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Print One of the things we in higher education do is write about ourselves and our circumstances. Whether it’s the academic novel (we all have our short list of favorites), the philosophical apology for liberal learning (the Princeton University Press has recently published a number of excellent exemplars ), the administrator’s exposition on the future of higher education (usually unreadable and full of the current buzzwords), or the ideological fantasy (disruption, deconstruction, and reconstruction), there seems to be something for everyone. One interesting subgenre, prompted in part by recent talk of “cancel culture,” is the attempt to define or redefine academic freedom, so that we have rational categories to apply to examples that seem to some to be outrageous examples of totalitarian censorship or thought control, and to others, appropriate responses to words intended to wound.
Michael Berube and Jennifer Ruth—professors of literature and film, respectively, and long-time leaders in the American Association of University Professors —offer their contribution to this last subgenre. I wish I could like It’s Not Free Speech a whole lot more than I actually do. At a high enough level of generality, its commitments are my commitments: academic freedom, a strong faculty role in shared college and university governance, and the integrity of professional academic judgment. Any professor would enthusiastically endorse, for example, this statement: “[I]t is one of the primary functions of a college or university, if not the primary function, to distinguish between high-value and low-value speech” (177). But there is enough in the details of the argument to give me pause, fearing that their version of academic freedom will be invoked to enforce a consensus that is not only “scholarly,” but also ideological, ultimately making our campuses even less hospitable to faculty and students who dissent from the progressive academic mainstream. What, […]
They’re Trying to Shut Us Down
Over the last several months, I’ve lost count of how many times the powers-that-be have tried to shut us down. They’ve sent hackers at us, forcing us to take extreme measures on web security. They sent attorneys after us, but thankfully we’re not easily intimidated by baseless accusations or threats. They’ve even gone so far as to make physical threats. Those can actually be a bit worrisome but Remington has me covered.
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Thank you and God bless!
JD Rucker