Host a Scholar

Academic freedom allows professors to research and explore controversial or divisive topics related to their department without fear of persecution. Academic tenure is the means by which academic freedom is achieved. Lisa Weston, president of the Fresno State chapter of the California Faculty Association, has been tenured for nearly 20 of her 26 years at Fresno State. Weston, an English professor, believes that a high-quality tenure system is necessary for superior education. “Tenure ensures...

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the organisation of an international conference on “Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibility of Academics and Researchers in Africa: What are the new challenges?”. This conference comes within the framework of CODESRIA’s Academic Freedom Programme. It is aimed at taking stock of the progress of academic freedom in Africa over the last three decades, assessing the status of the fundamental...

March 4, 2010 – Herman Winick, SAR Scholar-Advocate and Professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the Applied Physics Department of Stanford University, accepted the 2010 Andrei Sakharov Prize at the meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) last week in Washington D.C. Also accepting the award were Joseph Birman of the City College of New York and the City University of New York, and Morris (Moishe) Pripstein of the National Science Foundation. The Andrei Sakharov...

We'll swim together or sink separately, finds Charles R. Middleton Academic freedom, as embedded in the customs and practices of institutions of higher education, is an essential ingredient of intellectual life. It ensures remarkable progress in all disciplines and underpins the vast changes that have collectively defined the world in which we live. It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that the modern university could exist, much less succeed, without it. Yet its history is a paradox...

Faculty members and the dean of the School of Public Health and Health Services are arguing over a resolution presented at last month's Faculty Senate meeting that would bar SPHHS research faculty from being a part of certain decision-making groups.

Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.

Towson University issued a statement today in which its provost, Marcia G. Welsh, defended the institution's decision to fire an adjunct art professor for characterizing himself as "a nigger on the corporate plantation" in discussing his employment rights during a class. Ms. Walsh's statement contradicts assertions by the adjunct professor, Allen Zaruba, that he had used the racist term as part of an academic discussion. The statement says: "Towson University strongly supports and upholds academic...

Racial Incidents Multiply in California Even as thousands of students at the University of California's campuses prepare for massive rallies Thursday over state budget cuts, they continue to be roiled by racial incidents. The University of California at San Diego, which has seen a series of incidents, had a new one Monday night when authorities found a white pillowcase on a statue outside the library, making the pillowcase appear to be a Klan-style hood. Police are investigating the incident....

The phone call rang in at 2 a.m. Iraqi time. On the line was a representative from the Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund calling to offer Dr. Salam Bash Al-Maliky an unthinkable opportunity: refuge from his war-torn homeland to pursue research abroad.

U. of California Tensions Escalate Major protests over state budget cuts are planned throughout California this week, and tensions are rising over not only the fiscal situation, but other issues. On Friday, the University of California at San Diego saw another racial incident when a noose was found in the library, setting off a new round of rallies. Students were already angry over a party mocking black students and a television show that defended the party. On Saturday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...

One group studied the human impacts of gold mining in Guinea. Another analyzed the economic aid to rebuild New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged infrastructure. And others are working to improve on a vital tradition, assessing the most effective ways to protect scientists from political persecution. It was a busy first year for the AAAS-led Science and Human Rights Coalition and the "On-call" Scientists. At two days of meetings at the association's Washington, D.C., headquarters, organizers and members...

The science writer Simon Singh is fighting to defend his right to freedom of speech. And he's far from alone as companies from around the world are increasingly trying to use England's libel laws to quash academic critics. Earlier this week, a mild-mannered freelance science writer stood on the steps of London's imposing Royal Courts of Justice and declared his determination, come what may, to stand up for free speech against what he and an ever-swelling contingent of scientists, public figures...

When a British university overturned a professor's decision to award failing grades to some of his students, it constituted "an unequivocal affront to his integrity," a British appeals court ruled on Wednesday. Paul Buckland, a professor of environmental archaeology at Bournemouth University, resigned in protest when several students whose examinations he had failed were subsequently given passing marks after the department's program leader and the dean of the school of conservation intervened. The...

The editor of a leading international law journal is to stand trial in a French court after he refused to pull an academic book review to which the author took exception. Joseph Weiler, editor-in-chief of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL), is due to face a Paris criminal tribunal in June after refusing to remove the critical review from a website associated with the journal, www.globallawbooks.org. Karin Calvo-Goller, senior lecturer at the Academic Centre of Law and Business in...

New science funding rules that prioritise studies with anticipated economic or social benefits are misconceived and risk stifling discovery and understanding, according to the head of Britain’s biggest independent supporter of research. Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, told The Times that the Government’s “impact agenda”, which requires researchers to predict the value of their work when applying for grants, will undermine the academic freedom that best delivers scientific progress....

KUALA LUMPUR - The confiscation of books by Malaysian authorities is raising concern and demands in some quarters for the repeal of laws that allow the government to suppress freedom of expression. Home Ministry officials last week continued raiding bookstores to confiscate books and publications by Malaysiakini, an independent news website that has been critical of government policies. The ministry says it needs to "study and review" these books for content deemed to be against national security....

The American Association of University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and the National Coalition Against Censorship filed a brief last week backing the appeal of Ward Churchill, who is seeking in a Colorado appeals court to regain his job as a tenured professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. While a district court jury found that Churchill had been fired inappropriately, the judge in the case declined to give Churchill his job back and effectively...

At the 2010 April Meeting of the American Physical Society last week in Washington DC, SLAC physicist Herman Winick accepted the Andrei Sakharov Prize, given to a physicist for outstanding leadership and/or achievements in upholding human rights. Also accepting the award was Joseph Birman of the City College of New York and the City University of New York, and Morris (Moishe) Pripstein, of the National Science Foundation.

Faculty members at Idaho's public colleges and even some campus leaders fear that policy changes approved last week by the State Board of Education will allow administrators to furlough and cut salaries of tenured professors without having to declare a financial crisis.

Champions of the First Amendment come in many guises, with as many differences and frictions (if not shaved heads) as you might find among WWE wrestlers. Alexander Meiklejohn, for instance, the seminal author of Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government (Harper, 1948), originally placed protection of "hard core" political speech so far ahead of mere satisfying self-expression that he memorably declared, "What is essential is not that everyone shall speak, but that everything worth saying shall...

While the circumstances behind the deadly shooting at the University of Alabama-Huntsville remain unclear, the Harvard-trained neurobiologist accused in the rampage was upset about being denied tenure -- the academic world's highly coveted form of job security. The profile of Amy Bishop that is emerging suggests deep-seated emotional problems and a history of violence. But her vocal displeasure about being rejected in the period leading up to the attack has cast a spotlight on the increasingly pressure-packed...

According to well-informed sources meeting after dark behind the squash courts, Professor Doug Gunter of our Politics for Business Department faces disciplinary action over statements made during his recent inaugural lecture on academic freedom. It is alleged that these statements contravened Section 9 of the university edicts by "bringing the university into disrepute". However, in his defence, Professor Gunter will argue that his lecture was an exploration of the paradox that it was now possible...

Every few minutes during a talk last week at the University of California at Irvine, the same thing happened. A student would get up, shout something critical of Israel, be applauded by some in the audience, and be led away by police. The speaker -- Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States -- was repeatedly forced to stop his talk. He pleaded for the right to continue, and continued. University administrators lectured the students and asked them to let Oren speak. In the end, 11 students...

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Academic freedom is not a given thing, not even in Europe in 2010. In the heart of Europe there is something that should not be necessary at all: an entire university forced into exile from its home country simply because it insisted on the principle of academic freedom and critical thinking.

Eleven students from Cadi Ayyad Marrakesh University in Morocco have begun their appeal trial after being sentenced to up to four years in prison in July 2009. Amnesty International considers the students to be political prisoners and have reported that the students were tortured while in prison.

Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari helped us launch Attacks on the Press at the United Nations in New York today. Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, was labeled an enemy of the Iranian regime and cruelly imprisoned for 118 days last year in Tehran. His very presence today, CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney noted, was testament to the “tremendous efforts of press freedom groups around the world" that have advocated for the release of jailed journalists. But with at least 47 journalists in jail in...

C. Michael Smith, president of the American U. of Afghanistan, says living in Kabul has not proved too difficult: "What we try to do is just be prudent." When C. Michael Smith interviewed to be president of the American University of Afghanistan, he faced his toughest questions from an unexpected source: a group of 30 students in Kabul. "They really grilled me," he says. The students wanted to know how long Mr. Smith would stick around if he got the job. The university, which bills itself as Afghanistan's...

Around the world, schools and universities have faced brutal military and political attacks in an increasing number of countries over the past three years, according to a new report published by Unesco. Since 2007 there have been thousands of reported cases of students, teachers, academics and other education staff being kidnapped, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, burned alive, shot or blown up by rebels, armies and repressive regimes.

John Willinsky, an education professor at Stanford U. (shown here visiting the U. of Oxford), offers free journal-publishing software to academics around the world. The program is being used to produce more than 5,000 online journals, he estimates, about half of them in developing countries.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Christina Julme was scribbling notes in the back of a linguistics class at the State University of Haiti when, in an instant, everything went black. “You’re in class, your professor is talking, you’re writing notes and then you’re buried alive,” said Ms. Julme, 23, recounting how her semester came to a halt on the afternoon of Jan. 12 when the earthquake turned her seven-story university into a towering pile of wreckage, with her deep inside.

On Wednesday, an Iranian news agency announced that an Iranian appeallate court reduced Kian Tajbakhsh’s prison sentence from 15 years to five years.

Students Attacked By Police as Protests Continue Protesting students in Caracas, Venezuela have been attacked with tear gas, water cannons and plastic bullets. Ongoing protests have been met with a harsh response as President Chavez’s supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an army officer. There have been daily student protests in the capital since 24 January, triggered by the closure of Radio Caracas Television International. Students are accusing Chavez of forcing the...

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) claims that academic freedom on college campuses is under attack as never before. A campaign called “Speak Up, Speak Out: Protect the faculty voice” was launched in November 2009 amid court decisions thought to restrict the freedom of speech of faculty members who had spoken up against their institution. According to the AAUP the new threat to academic freedom stems from a Supreme Court case in 2006. In the case Garcetti v. Ceballos, an assistant...

Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN, Reporters Sans Frontières, Index on Censorship, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, International Publishers Association launch “intensive, global effort” to win release of more than 60 currently in Iranian prisons

The Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday issued a statement denouncing Monday night's disruptions at the University of California at Irvine of a speech by Israel's ambassador and suggested that a pattern was emerging of "undemocratic, bullying, confrontational tactics" to block Israeli views from being heard. At Irvine, students were arrested for repeatedly interrupting the ambassador's talk. Michael Drake, Irvine's chancellor, on Tuesday issued a statement on the disruptions, which he called "intolerable."...

Calvin College has become the first institution covered by a new rule of the American Philosophical Association of requiring any college that violates any part of the association's anti-bias policy to have job listings with the association flagged. The rule was adopted late last year in response to the concerns of many philosophers about having their association list jobs from institutions that do not hire gay professors. One aim of the policy, proponents said, was to then be able to lobby colleges...

“Brutal attacks" on teachers and pupils are being used as a tactic of terror and political violence, says an international report. A report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation warns of a "significant increase" in attacks on education. These include assassinations and bomb attacks on staff and pupils in 31 countries around the world.

WASHINGTON — Ralph D. Fertig, a 79-year-old civil rights lawyer, says he would like to help a militant Kurdish group in Turkey find peaceful ways to achieve its goals. But he fears prosecution under a law banning even benign assistance to groups said to engage in terrorism. “Fear is manipulated, and the tools of the penal system are applied to inhibit people from speaking out.” RALPH D. FERTIG Civil rights lawyer and activist The Supreme Court will soon hear Mr. Fertig’s challenge to the law,...

In response to student complaints that a health-science professor at Fresno City College makes overtly religious and anti-gay statements in his lectures, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the college today demanding that it ensure that all its health-science classes teach unbiased and medically accurate information. The letter also advises the college that it is legally required to prevent the professor from engaging in religious indoctrination in his classes. The college's president,...

David Horowitz can't seem to get into Saint Louis University no matter how hard he tries. Six months ago, the university blocked a student organization from bringing Horowitz to the university for one of his talks about "Islamo-fascism." Horowitz is a conservative critic of higher education as well as a wide range of other sectors of society. The university said at the time that it didn't want Horowitz to talk on campus in a way that could be divisive (as many of Horowitz's critics have said his...

The Christian Legal Society is attracting wide support -- particularly from religious organizations -- in its U.S. Supreme Court battle over whether public colleges and universities can enforce their anti-bias rules against religious groups. In December, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving the society's chapter at the Hastings College of Law of the University of California. Hastings maintains that it is within its rights to deny recognition to groups, like the society, that engage in...

Why is there so much difficulty and controversy surrounding campus speakers? To be sure, only a small portion of the overall pool becomes a problem -- David Horowitz, Bill Ayers, the Minuteman founder, etc. -- but why should invited guests ever push administrators into cancellations, presentation conditions, added fees, and other odd stipulations? What are they afraid of? The handling of David Horowitz by St. Louis University is a case in point. People might remember that, several months back, his...

An Australian student at Birzeit University has been released on bail pending an appeal to Israel's High Court after she and a flatmate were arrested early Sunday morning by Israeli troops on a raid into the Palestinian-controlled territory where they lived, according to the Ma'an News Agency. Bridgette Chappell, a campaigner against Israel's security barrier, was threatened with deportation after the Israeli troops said they found the women had "fake documents" and "an expired visa" and accused...

Home Office to cut number of visas and those offered them will have to speak passable English The number of student visas could be cut by tens of thousands under new rules making it harder for people to enter the UK, the home secretary, Alan Johnson, announced today.

Canadian Association of University Teachers is right to call attention to Trinity Western's limits on teaching and discussion at its institution According to the Canadian Association of University Teachers, "academic freedom is the life blood of the modern university." And according to that same organization, Trinity Western University is a little anemic.

Since my arrest under the Terrorism Act in May 2008 at the University of Nottingham for possession of the so-called Al-Qaida Training Manual, I have been following the increasing pressure faced by lecturers regarding the teaching of terrorism. One example is the pressure to submit reading lists to research ethics committees for vetting purposes in case they contain material that may be deemed "illegal" or that "may incite violence".

Dr. Abbas Kazemi, a Tehran University professor working in the Department of Social Sciences, has reportedly been dismissed from his position after chanting slogans during the funeral procession of prominent dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Seyed Ali Montazeri.

Report highlights 'shocking' decline in output in traditional research strongholds. Phil Baty writes Russia is no longer a world leader in science and intellectual thinking, according to a new report that details a "shocking" decline in its research output.

Counter-terrorism police stationed on campuses Minister says universities most at risk of extremism have been identified and must work closely with Special Branch officers.

Quebec physicians urge Charest to call for end to silence on asbestos Doctors claim Indian scientists being threatened with legal action for disseminating information on the dangers of chrysotile asbestos