academic freedom 
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SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
4/25/2022
The Decline of Tenure is the Greatest Threat to Higher Education
by Marc Stein
While states like Texas threaten tenure politically, in California the instititution is under attack by austerity and attrition; either way, higher education itself is threatened by the abandonment of employment security.
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SOURCE: Commentary
4/16/2022
Dan Patrick's Illiberal Attack on Higher Ed
by Jonathan Marks
There are good conservative arguments for abolishing faculty tenure; Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick isn't advancing one of them as he seeks to punish political opponents for their ideas.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
4/10/2022
Russian Students are Turning In Insufficiently Patriotic Teachers
At least four teachers have recently been turned in by parents or students for opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, part of a campaign of identifying and targeting alleged traitors for retaliation.
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SOURCE: The Nation
3/30/2022
Nationwide, Faculty Fight for Academic Freedom
by Ellen Schrecker
"When they act collectively, professors have the power to protect academic freedom and the desire to teach the truth. Let us hope they also have the will."
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SOURCE: North Carolina Policywatch
4/6/2022
Documents Show UNC Conducted "Sweeping and Disturbing" Investigation of Faculty over Donor Agreement Leaks
When faculty leaked documents showing a large donor's involvement in the Nikole Hannah-Jones debacle, the University of North Carolina took aggressive action to identify the leakers.
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SOURCE: American Association of University Professors
4/1/2022
AAUP ID's Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of Antisemitism and Racism
A recent AAUP report connects two politicized areas of inquiry – the history of racism in America and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – as the principal targets of right-wing efforts to censor reseach and teaching.
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SOURCE: WNYC
3/29/2022
Faculty Facing Targeted Harassment on Campus
Recent reporting from the American Association of University Professors has traced an uptick in the targeted harassment of faculty members, most often those accused of having a liberal bias and of teaching “controversial” topics. Melissa Harris-Perry talks with faculty who have experienced it.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
3/21/2022
Does Academic Freedom Really Require Tolerance for Prejudice or Falsehood by Faculty?
by Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth
Academic freedom and free speech aren't the same thing, and it's time for professional standards in academia to recognize the necessity of drawing boundaries around bigotry and falsehood as potentially disqualifying for faculty members.
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SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
3/17/2022
Russian Academics See "No Future" at Home
While many Western academics have focused on the danger faced by Ukrainian scholars, it is clear that the domestic politics of Russia are increasingly dangerous for academic freedom as well.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
3/10/2022
Two Donor Controversies Show the Precarious Position of Jewish Studies Programs
Financially precarious academic programs are potentially at the mercy of politically motivated donors whose philanthropy is subsidized by the tax code and affects public institutions without public input.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
3/4/2022
When University Marketing Suppresses Academic Freedom
by Silke-Maria Weineck
For 31 years, the University of Michigan has sponsored an academic freedom lecture named for three professors suspended for refusing to cooperate with HUAC. This year, its marketing team did everything it could to conceal the identity of the lecturer: a lawyer who fights the silencing of pro-Palestinian activists.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
3/9/2022
Florida Legislature Seeks Conservative Stamp on Higher Ed
"National higher-education experts and faculty members in Florida say the legislation is part of an attack on bedrock principles that preserve the academic autonomy of faculty members and institutions."
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SOURCE: Substack
3/8/2022
Is Emma Camp Correct That College Students Silence Themselves?
by Claire Potter
Do the writings of an intellectually self-assured college senior actually reflect a crisis of self-censorship, or a long tradition of finding and campaigning against alleged "conformism"?
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SOURCE: mesana.org
2/28/2022
Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Letter to University of Washington
The association is concerned that the University of Washington defunded an endowed chair in Israel Studies after donors complained about the faculty member's statements as a private citizen criticizing Israeli policies in Gaza.
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SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
2/24/2022
Lessons From the Struggle Against the Old McCarthyism
by Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
For a Texas professor, the Lieutenant Governor's push to abolish tenure and punish faculty for teaching certain ideas calls to mind the experiences of his grandparents in the heyday of McCarthy and HUAC.
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SOURCE: Academe
2/23/2022
What Does it Mean to Teach "Divisive Concepts"?
by Dale E. Miller
Insofar as the problem of political indoctrination that new "divisive concepts" laws are ostensibly meant to solve exists at all, the cure may be worse than the disease.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/23/2022
The Increasingly Authoritarian War on Tenure
by Jennifer Ruth
"Democratic societies build in protections for university faculty so that we are not at the whims of whichever party is currently in power. When Patrick threatens tenure, he threatens those protections," and threatens the partisan control of knowledge in society.
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SOURCE: Texas Tribune
2/18/2022
Texas Lt. Gov. Links Tenure Abolition to Banning Critical Race Theory
The call makes explicit that academic freedom is on shaky ground in Texas.
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2/13/2022
The Nazi in the Classroom
by Gary B. Ostrower
American student Edward Sittler adopted German citizenship after the outbreak of World War II and became a Nazi propagandist. After the war, his past was revealed to the public and the Long Island college where he had been teaching German, launching a debate about citizenship, loyalty, and the limits of academic freedom.
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SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
2/8/2022
"I Swore an Oath": Professor's Plea to Testify Against the State of Florida
The University of Florida claimed it was a conflict of interest for Michael McDonald to work as a paid consultant on a voting rights case while on the UF payroll. But he wasn't allowed to take unpaid leave to testify.
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