A Christian group at the University of Iowa scored a major win this week before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In an opinion (below) with sweeping potential impact, the court reversed District Court Judge Stephanie Rose and ruled that University of Iowa officials can be held personally liable for targeting a Christian club and denying the rights of free speech and association. The University ultimately did not appeal findings that it violated the rights of this religious group and these students in its discriminatory application of university policies.
Category: Academia
CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek is back in the news in what people are calling a case of “self-cancellation.” After referring to herself as a “slaveholder” in a faculty meeting, Bilek announced her early retirement in response to what she called as momentary but serious lapse of judgment last year. We previously discussed Bilek’s troubling view of free speech after conservative law professor Josh Blackman was stopped from speaking about “the importance of free speech.” Bilek insisted that disrupting the speech on free speech was free speech. She has now effectively ended her own speech, at least as the Dean of CUNY. She has also sent herself into counseling to overcome her “biases.”
University of San Diego Law Professor Thomas Smith has been put under investigation for the use of an offensive term in a column criticizing the Chinese government and its role in the pandemic. The column, written on the site The Right Coast discussed a Wall Street Journal article on China’s lack of real cooperation in the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. In the column, Smith refers to accepting “a lot of Chinese c**k swaddle.” That led to a campaign to have Smith fired and a statement from Dean Robert Schapiro that not only announced a formal investigation but appeared to denounce Smith. The USD controversy is the latest attack on free speech and academic freedom. It shows the same combination of student cancelling campaigns and the enabling actions of school administrators. Continue reading “USD Law Professor Under Investigation For Column Criticizing Chinese Government”
We previously discussed the controversial position of Alison Collins, Vice President of the San Francisco school board, in her campaign against meritocracy and effort to shut down the gifted programs at Lowell High School. The Asian community was particularly opposed to Collins’ efforts since Asian students composed 29 percent of the students but 51 percent of the Lowell student body. Now Collins is under fire for prior tweets attacking Asians as promoting “the ‘model minority’ BS” and of using “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead.’” Continue reading ““White Supremacist Thinking”: San Fran School Board Vice President Under Fire For Allegedly Anti-Asian Tweets”
We recently discussed the case of University of North Carolina law student Sagar Sharma, a student of color, who faced a recall election as the first-year class co-president. The recall was based on Sharma stating that he did not consider an argument between two fellow students to be racist. Sharma ultimately prevailed in the recall challenge 74-60. Now there has been an equally disturbing development. Sharma decided to run for 2L Class President but yesterday was disqualified on the basis that he “disparaged” another candidate and ran prematurely for the position under the election rules. The charges are connected to the prior controversy and raise serious free speech and retaliatory concerns at the law school. Continue reading “UNC Law Student Who Questioned Racial Incident Is Disqualified From Running For New Office”
We recently discussed the impeachment of students for espousing support for police or opposing views on police abuse or racial reforms. Now University of North Carolina law student Sagar Sharma, who is a student of color, has faced a recall election as the first-year class co-president for simply stating that he did not consider an argument between two fellow students to be racist. This follows another incident triggered by a converation touching on race. Two Georgetown professors were recently forced out of the faculty over a conversation on the performance of African American students in their class including one professor who faced termination for “failing to correct” Professor Sandra Sellers when she expressed regret that her black students tended to end up at the bottom of her class curve. Law School Dean Bill Treanor fired Sellers for expressing that view to her co-teacher in the course. Even the failure to object to a statement from another colleague was deemed grounds for a formal inquiry and possible termination. We previously discussed the student senate at Georgetown sanctioning a student for simply publishing opposing views of police abuse in a journal.
Melissa Hargrove, who teaches Africana Studies and researches the hip-hop movement, is the latest academic to face a campaign for termination after she was accused of using the “n-word” in a class at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. For the last month, the university has been struggling with the controversy. In her class, Hargrove was using an acronym and discussing a song with the same word from rapper Tupac. The university ordered her into mandatory training but students want her fired. Continue reading ““Generational Trauma”: Students Demand The Firing Of Africana Studies Professor Who Used Racial Slur In Class On Hip-Hop”
In a Scientific American article entitled, “Physicists Need To Be More Careful How They Name Things,” two professors and a journalist call for the abandonment of the term “quantum supremacy” in physics because it is “uncomfortably reminiscent of ‘white supremacy.” Physics Professor Ian Durham (St. Anselm College), freelance journalist Daniel Garisto, and Math Professor Karoline Wiesner (University of Bristol) all agree that the term is not racist but still believe that it must be changed to avoid “adding insult to injury.” Continue reading “Quantum Lunacy: Physics Professor Calls For The Abandonment Of “Quantum Supremacy” As Anti-Racism Measure”
Syracuse University has been repeatedly criticized for a failure to guarantee due process and free speech rights for students. Now, a state judge has slammed the university over its treatment of a fraternity which the court found “did nothing wrong” in a racial slur incident on campus. The University continues however to defend a process that was replete with due process concerns. I have long been a critic of the lack of due process on our campuses. This became particularly acute when the Obama Administration pressured universities to reduce such protections — a policy that the Biden Administration now appears to moving to reinstate.
We have been discussing how universities are remaining silent as student governments limit rights of free speech and association, including the impeachment of conservative students. Now, students at Skidmore College have reportedly barred fellow students from starting a campus chapter of the conservative group Young Americans for Liberty (YAL). In Rochester Institute of Technology, the student government has impeached student Senator Jacob Custer for defending campus police officers wearing Thin Blue Line masks. In both controversies, there are appeals or reviews being pursued but students were subjected to weeks of abusive campaigns for the exercise of their free speech and associational rights.
Continue reading “New York Colleges Under Fire After Targeting Conservative Students and Groups”
If Georgia Gwinnett College wanted to foster greater unity in its use of “free speech zones,” it succeeded in prompting a near unanimous Supreme Court in ruling against it in favor of free speech this week. The Court voted 8-1 that two former students should be able to sue for nominal or symbolic damages to avoid mootness on their challenges. Only Chief Justice John Roberts stood against the ability of the two former students to sue over the loss of free speech rights. Continue reading “Near Unanimous Supreme Court Rules Against Georgia Gwinnett College In Free Speech Victory”
We have been following assaults on academic freedom not just in the United States in recent years but abroad in recent years. This includes a researcher in Sweden who recently stopped Covid research after a harassment campaign due to his findings of the low risk poised by children returning to school. In South Korea, another such battle is waging over a publication by J. Mark Ramseyer, the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, suggesting that Korean “comfort women” from World War II were likely contracted, not forced, by the Japanese military. It is a theory that is understandably outrageous and hurtful for many. Ramseyer’s writings have been denounced and even cities like Philadelphia have passed condemnations of his work. What is more concerning is the effort to fire Ramseyer or bar the publication that ran his theory. Now South Korean faculty who stood up for academic freedom are being targeted, even though they did not write in support of Ramseyer’s theory as opposed to his right to publish his views. Continue reading “American and South Korean Professors Fight For Academic Freedom In Controversy Over “Comfort Women” Publications”
As teacher unions fight to keep schools closed, the true cost is being felt by students who are racking up failing grades, dropping out of virtual classes, increasing drug use, and, in rising numbers, committing suicide. In response, some union officials like the President of the Los Angeles Teacher’s Union has labelled calls to return to class examples of white privilege despite overwhelming science supporting resumption of classes. However, for minority students, this shutdown has taken a dire situation and turned into a free-fall disaster. The pandemic led to the closure of an already failing public school system, as evident in a shocking story out of Baltimore. As recently reported, a high school student almost graduated near the top half of his class after failing every class but three in four years. He has a 0.13 GPA. His mother finally went public in exasperation with the failures in the public schools. Continue reading “Baltimore Student Who Failed All But Three Classes In Four Years Was Ranked In Top Half Of His Class”
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is under fire after Maryam Qudrat, a mother of Middle Eastern descent, was asked by the UTLA to identify her race after criticizing the union’s opposition to reopening schools despite overwhelming science that it is safe. The response of the UTLA was evasive to the point of incomprehension. However, the controversy is fueled by recent efforts to portray parents demanding a return to school as racist or examples of white privilege, including recent controversial comments from the UTLA President. Continue reading “LA Teacher’s Union Under Fire For Effort To Racially Classify Critics”
Pacific University is the latest focus of an intense struggle over academic freedom after it suspended Professor Richard Paxton. Dr. Paxton was accused of violating the “civil rights” of students under Title IX after he shared an experience of unwittingly walking into a drag bar in New Orleans. The story was a story shared for a pedagogical purpose. While that story appears to have been the impetus for the initial action against Dr. Paxton, he was also accused of saying that “every person has a gender” and other references. He has alleged that Jennifer Yruegas (who is not just the university’s but associate vice president of human resources and associate dean of the business school, and Title IX coordinator) pushed Paxton to resign. The investigation has now dragged on for months and, to its credit, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has filed its own letter of concern in the matter. The case is similar to other recent controversies where professors were suspended and subject to long investigations without a clear basis for such action. Continue reading “Pacific University Professor Suspended After Sharing Story About Drag Bar In New Orleans”