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    “I suspect fields that rely more heavily on open access get much better results.” That’s a really interesting observation. I…

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Students disrupt Columbia law professor’s class to protest her handling of Title IX cases at the university

IHE reports on the latest pointless incident.  Being a law professor, Professor Goldberg may have some regard for procedural fairness in how she runs university Title IX cases, which was perhaps unacceptable to the students.  The more interesting question is how the university will respond.  The students have no legal or moral right to disrupt the professor's class or interfere with her students' education.  The university would be well-advised to respond fairly but punitively to stunts like this.  Public universities (not Columbia obviously) will likely face more actions like that taken by the Wisconsin Board of Regents, which would expel students who are involved in three incidents of interrupting speakers.  "Three strikes" policies have been a disaster in the actual penal system, but expulsion of students who repeatedly disrupt acadamic events is clearly well within the realm of reasonable responses depending on the particulars of the case.

(Thanks to Prabhu Venkataraman for the pointer to the Wisconsin action.)

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