Several readers flagged this other IHE story about political science professor Ciccariello-Maher, whose case I wrote about at CHE last Spring, when Drexel seemed to be doing reasonably well. His latest "controversial" tweets seem to me vaguely idiotic, but that's not the issue: the issue is that however insightful or idiotic they are, they led to his being put on "administrative leave" (I assume that means he's out of the classroom but being paid). Drexel owes the academic community–forget the BreitbartBozos and the DrudgeDumbdumbs, Drexel!–an explanation of what their policies are. Are there concrete threats of violence? What is law enforcement doing about them? Drexel may be a private university, but it's clear that Cicchariello-Maher's speech is constitutionally protected speech on matters of public interest: his speech is not unlawful, therefore he should not suffer professional sanction because of that speech. If the situation is so extraodinary in terms of the criminal threats against him and the university that he must be put in hiding, then Drexel needs to broadcast the details to the world, since that really is what fascism looks like: otherwise lawful faculty speech has so incensed the fascists that the university can not function because of the threats of violence. Is that's what is going on?
I welcome links and further information from anyone with details about this weird turn of events.



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