Academic freedom
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Peterson from Texas A&M to Southern Methodist University
Martin Peterson (normative ethics, decision theory), will be leaving his endowed professorship in the Department of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, to take up a University Professorship at Southern Methodist University, with an endowed chair in “Ethics in Artificial Intelligence.” That’s a big loss for Texas A&M (and the second senior loss this year), but…
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Texas war on free speech and academic freedom: Texas State University edition
A tenure-track philosophy professor, fired because of his lawful speech about the Israel-Palestine conflict, has sued the university. Let us hope the courts can make these rogue universities comply with the Constitution. (Thanks to Peter Kail for the pointer.)
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Free University of Brussels rescinds appointment of strident anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian academic
I can’t see having a meal with Harry Pettit, who seems a bit morally depraved, but his political speech is probably lawful even in a jurisdiction with typical EU hate speech laws (see, e.g.). In any case, barring a legal judgment against him, it seems to me the VUB has clearly violated his rights, including…
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Controversy about Nathan Cofnas, once again
Previously the controversy was at Cambridge, now Dr. Cofnas has been appointed as a post-doc at the University of Ghent in Belgium, and perhaps predictably, some faculty and students are calling for his appointment to be terminated because of his racist views. This would, of course, be a serious violation of academic freedom: he was…
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Oklahoma legislature advances legislation to end tenure for all hires after 2027, including at the public research universities
The legislature has decided to do the Governor one better, and destroy the research universities, as well as the other state colleges and universities. Of course, Oklahoma may also inspire a race to the bottom with other red states. Tenure is a form of non-monetary compensation, so at some point there will be pressure to…
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Ohio State’s “Civics” Center now paying students to take its classes and attend its events
Remarkable. (See the earlier discussion of these proliferating centers, whose political litmus test hiring procedures are lawsuits waiting to happen.) (Thanks to Marc Lange for the pointer.)
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Disgraceful administrative misconduct at Virginia State University
They unlawfully fired tenured faculty, treated them like garbage, and couldn’t even follow their own procedures. The only people who should be fired are the administrators responsible for this travesty. One hopes a court will step in and implement some adult supervision at VSU, as well as award compensation to the mistreated faculty. (Thanks to…
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Texas war on academic freedom: University of Texas edition
Regents approve new policy “requiring its universities to ensure students can graduate without studying ‘unnecessary controversial subjects’….The rule also requires faculty to disclose in their syllabi the topics they plan to cover and adhere to the plan, and says that when courses include controversial issues, instructors must ensure a ‘broad and balanced approach’ to the discussion.”…
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Oklahoma Governor ends tenure for all future hires at all the state’s public colleges except…
…the two research universities, the University of Oklahoma at Norman and Oklahoma State University. There, faculty will be subject to post-tenure review, which even twenty years ago was already extremely common. Post-tenure review can be abused, of course, but it is not, in principle, inconsistent with tenure, which does not mean “life-time appointment,” as is…
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Senior Lecturer fired by Texas A&M University…
…sues the university for violating her First Amendment right to academic freedom and her due process rights. She ought to prevail.
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The Texas war on academic freedom: University of Houston edition
The President of the University of Houston has decided that state law requires her to ask all faculty to affirm they are not “indoctrinating” students. Here are her letters to the faculty on the subject: first, second. The first letter states that, “Our responsibility is to give them the ability to form their own opinions,…
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Viktor Orban is now running Texas A&M
The latest embarrassment, one straight out of the Hungarian playbook: the university closes it’s Women’s and Gender Studies program.
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Emory fires tenure-track professor of medicine…
…because her father is a senior official in the Iranian government. The last time I looked, the “sins” of the parents were not grounds for removing a tenure-track faculty member from their job. Please email me if you have more information about what looks like a pretty blatant violation of the contractual rights of a…
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Texas Republican Party now following the lead of the Chinese Communist Party when it comes to universities
Party stalwarts are appointed to oversee universities (in the Texas case, via a Board of Regents), and then set criteria for the approval (or disapproval) of curricula. A new example of the Texas A&M version of this approach.
To be worth using, a detector needs not only (A) not get very many false positives, but also (B) get…