The most interesting one appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education (reposted on Medium), where the author argued that activist faculty have screwed themselves. For many years the courts have deferred to academia, but political behavior by faculty and universities during the past couple of decades has resulted in a more interventionist approach: Unfortunately, universities are giving courts...
Woke Joke Part 7: On to the Supreme Court
The Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled against me 2-1. The ruling was widely seen as substantially restricting the academic freedom of professors in the 4th Circuit (MD, NC, SC, VA and WV); I’ve included links to some media mentions below. The dissenting judge wrote a strong dissent, part of which I’ve quoted: Our job, however, is not to appraise the value of Porter’s speech...
NC Board of Governors strikes a blow for campus free speech
Yesterday the Board of Governors for the University of North Carolina System approved changes to the Policy Manual that regulates all public universities in the state: The University shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of...
Why university diversity statements may violate the Constitution
From Eugene Volokh: ".... However, I think Prof Volokh's thought experiment absolutely devastated DEI statements." So let me quickly summarize that thought experiment, which I gave in my part of the conversation (which begins at 16:45): We get involved in another war. Much of the country, including some university system (whether Prof. Soucek's and my University California or, say, the University...
Western Kentucky Regents refuse to fire “racist” tenured professor
A really surprising outcome, given that the president of university wanted to fire her for “incompetency.” If you read the article very carefully, you’ll see that they took a couple of semesters of poor teaching evaluations and turned that into her suddenly being incompetent at her job. A couple of semesters of poor teaching evals for a professor who had been there for seventeen...
“[UNC Chapel Hill] has lost her way”
It’s about time; I can’t imagine NC State doing this: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees (BOT) unanimously passed two resolutions at its July 27 meeting. The Freedom of Speech resolution was introduced and read by BOT member Dr. Perrin Jones. “The Board of Trustees reaffirms its commitment to academic freedom as embodied in the Chicago principles and the...
Pronoun battle ends with a win
Turns out leftist ideology has a fatal flaw when it comes to public institutions. The leftists keep pushing this mantra of how fundamentally flawed our society is, in essence making a political argument about race and gender. They want to use this political ideology to restrict speech. But you can’t compel political speech at public institutions. More detail on the 6th Circuit ruling here...
Left-wing professors are also targeted when they speak out
A college did not renew a professor’s contract because she criticized Vice President Pence as well as her college’s pandemic response. FIRE has filed on her behalf. During last October’s vice presidential debate, Burnett tweeted: “The moderator needs to talk over Mike Pence until he shuts his little demon mouth up.” The tweet was picked up by conservative media outlets highlighting...
Universities cannot compel professors to use preferred pronouns
I missed this case from last March. It explains why NCSU allows students to enter their preferred pronouns into the student information system, but says nothing about faculty using them. Shawnee State University instituted a policy requiring that students be referred to by their preferred pronouns, and a faculty member refused to comply. He filed a federal lawsuit, and the Sixth Circuit’s...
Campus cancel culture database shows over 300 professors targeted in the past decade
The College Fix has assembled an extensive database of cancellations, with links to the relevant media item for each case: you click on Professor Comments, which means professors targeted for something they said, you’ll find 326 records! These are only the tip of the iceberg, because I suspect many faculty who find themselves a victim of the woke mob immediately grovel in hopes of avoiding...