What about Larry?: Compare Chemerinsky’s tale with academia’s bashing of ex-Harvard chief Summers.

by E Wayne Ross on September 19, 2007

Los Angeles Times: Compare Chemerinsky’s tale with academia’s bashing of ex-Harvard chief Summers.

The saga of controversial liberal law professor Erwin Chemerinsky’s on-again, off-again deanship at the new UC Irvine law school was highly unusual in two ways. First, the pressure to enforce political orthodoxy at Chemerinsky’s expense came from the right, not the left, and second, academic freedom and 1st Amendment values won a resounding victory when Chemerinsky was ultimately rehired. A more typicalexample of how academic freedom remains in jeopardy across the country is the UC Board of Regents’ treatment of Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University.