When the news broke in the "New York Times" in August 2009 that Yale University Press had decided to remove twelve Danish cartoon images of the prophet Mohammed from "The Cartoons That Shook the World," a forthcoming book by Brandeis political scientist Jytte Klausen, the author felt that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)…

Two perspectives on political correctness, particularly as it occurs in higher education, are presented, with responses. One perspective views the trend as a cult of victimization, to which students are at last responding critically. The second views the trend as a healthy expression of democratic values. (MSE)

Discussion of the current demand for accountability at the higher education level examines its historical background and finds the influence of the conservative backlash against the 1960s and the global demands of capitalism. Suggests that part of this movement's broader agenda is defunding the public university and submission to market forces.…

Merit pay replicates Reaganomics by breeding competition between entrepreneurs who design their own teaching and research in direct response to the merit pay system. It also breeds cynicism and discourages faculty service to the institution. (MSE)

Through aesthetics, styles, and organization of space, campus architecture has often been complicit in reproducing dominant ideologies and social relations of society, undermining diversity and its possibilities. Architectural scholars, as teachers of architecture, should move theory and practice into new, more critical social terrain. (MSE)

Political forces in Brazil have caused significant economic changes, including hyperinflation, and policy that threaten higher education in a variety of ways, including failure to expand during a period of economic strength, severe loss of academic autonomy, lowering of academic and administrative standards, and declines in teacher education and…

A supporter of affirmative action in California sees attackers as mean-spirited and practicing wedge politics. He stresses its legality and opposes a proposed California Civil Rights initiative. An opponent criticizes affirmative action, noting practical difficulties in application and its opposition to American values of fairness. He defends the…

The question of how the academy can continue and prosper from the beneficent association with government without permitting government to debase science and learning for nationalist purposes is discussed in a speech at the annual meeting of the American Association of University Professors. Science and nationialism are seen as locked in mortal…

In Rumania, currently, change is rapid at the level of social doctrine because the people never really accepted Communism. However, at the level of cultural and academic life, fundamental changes will be slower. Content, methods, goals, and teachers of the universities will have to be renewed and reoriented. (MSE)

Universities are compounding the problems created by faculty entrepreneurship by gaining an unprecedented financial interest in the prosperity of the biomedical industry. This interferes with the institutions' other functions of critiquing social policy, explaining technical matters, and performing research for publicly decided goals. The…

Issues and recent events concerning censorship of the arts in the United States are examined, and the threat to artistic freedom posed by recent Supreme Court decisions is examined. Focus is on erosion of the actual or imminent harm requirement of the law and on the court's class-based approach to free speech. (MSE)

In a statement of the American Association of University Professors' Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, recently imposed government restraints on disclosure of academic research results are criticized as adding to already excessive restrictions, compromising academic freedom, and susceptible to executive manipulation. (MSE)

The status of the minimally functioning elementary and secondary schools and universities of the Gaza Strip and West Bank in the midst of political and social turmoil is discussed; the daily life of a university teacher is described; and the potential role of American academics is examined briefly. (MSE)

The report of the American Association of University Professors' Committee C on College and University Teaching, Research, and Publication extends discussion of faculty workload issues by examining external attempts to legislate and regulate the way in which faculty in public higher education institutions distribute their work. Focus is on…

The American Association of University Professors' government relations committee report on distance learning addresses issues and makes recommendations concerning the political context of the growth of distance learning; definitions, descriptions, and claims of distance learning; academic freedom; intellectual property rights; faculty workload…