academic freedom 
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
4/13/2021
‘That Man Makes Me Crazy’: Neil Matkin's Reign at Collin College Draws Scrutiny
Neil Matkin's regime connects several trends: the politicization of higher ed administration, the diminishment of faculty's role in shared governance, and the imposition of business logic in higher ed administration. But faculty and staff say that the personal element is what makes the situation truly intolerable.
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SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
4/15/2021
Scholars Fear Impact of Poland's Law on the Holocaust
Poland's right-wing government has sought to promote a narrative of national victimhood by the forces of Nazism and Communism. Historians who study the participation or complicity of Poles in the Holocaust face a threat of legal action that historian Audrey Kichelewski says is chilling.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
4/7/2021
Why Republican Efforts to Ban the 1619 Project from Classrooms are so Misguided
by Seth Rockman
"Ultimately the deep concern about the 1619 Project’s truth-telling concerning the American past is not that it puts patriotism at risk, but rather that it jeopardizes particular versions of the American future," including a recent Heritage Foundation report that is mostly concerned that the 1619 project will lessen the appeal of libertarian capitalism.
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SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
4/7/2021
When Will Liberals Reclaim Free Speech?
by Jonathan Zimmerman
"When speech can be suppressed, the people with the least power are likely to lose the most. That’s why every great tribune of social justice in American history—including Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. —was also a zealous advocate for free speech."
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SOURCE: D Magazine
3/30/2021
At Collin College, a Collision Over Free Speech
History Professor Michael Phillips of Collin College charges that the administration and local politicians are conducting a "purge" of progressive ideas from the campus.
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SOURCE: New York Times
3/26/2021
The Social Justice Purge at Idaho Colleges
Concerns about free speech on campus should consider the Idaho legislature's recent attacks on "critical race theory" as an effort to use education funds to restrict academic freedom, says NYT opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
3/18/2021
When Academic Bullies Claim the Mantle of Free Speech
by Jennifer Ruth
It's past time to look at controversies over "woke" campus culture by considering the frequency with which faculty harassment follows from the exposure of alleged left-wing excess in the outrage-driven news media.
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SOURCE: Iowa Capital Dispatch
3/16/2021
Iowa House Passes Controversial Bill to Ban ‘Divisive Concepts’ from School Training, Curriculum
“This bill is a denial of history,” Rep. Marti Anderson, D-Des Moines, said. “The bill doesn’t want our next generations to receive complete American history education that includes the facts of our darkest hours.”
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
3/8/2021
A New Group Promises to Protect Professors’ Free Speech
Princeton's Robert George hopes that the new organization Academic Freedom Alliance can influence university administrators to resist online outrage campaigns from the right and left and protect the right of scholars to speak freely on controversial subjects.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/25/2021
Fired for Tweeting?
"In a written statement to The Chronicle, Burnett said, “Collin College is a government organization that has unconstitutionally sought to punish me for my speech as a private citizen."
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SOURCE: New York Times
2/26/2021
The Campaign to Cancel Wokeness
Columnist Michelle Goldberg examines the roots of the academic Critical Race Theory movement, and concludes that while its practitioners are sometimes willing to prioritize justice over free speech, the right today simply wants to suppress ideas it fears.
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SOURCE: New York Times
2/18/2021
Heating Up Culture Wars, France to Scour Universities for Ideas That ‘Corrupt Society’
France's minister of higher education has pledged to investigate "Islamo-leftism" as a corrupting influence on society allegedly promoted by French university scholars.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/23/2021
Higher Ed’s Misguided Purging of Trump Supporters
by Jonathan Zimmerman
"The real threat isn’t a horde of evil Trumpers clamoring at our gates. It’s our quest to root out the enemies of democracy, which never ends well for the university."
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/19/2021
A Georgia Lawmaker Asked How Colleges Teach ‘Privilege’ and ‘Oppression.’ Here’s How They Responded
State legislative inquiries in Georgia about how public universities teach concepts like white privilege require a large burden of administrative work and internal review by the colleges, with the largest share of scrutiny falling on history classes.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
2/21/2021
Emmanuel Macron’s Socially Constructed Bogeymen
by Daniel W. Drezner
What, exactly, "Islamo-leftism" is, and what relationship it could possibly have to American academic theories, are two big questions left unanswered by the French President's attacks on academic ideas.
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SOURCE: Reuters
2/16/2021
Russian Court Rejects Jailed Gulag Historian's Appeal Against Long Sentence
Yuri Dmitriev's appeal of a 13-year sentence was denied. He and his supporters contend that the charges were fabricated to punish him for writing about Stalinist atrocities in defiance of Russian nationalism.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/16/2021
What a Public-Information Act Request Revealed About My College President
by L.D. Burnett
Were threats of disciplinary action against a professor for her private tweets demanded by angry state legislators holding the purse strings, or were they efforts to silence critics of a college president's handling of COVID protocols?
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SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
2/11/2021
Open Season on the Faculty
Despite evidence that liberal indoctrination in classrooms is rare, state legislatures are proceeding with bills that would restrict professors' freedom to teach some subjects and in the case of Iowa to survey the political affiliations of faculty at state institutions.
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SOURCE: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
1/29/2021
Texas Attorney General: Collin College Must Release Records of Legislator ‘Contacts’ about Professor’s Pence Tweet
A Texas community college will be required to disclose which state legislators supposedly contacted the adminstration to complain about a tweet by history professor Lora Burnett. The alleged pressure from legislators was a key talking point in administrative actions which Burnett has characterized as retaliation and intimidation against her free speech rights.
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SOURCE: Daily Beast
1/23/2021
This Professor Protested a School’s Racism. Then He Lost His Job
"The sudden termination of Felber sends a very strong and disturbing message. Felber was doing antiracist work and initiated programs that benefited the marginalized and disenfranchised."
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