AFSA's Week in Review
The week's top news, views and other higher-ed reform highlights
AFSA HIGHLIGHTS
Alumni Free Speech Advocacy at MIT: A Podcast Conversation with Wayne Stargardt and Peter Bonilla This fall, ACTA’s College Debates and Discourse Alliance curricular fellow, Dr. Bryan Paul, attended the MIT Free Speech Alliance’s annual conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he moderated a panel discussion with senior administrators from several institutions on strategies to improve the free speech culture on college campuses. He also recorded this interview with MFSA President Wayne Stargardt and MFSA Executive Director Peter Bonilla — a deep dive into the MFSA’s reform efforts at MIT and beyond.
"Morning Joe" Spills The Beans About Self-Censorship on Campus Byline Sean Paige, posting on Alma Matters. "Cancel culture" in academia is intimidating and silencing too many college students.
Confronting The Economic Naivete of Net Zero by 2050 Byline Steve Carhart, posting on Alma Matters. MIT Free Speech Alliance Executive Committee member Steve Carhart shares thoughts on the challenges of achieving net zero by 2050, as a warmup to MFSA’s big Nov. 14 climate policy debate in Cambridge.
Hat’s Off to UVA Student for Keeping His Hat On Byline Jim Bacon, posting on The Jefferson Council’s Website. Last year, UVA President Jim Ryan established a task force on religious diversity and belonging to look into the history of discrimination against religious minorities, Jews and Muslims in particular. Bias against Christians in a secular university culture was assumed not to be an issue. But Christians are not exempt from hostile words and actions, as the Simon Goldstein case shows.
NEWS
Devastated! Classes at Harvard, Penn, Columbia, Swarthmore and others canceled over Trump win Byline Jennifer Kabanny, writing for The College Fix. Many professors canceled classes this week in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election, citing the emotional needs and trauma of students. These collegiate Coddling Zones included Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania. More on this topic can be found here, here, and here.
Unlike Other Universities, the University of Wyoming Is NOT Offering Therapy After Trump Win Byline Clair McFarland for The Cowboy State Daily. Many major universities are offering “election care” services like dog-petting and Lego-building to help students emotionally deal with the election after Trump's win. But not the University of Wyoming.
Where’s all the diversity? 37 academic departments across seven universities have zero Republican professors Byline Jennifer Tabbany for the College Fix. Universities love to tout diversity, but they don’t practice what they preach. A research project recently launched by The College Fix looking up professors’ political party registrations has found Democratic professors far outnumber Republican ones. Of the seven universities reviewed so far, 72 percent of professors with known affiliations are registered Democrats compared to only 6.7 percent registered as Republicans.
Professors Are Uniquely Powerful. That May Be Changing. Byline Alan Blinder, writing for The New York Times. America’s “paper of record” fears that university faculty aren’t necessarily in charge anymore, as other stakeholders exert more influence. How will academia survive if the patients aren’t running the asylum?
Law Student Faces Expulsion for ‘Aggressive Pointing’ Byline Olivia Reingold for The Free Press. Title IX laws were created to protect women from discrimination. Now they’re being used to punish acts once seen as “completely protected speech.”
‘Time to Begin Wreaking Havoc’: MIT Student Calls for Violence to Oppose Israel, ‘Escalate for Palestine’ Byline Dion J. Pierre, writing in The Algemainer. MIT has reportedly banished from campus a student who penned an article arguing that violence is a legitimate method of effecting political change and, moreover, advancing the pro-Palestinian movement. The school’s decision — as of yet unconfirmed by MIT officials — stands to reverse an impression that MIT lacks the resolve to punish students who use the campus to break university rules while holding raucous demonstrations against the world’s lone Jewish state.
VIEWS
How to Save Free Speech on Campus Byline Greg Lukianoff writing for The Dispatch. To start, schools should choose scholars over activists.
Let’s get SCiLL’s origins right, like it or not Byline Matthew Eisley, writing in the Daily Tar Heal. The pioneering new School of Civic Life and Leadership, like anything at UNC-Chapel Hill, can be celebrated or criticized. But querulous history professor Jay Smith and other avowed SCiLL antagonists are wrong to keep insisting that the University’s Board of Trustees “created it by fiat.” That’s false — just ask former chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz.
5 Higher Education Developments To Watch During Trump’s Second Term Byline Christopher Marsicano, writing in Forbes. Donald Trump’s return to the White House could have deep and far-reaching impacts on colleges and universities. The first term was a higher education whirlwind that included increases in funding to historically Black colleges and universities, new taxes and Justice Department investigations on elite private colleges, and a litany of policy changes surrounding student aid. Will the second Trump term yield as much change as the first? Here are five things to watch for in the first year of a second Trump presidency. More on this topic can be read here and here.
Democrat Profs Have a Near Stranglehold on Academia Byline Prof. Jonathan Turley, writing on JonathanTurley.com. Political polling of professors points to the near complete cleansing of colleges of conservative faculty. The question is whether donors or applicants will continue to support an echo chamber that has become ideologically deafening.
RESOURCES
The Heritage Foundation’s College Ratings Should Be Welcomed to the Field Byline Samuel Negus, writing on the James Martin Center website. Conservative parents will now have a trusted resource when choosing a college.
The Next President Should . . . The National Association of Scholars shares its top higher-ed reform recommendations with the next president.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Join UNC AFSA on campus next Friday, November 15th, for the First Amendment Law Review’s annual Symposium. FLAR’s event, The Quintessential Marketplace of Ideas?: Current Free Speech Issues on University Campus, is co-sponsored by UNC AFSA and will take place at the Carolina Club from 8:45 AM to 3:30 PM.
The event will feature panel discussions on student speech and protest, faculty speech and academic freedom, and institutional speech and administrative challenges. Some notable panelists include UNC System President Peter Hans, Princeton Professor Keith Whittington, FIRE’s Director of Campus Rights Advocacy Lindsie Rank, and University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey R. Stone.
Please use this link to register.
Mark your calendars and make a note. The MIT Free Speech Alliance has scheduled its next Great Debate. An all-star group of experts will gather at 7 PM on Nov. 14th, in Cambridge, to debate whether decarbonization will be worth the cost. The event will be expertly moderated by Heterodox Academy President John Tomasi. It's going to be another full house so register now!
