEI Bans are Tools for Seizing Control of Universities

  Legislation in Florida and Ohio don't simply ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs; they infringe on the prerogatives of colleges to govern themselves without political influence. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/24/2023
  

  AAUP: Fight Tooth and Nail Against Florida's Higher Ed Agenda Because Your State is Next

  Historian Henry Reichman, one of the preliminary report's authors, said the committee studying Florida's higher ed system under Ron DeSantis found abuses of academic freedom and institutional regulations to be more widespread than they expected, and warned more political interference is coming. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/17/2023
  

  Statehouses, not Stanford Students, Threaten Speech on Campus

  by Eduardo Peñalver

  Higher ed administrators have recently flexed their muscle in response to student protests of controversial speakers and demands for content warnings. They appear to have no such sense of purpose when it comes to defending free speech and free inquiry from legislative interference. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/20/2023
  

  Historian Don Yacovone: Florida's Restrictions Echo the Demands to Teach Pro-Slavery Argument

  Jamelle Bouie's newsletter puts the current Florida controversy in light of a previous era's political demands about the teaching of history to justify one group's domination of another. 

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• SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times
  5/22/2023
  

  New College Faculty Vote to Censure College's New Trustees

  The censure motion, which was supported by 80% of the faculty, called the new majority of the Board of Trustees negligent in its fiduciary duty to the college because of noncompliance with transparency laws, failure to disclose financial conflicts of interest, and disregard for procedure in reviewing tenure applications. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  5/15/2023
  

  I'm Headed to Florida to Teach-In Against DeSantis's Education Policies

  by Kellie Carter Jackson

  This May 17 saw a 24-hour teach-in by historians in St. Petersburg, Florida, to protest the restrictions on curriculum, books and ideas pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies. As a historian of abolition, the author stresses that denying people the pen may influence them to pick up the sword. 

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• SOURCE: NAACP LDF
  5/18/2023
  

  NAACP Legal Defense Fund Opposes Texas Legislation

  "Truthful and inclusive discussions about United States and Texas history and their connection to present-day inequalities are essential to accurate and quality academic instruction."

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/15/2023
  

  How Media Discussions of Tenure Distort its Meaning and Undermine Academics

  by Deepa Das Acevedo

  Tenure absolutely does not provide "a job for life" for anyone, but the belief that it does is used to justify political attacks on academics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/10/2023
  

  DeSantis Signs Bill Giving Legislature Oversight of Invited Campus Speakers

  The concept of an oversight office to guarantee "intellectual diversity" has a long lineage on the right. Florida is the first state to require campuses to create those offices and require compliance and oversight. 

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• SOURCE: Stanford Daily
  5/14/2023
  

  Free Speech Can't Trump a University's Obligation to Truth and Facts

  by David Palumbo-Liu

  A Stanford historian says that his own university's acceptance of Rupert Murdoch on the board of directors of the Hoover Institution is a rejection of the university's obligation to promote understanding over obscurantism. 

• 
• SOURCE: NC Newsline
  5/15/2023
  

  North Carolina Introduces its own History Bill; Historians Call Foul

  State legislators say they are ensuring that students at North Carolina colleges are taught core concepts in American history. Historians Jay Smith and William Sturkey argue that, since the legislature would determine the content of a mandatory course it amounts to indoctrination and token coverage of Black history. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  5/5/2023
  

  The Labor of Teaching and Administrative Hysteria

  by Elise Archias and Blake Stimson

  Although diversity and cultural sensitivity administrators often embrace (and arguably encourage) student complaints about ideas presented in the classroom, students are more harmed when administrators use those complaints to undercut the expertise and autonomy of faculty who have effective ways of teaching difficult material.

• 
• SOURCE: Academe
  5/6/2023
  

  Librarians Remind Faculty that Academic Freedom is a Labor Issue

  by Danya Leebaw

  "Librarians’ work is essential to the academic mission and also often comes under scrutiny from administrators, faculty colleagues, and the public."

• 
• SOURCE: PEN America
  5/2/2023
  

  Firing of Bakersfield College Prof. Conflates Protected and Unprotected Speech

  Matthew Garrett, a self-proclaimed conservative and tenured professor, was fired for cause by his institution after many cases of controversial speech and some alleged violations of university policy. The university's "kitchen sink" claim against him undermines academic freedom and faculty free speech rights. 

• 
• SOURCE: PEN America
  5/1/2023
  

  Academic Freedom Battleground Shifts from Classroom to Institutions

  by Jeffrey Sachs, Jeremy C. Young and Jonathan Friedman

  Conservative leaders like Adam Kissel are advising lawmakers to defeat First Amendment protections for what professors say in the classroom by shifting legislation's focus to defining concepts as outside the bounds of academic disciplines and academic fields as outside the bounds of the university's mission. 

• 
• SOURCE: Forbes
  4/26/2023
  

  Academic Freedom is Vital to Developing the Critical Abilities Society Needs

  by Jamie Merisotis

  The push to restrict teaching "divisive concepts" in college classrooms is an authoritarian intrusion on the principles of academic freedom that have benefited America's students, economy, and democracy. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/21/2023
  

  Brown President: States, not Students, are Threatening Speech on Campus

  by Christina Paxson

  "It is ludicrous to claim that state-sponsored censorship — which carries the full force of the government and can even entail criminal penalties — is justified by student misconduct or peer pressure."