Newsday: Judge orders adviser reinstated at student newspaper
Saying her removal would have a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression, a federal judge has ordered the temporary reinstatement of the faculty adviser at a southern New Jersey community college’s student newspaper.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler’s preliminary injunction, dated Tuesday, clears the way for Karen Bosley, who served as adviser of Ocean County College’s Viking News for 35 years, to return as adviser in the fall.
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Posted in Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Prior Restraint on Speech?
The president of the State University of New York at Fredonia offered to promote a faculty member to full professor if he would agree, among other things, to subject any writing or public statements about the institution to prior review for approval.
The professor and a free-speech group backing him say that the offer demonstrates the university’s willingness to censor faculty views, especially if they are conservative. But Fredonia officials say that — while the proposal was a mistake — the professor brought it on himself.
The dispute centers on the promotion bid of Stephen Kershnar, an associate professor of philosophy, who was nominated for full professor by his department in January. Kershnar writes a regular column for a local paper in which he has, among other things, questioned the priority the university places on attracting more minority students and faculty members, and argued that there is a shortage of conservatives in higher education. Some of his columns have angered university officials to the point that they have sent campuswide e-mails disputing them.
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Posted in Administration, Equity, Free speech, Working conditions
Inside Higher Ed: Controversial scholar cleared to teach
The University of Wisconsin at Madison — under political pressure to fire an instructor who argues that the United States plotted the 9/11 attacks — has cleared the way for him to teach this fall.
Patrick Farrell, Wisconsin’s provost, issued a statement Monday in which he strongly defended the right of Kevin Barrett to teach at the university, whatever his controversial views. “We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas,” Farrell said. “That classroom interaction is central to this university’s mission and to the expansion of knowledge. Silencing that exchange now would only open the door to more onerous and sweeping restrictions.”
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech
cbs4denver.com: Churchill Appeals Dismissal Recommendation
The University of Colorado professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi and now faces dismissal for alleged research misconduct on Wednesday filed an appeal, setting in motion process he has said will be costly and lengthy.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Ethics, Free speech
The Chronicle: Obligatory Retirements at Tehran U. Raise Fears of Political Purge
The University of Tehran announced last week that 40 to 45 faculty members who had reached the age of 65 were being “retired.” The announcement raised concerns that, in some of the cases, professors had been chosen for retirement because of their opposition to Iran’s conservative Islamic authorities.
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Posted in Free speech, Government, International
The New York Times: University of Colorado Chancellor Advises Firing Author of Sept. 11 Essay
DENVER, June 26 — The interim chancellor at the University of Colorado said on Monday that Prof. Ward L. Churchill, whose comments about the victims of Sept. 11 prompted a national debate about the limits of free speech, should be fired for academic misconduct.
Inside Higher Ed: Colorado Moves to Fire Churchill
It’s possible that Ward Churchill may never again teach a class at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The interim chancellor at Boulder on Monday issued a “notice of intent to dismiss” the controversial professor, citing findings of serious and repeated research misconduct. Churchill still has appeal rights — and has 10 days to take his case to a faculty review committee. After any appeal, a final decision rests with the president of the University of Colorado System and the Board of Regents. And Churchill has vowed to sue the university to block any firing.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Column on Gay Marriage Prompts Dismissal
Days after a local newspaper published his opinion piece supporting same-sex marriage, an adjunct instructor at Brigham Young University learned that he would not be rehired to teach courses in the philosophy department.
“I believe opposing gay marriage and seeking a constitutional amendment against it is immoral,” Jeffrey Nielsen wrote in the June 4 Salt Lake Tribune. “Currently the preponderance of scientific research strongly suggests that same-sex attraction is biologically based. Therefore, it is as natural as a heterosexual orientation, even if rare.… [L]egalizing gay marriage reinforces the importance of committed relationships and would strengthen the institution of marriage.”
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Posted in Academic freedom, Employment rights, Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Another committee at the University of Colorado at Boulder has found that Ward Churchill committed “serious, repeated and research misconduct.” The latest panel to make this finding is the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct. A special committee examined a range of allegations against Churchill and its findings were released last month. While Colorado administrators will ultimately decide whether Churchill should be fired from his tenured position, the faculty committees’ work has been seen as crucial. On the committee whose findings were released Tuesday, six members recommended dismissal, two voted for suspension without pay for five years and one voted for suspension without pay for two years. Churchill has said repeatedly that he did not commit misconduct and that the university is trying to punish him for his controversial views”
The Chronicle News Blog: Another Panel at U. of Colorado Calls for Ward Churchill to Be Sacked
The slow wheels of an academic investigation continue to grind toward firing Ward Churchill from the University of Colorado at Boulder. This afternoon, the university’s Standing Committee on Research Misconduct issued its report. The report agreed with a previous investigative committee’s report that Mr. Churchill, who gained infamy in 2005 for comparing some victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks to “little Eichmanns,” had committed serious research misconduct and should be disciplined (The Chronicle, May 17).
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Ward Churchill, ACTA and Public Opinion
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative advocacy group founded 10 years ago by the nation’s second lady, Lynn Cheney, recently released a report with the provocative title, “How Many Ward Churchills?” The answer, according to this unscientific “study” is offered early: “Ward Churchill in not only not alone — he is quite common.” “Churchill” serves here as a metaphor for professors who allegedly use their classrooms for “push[ing] political agendas”; and also refers to the controversial activist professor of the University of Colorado who was found guilty by a faculty panel of egregious unprofessional behavior just days before the ACTA report was released. It is a safe guess that even if Churchill had been found innocent on all charges, ACTA’s report would have borne the same title. For ACTA, the professoriate is a beehive of swarming left-wing radicals.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech
The New York Times: Ivor van Heerden’s ‘Storm’ Draws Fire at L.S.U.
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Ivor van Heerden and his colleagues searched through homes in the city he calls the Cajun Atlantis, looking for battery-powered clocks.
In the face of horrifying destruction, Dr. van Heerden, the deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, knew that small things helped tell the big story. The moment that the clocks’ time stopped could show when the homes filled with water, data “vitally important to any good forensic study,” as he puts it in his new book, “The Storm: What Went Wrong During Hurricane Katrina — The Inside Story From One Louisiana Scientist,” published last week by Viking.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech
Faculty members and students in Pennsylvania, liberal and conservative alike, oppose state-imposed restrictions on classroom speech, many of them say in a report released Monday by Free Exchange on Campus, as part of that group’s campaign to oppose legislative efforts to adopt a version of David Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights. The report was based on discussions with dozens of professors and students, and it was released as a legislative committee prepares for the last in a series of hearings this week on perceived political bias in classroom settings.
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Posted in Free speech
FindLaw: Legal News and Commentary: Speech on Campus After 9/11: Less Free Than It Used To Be?
By JENNIFER VAN BERGEN
—-
Thursday, May. 25, 2006
Universities have traditionally been places where debate and the free exchange of ideas have been welcomed. But after 9/11, that may be changing — as some recent, troubling incidents suggest.
In this column, I’ll survey some recent incidents suggesting free speech on campus is in peril, and discuss the extent to which the First Amendment protects student and faculty speech.
Cracking Down on Student Demonstrators and Controversial Student Speech
Recently, students at the University of Miami (a private school, but one with a stated policy of fostering free speech) demonstrated alongside striking maintenance workers to show solidarity. Now, they face the threat of disciplinary charges.
These students received “administrative subpoenas” to appear before a school official, and were told they faced possible major disciplinary action on grounds of “disorderly conduct” and failure to comply with a school order. But instead of charging the students, the official asked them to look at pictures and identify others who participated in the strike activities.
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Posted in Free speech
Inside Higher Ed: Preemptive Strike
On Thursday, California’s House of Representative signaled strong support for freedom of the student press by voting 76-0 in favor of a bill that would extend First Amendment protections to college journalists. The state would be the first in the nation to provide such support, if the bill ultimately becomes law.
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Posted in Free speech, Students
The Progressive: Judge Rules Teachers Have No Free Speech Rights in Class
Here’s an update on Deb Mayer, the teacher who said her contract was not renewed because she answered a student’s question about whether she would participate in a demonstration for peace. (See “Teacher Awaits Day in Court.”)
Her case involves an incident that occurred on January 10, 2003, at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana.
The students were reading an article in Time for Kids about peace protests. She responded to the student’s question by saying she sometimes honks for peace and that it’s important to seek out peaceful solutions both on the playground and in society. Afterwards, the parents of one of the students got angry and insisted that she not speak about peace again in the classroom. Mayer’s principal so ordered her.
When the school district did not renew Mayer’s contract at the end of the semester, she sued for wrongful termination and for violation of her First Amendment rights.
On March 10, Judge Sarah Evans Barker dismissed Mayer’s case, granting summary judgment to the defendants.
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Posted in Free speech
Asheville Citizen-Times: Secret Service returns computer to Mars Hill College student
The U.S. Secret Service has returned a computer seized from a Mars Hill College student after determining he didn’t threaten the president, but the student says he learned a lesson about what not to post online.
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Posted in Free speech, Government
Nevada Appeal: UNR Regents back off plan to bar gangster rap concerts on campus
After being told by every lawyer who went to the podium it would violate the First Amendment, the Board of Regents backed away from a proposal Friday to bar gangster rap concerts on their university and community college campuses.
Regent Stavros Anthony, a Metro police official, called for the ban, saying there have been numerous killings, beatings, stabbings and other violence connected with rap concerts. He said major performers in rap include relentless references to violent acts in their music, glorifying killings and lawlessness. He said he sees a connection between the violence and the performances and wants them banned from university venues.
“I don’t think this violates the First Amendment,” he said. “I’ve been getting tremendous community support for the idea. People are really tired of these violent felony events being held on our university campuses.”
The list of those disagreeing began with Chancellor Jim Rogers, owner of several television stations and an attorney, who referred to “the obvious unconstitutionality” of a policy banning one kind of concert because of its content.
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Posted in Free speech
Daily Illini: Illini Media Company directors terminate editor in chief’s job
Mary Cory, publisher of the Illini Media Company, and Adam Jung, vice president of the Illini Media Company board of directors and graduate student, addressed The Daily Illini staff present in the newsroom Tuesday evening around 7 p.m. concerning the employment of Acton Gorton, editor in chief.
The Chronicle: ‘Daily Illini’ Editor Who Published Controversial Cartoons Is FiredThe editor of The Daily Illini, the independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been fired for violating company policies when he decided to publish the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have infuriated Muslims around the world, the newspaper’s publisher announced on Tuesday.
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Posted in Free speech
MRZine: Does Pace U support free speech?
n Monday, March 13, students from the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) — joined by other students, professors, original SDSers, and CAN members from CCNY — launched one of the largest demonstrations Pace University’s campus had seen, against Pace’s denial of our free speech rights. The university, not accustomed to being challenged, let alone having to deal with large protests, was not prepared for it.
While Pace University President David Caputo was giving his “State of the University” address, an annual ritual of self-congratulation, we exposed the Real State of the University: infringement of civil liberties; union-busting of the adjunct professors’, cafeteria workers’, and transportation workers’ unions; and a university deficit of $3.2 million. All this is happening while Pace is “celebrating” its 100th anniversary.
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Posted in Free speech
The Chronicle: U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Law Requiring Colleges to Provide Equal Access to Military Recruiters
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously this morning that the federal government can withhold federal funds from colleges that bar or restrict military recruiting on their campuses.
In a 21-page opinion written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court rejected arguments that colleges have a First Amendment right to exclude recruiters whose hiring practices conflict with their own antidiscrimination policies.The court’s ruling was a victory for the Department of Defense, which had argued that recruiting restrictions hamper its ability to bring talented lawyers into the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, which handles legal affairs for the military.
The decision dealt a final blow to efforts by a coalition of law schools to strike down the Solomon amendment, a decade-old law that allows the government to deny federal funds to colleges that limit recruiting. Law schools have contended that the statute infringes on their constitutional freedoms of speech and association by forcing them to convey the military’s message and to assist an employer who discriminates against gay men and lesbians in hiring.
The founder of the coalition, Kent Greenfield, a law professor at Boston College, said he was disappointed at the ruling. However, he added, “we’re encouraged by the fact that this is just a skirmish in a larger civil-rights battle over the rights of all our students to serve our country.”
“While this may be a setback,” he said, “we’re confident that in the long run, we’ll win that larger civil-rights struggle” over the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy covering its treatment of gay and lesbian members of the armed forces.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the case, Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, No. 04-1152, overturned a 2004 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which found that the military had failed to show that its recruiting needs justified the intrusion on law schools’ constitutional rights (The Chronicle, December 10, 2004). In its ruling, the appeals court cited a 2000 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, that allowed the Boy Scouts to exclude a gay assistant scoutmaster.
The Defense Department appealed the case to the Supreme Court last winter, and the court heard arguments in December. During those arguments, E. Joshua Rosenkranz, a lawyer for the law-school coalition, said the Solomon amendment imposed unconstitutional conditions on the receipt of federal funds by forcing law schools to choose between federal aid and their constitutional rights (The Chronicle, December 16, 2005).
Paul D. Clement, the Justice Department’s solicitor general, replied that the amendment’s “equal access” requirement was an ordinary contractual condition, no different than the strings routinely attached to gifts and bequests. He noted that law schools remained free to criticize the military’s policies and could even bar recruiters from their campuses if they were willing to forgo federal funds.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court sided with the government, finding that Congress did not exceed constitutional limits on its power when it enacted the legislation.
“The Solomon amendment neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything,” Justice Roberts wrote for the court. “Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military’s Congressionally mandated employment policy, all the while retaining eligibility for federal funds.”
The justices voted to uphold the law by an 8-to-0 vote. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was seated as the court’s newest member only last month, did not take part in the ruling.
Dozens of groups filed briefs in the case, including the American Association of University Professors, which argued that the law interferes with academic self-governance.
Another brief, submitted by a group of Harvard University professors, contended that the Defense Department had misinterpreted the law to require preferential treatment for recruiters. The department’s “statutory argument,” the professors said, held that the law had been written to apply “only to policies that single out military recruiters for special disfavored treatment, not evenhanded policies that incidentally affect the military.”
The Supreme Court rejected that argument, finding that the law had been written to ensure military recruiters the same access as employers who comply with a law school’s nondiscrimination policy.
The case has attracted the attention of Congress, which passed the Solomon amendment in 1994 — its chief sponsor was the late Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon of New York — and has expanded its reach several times since then.
Some lawmakers had worried that if the Solomon amendment had been struck down, Congress could lose its ability to attach conditions to federal funds — the sacred “power of the purse.” One of the amendment’s original sponsors, Rep. Richard Pombo, a Republican from California, filed a brief supporting the Pentagon’s position through the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
The ruling’s unanimity was one of its most remarkable feature, given that the free-speech and nondiscrimination arguments made by the law schools were considered likely to appeal to the court’s more-liberal members. Perhaps in part, the outcome reflects the court’s general deference to the military’s views of its needs, especially during a time of war.
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Posted in Academic freedom, Free speech, Government
The Chronicle: Twin Lawsuits Accuse Penn State and Temple Universities of Using ‘Speech Codes’ to Stifle Students’ Rights
Two college students in Pennsylvania have filed federal lawsuits against Pennsylvania State and Temple Universities, alleging that the public institutions have “speech codes” that violated their First Amendment rights.
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Posted in Free speech
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