Category Archives: Academic Freedom

Political groups and corporations have long used donations to fund targeted academic positions and research centers that will presumably support their agendas.  These practices frequently present ethical dilemmas and potential conflicts of interest within departments and universities. Endowments and other … Continue reading →

Bob Lehrman, a former White House aide and an adjunct professor of communications at American University, wrote a thoughtful op-ed on faculty unionization in the Washington Post on Friday. Lehrman calls himself a “hobbyist” adjunct, yet supports unionization efforts.  He … Continue reading →

Across the United States, there have been attempts to corporatize universities and to evaluate faculty “productivity” using student evaluations and business metrics. Now comes news that Texas Governor Rick Perry intervened in academic decision-making, pushing Texas universities to adopt a … Continue reading →

The University of Wisconsin at Madison has taken a weak stance regarding the politically-motivated open records request on Professor William Cronon’s e-mails. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the University of Wisconsin at Madison will comply with the request, … Continue reading →

Now that the news of an open records request on University of Wisconsin Professor William Cronon has gone viral, other faculty at public universities are already being targeted by politicized FOIA requests, as a story in the New York Times … Continue reading →

Anthony Grafton, an early modern European historian and current President of the American Historical Association, has published a comment on the political attacks on William Cronon in the New Yorker. Grafton provides contextualization and commentary, referring to this growing controversy … Continue reading →