Inside Higher Ed: Power Grab at DuPage
Periodically, colleges debate such questions as the future of the curriculum, the role of the student newspaper, how outside speakers should be selected, and so forth. At the College of DuPage, a community college outside of Chicago, the board recently proposed major overhauls on all these issues with a common theme — power that currently rests elsewhere would be moved to the trustees.
Not only did the board set out to change the power structure at the college, but it moved to adopt as official college policy a version of David Horowitz’s controversial “Academic Bill of Rights.”
Last week, faculty members and students — the latter with tape over their mouths to symbolize what they say the trustees are doing to their freedoms — flocked to a board meeting to protest the plans that appear to be dividing the college. Not only do the critics say that academic freedom is in danger, but they charge that the board’s policies in some instances would violate state law.
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