Unfortunately it’s behind a paywall. Here are some excerpts: Having a dissenting view within the prevailing orthodoxies of many universities today can lead to “a death by a thousand cuts,” according to a lawyer who specializes in constitutional law. Samantha Harris, with Allen Harris Law in Connecticut, represents Stephen Porter, a professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Porter...
Former professor now a bus driver
He describes his new life and how he got there; a fascinating read. The professor is Steve Salita, who lost a job and whose career ground to a halt because he expressed an opinion people didn’t like. You hear ex-professors say it all the time and I’ll add to the chorus: despite nagging precariousness, there’s something profoundly liberating about leaving academe, whereupon you are no longer...
Professors win 1st Amendment lawsuit against CSU to the tune of $650K
Administrators never seem to learn – the 1st Amendment still holds in this country: More than four years after they first filed a lawsuit alleging free speech violations, two professors have reached a settlement with Chicago State University (CSU). CSU, a public university, agreed to pay Philip Beverly and Robert Bionaz $650,000 and revise the unconstitutional policies that prompted the...
Professor banned from campus because he said his colleagues publish in predatory journals!
Which bring us to the curious and disturbing case of Derek Pyne, an economics professor at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops, B.C. Prof. Pyne was banned from campus and suspended, with pay, by his school this past summer over research he conducted into so-called predatory journals – publications that offer academics a home to publish their research (sometimes for as little as a hundred...
Professor disciplined because he didn’t write a reference letter!
So what happens if he agrees to write a letter, but the language is less-than-stellar? Is that verboten? And what about getting in trouble for writing a reference letter? John Cheney-Lippold, a tenured American and digital studies associate professor, will not get a merit raise during the 2018-19 academic year and can’t go on his upcoming sabbatical in January or another sabbatical for two...
The social justice mob is now censoring research
Hard to believe this is happening in the U.S., you’d expect this kind of stuff from totalitarian regimes like China or North Korea. The end result will be scientists censoring themselves, especially graduate students and junior faculty who do not have the luxury of tenure. That’s really the goal of the mob: intimidating faculty into silence. Theodore Hill, a retired professor of...
Inside the academic fascist mind
A stunning and absolute must-read confessional from a recent college graduate. Some observations: She reads like a present-day Whittaker Chambers. The fact that she is afraid to use her real name speaks volumes about her comrades and their tolerance for dissent. I, too, have noticed that social justice warriors tend to be a miserable and unhappy lot. She provides some insight as to why. First...
10 most fascist universities in the U.S.
Most made the list for the usual reasons, namely, hurting someone’s feelings. But the amazing story is Modesto Junior College, where a student was targeted simply because he tried to hand out copies of the Constitution on Constitution Day! It gets worse: when a faculty member sent out an email supporting the student’s free speech rights, the administration retaliated against him. Here...
Why are universities full of fascists?
This question often leaps to mind when I read about the lack of free speech and exchange of ideas at the modern university. Wendy Kaminer provides a succinct explanation in the Washington Post. How did we get here? How did a verbal defense of free speech become tantamount to a hate crime and offensive words become the equivalent of physical assaults? You can credit — or blame — progressives for...
Why IRBs are not necessary for social science research
In this article, I suggest a different and more liberalized path. In Part I,I describe the regulatory metastasis of IRBs and some problems it is causing for social science research. In Part II, I offer some thoughts on the ways in which these problems might arise from the pro-regulatory incentives to which IRBs are exposed. Finally, in Part III, I outline some modest liberalizing reforms...