Academic freedom under siege: Universities must resist political interference and reform internally - The Boston Globe

Academic freedom under siege: Universities must resist political interference and reform internally - The Boston Globe

Universities are facing threats to academic freedom from both federal government and within. Council chairs from Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton University have an idea about what to do.

Academic Freedom under Attack

This essay is adapted from It’s Debatable: Talking Authentically about Tricky Topics Universities in the United States are facing one of the most serious attempts to impose political control on higher education since the anticommunist loyalty tests of the 1950s. Whatever one thinks of the issues being debated today, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict, playing politics with federal funding is a threat to open inquiry. Administrators and facult…

In an often overheated climate of debate, it is a relief to receive objective, sober and fact-based criticism. Professor Tore Wig at the University of Oslo believes that the Helsinki Committee misunderstands the relationship between universities and academic staff, and how the concept of academic freedom should be understood. I thank you for the invitation to explain our view on a question that may not have a final answer. In any case, we have u…

Israel, Gaza and the problem of academic freedom

At the April faculty meeting, the faculty will vote on a resolution to remove two Israeli universities from the recommended list of study abroad options. This resolution, following a proposal made by Mac for Palestine, is a modest attempt by faculty, staff and students to express their revulsion at the crimes against humanity being committed by the Israeli state against a defenseless civilian population in Gaza. As condemnation goes, however, it…

Academic Freedom in Peril

Two books by leading First Amendment scholars offer a timely defense of the principle that politicians should not try to control what universities and professors teach their students.