by Judith Curry
Many academics now consider freedom of speech just another American eccentricity, like guns and religion. – Daniel Jacobsen
As the 2016/2017 academic year begins, universities are roiled by freedom of speech issues, pitting students, faculty members and administrators against each other. Different universities are handling this in different ways.
I’ve been collecting articles and meaning to write a substantive post on this, but my schedule is beyond crazy. So I decided to do a week in review type post on this issue, pointing to some of the more interesting links I’ve collected. My ‘collection’ of links was self-sabotaged when I copied them to the post (the links weren’t preserved). Oh well, maybe you can help me with links.
A short but cogent overview article to kick this off – Higher education: beyond parody [link]
CATO: Freedom of speech under assault on campus [link]
Professors tell students: Drop class if you doubt man made climate change [link]
Update: University official wants answers on whether climate professors are ‘indoctrinating’ students [link]
The decline of political, military and diplomatic history: Another casualty of campus political orthodoxy [link]
Students, Lawmakers Push to Ban Restrictive Campus ‘Free Speech Zones’ [link]
Students get just two hours of free speech per week, and only in select locations—if reserved. [link]
University of Cincinnati pressures profs to incorporate “inclusivity” in curricula [link]
What the Chicago Letter Won’t Fix — and why students must fix it themselves. [link]
Universities now betray their principles, attacking free speech of students. FIRE’s Speech Code of the Week: [link]
Who’s afraid of free speech? A tale of two universities [link]
Free Speech? Now, that’s offensive! [link]
The death of campus free speech — and how to revive it [link]
JC reflections
One of the articles I read pointed out that all this sounds like a parody from The Onion. Most unfortunately, this is not the case.
I couldn’t be more proud of the University of Chicago (my alma mater) for their stance on this. I am also proud to stand with heterodox academy.org. Another good organization on this issue is http://www.thefire.org.
Apart from all this killing off important fields of study, e.g. american political history, and biasing others, the real tragedy is what this means for the students. Now, this is not just something that is being inflicted on students by the universities, but students are major players in driving all this insanity (and their parents are footing the bill).
Strong leadership is needed at the universities to navigate this, but any university worth its name should be the supporting the stance taken by the University of Chicago.Filed under: Ethics, Sociology of science