This report concerns actions taken by the administration of Spalding University to terminate the appointment of tenured professor of social work Erlene Grise-Owens after she criticized the administration's handling of an incident involving a student who brought a gun to a campus parking lot. The social work school's chair immediately alerted…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of University of Nebraska-Lincoln to suspend lecturer, Courtney Lawton from her teaching responsibilities--initially, for stated safety concerns. Lawton is a sixth-year doctoral student with a part-time appointment as lecturer for the 2017-18 academic year. She received threats after a video…

St. Edward's University is a private, four-year institution affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church that traces its beginnings to 1877, when the Congregation of Holy Cross, an order of French missionaries, founded St. Edward's Academy on farmland south of Austin, Texas. St. Edward's received its charter as a college in 1885 and as a university…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of the Community College of Aurora, during the fourth week of the fall 2016 semester, to terminate the appointment of part-time instructor of philosophy, Nathanial Bork, without affordance of academic due process. Mr. Bork was dismissed after conveying his intention to send to the college's…

This paper explores the conceptual history of academic freedom and its emergence as a substantive right that pertains to either the academic or the university. It is suggested that historical reconceptualisations necessitated by contingent circumstance may have led to academic freedom being seen as a form of protection for those working within…

Steven Bitterman was fired by his school after he offended his students for telling them that they could easily appreciate the biblical story of Adam and Eve if they considered it a myth. Several adjunct and full-time professors who work off the tenure track have been fired after saying something, as Mr. Bitterman did, that offended students or…

While both the author and Norman Finkelstein were reviled by American Zionists for their opinions regarding Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian territories when they came up for tenure, the author ultimately gained tenure at an Israeli university, while Finkelstein was denied tenure at an American one. Drawing on this experience, the…

This chapter provides an overview of academic freedom and tenure as applied to the community college.

Three AAUP cases involving academic freedom and tenure are discussed. Cases at Jackson State University and Talladega College, and two cases of excessive probation at Pennsylvania State University are reported. Some developments relating to censure by AAUP are described. (MLW)

Academic freedom, collegiality, and tenure are addressed with focus on how collective bargaining affects them. This material is intended to give college and university attorneys a feel for the challenges and problems that collective bargaining has brought to academia. Three sections look at the following: (1) academic freedom (what it is, academic…

Historian Joan Wallach Scott has served on the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure since 1993. She was committee chair from 1999 until this past June, when she became a consultant to the committee. To mark her transition from chair to consultant, "Academe" asked her to participate in an interview about her experience with the…

The relationship between faculty union mandatory membership provisions in a collective bargaining agreement and the rights of faculty protected by tenure and academic freedom are examined, and college options and considerations in negotiating contracts under collective bargaining laws are discussed. (MSE)

Analysis of a Supreme Court case, in which university use of academic freedom as a basis for protecting confidential peer-review documents was rejected, explores the general development and this application of academic freedom doctrine. Individual academic freedom is distinguished from institutional autonomy in protection of the free exchange of…

The American Association of University Professors may sanction five institutions for policies and practices concerning faculty criticism of church doctrine (Catholic University) or the administration (Alvernia College), tenure denial (State University of New York, Stonybrook, and New York University School of Medicine), and sex discrimination…

A questionnaire survey was conducted to examine academic freedom as perceived by faculty members at Dowling College (New York) and by administrators in general. Topics covered in this study include: elements of academic freedom, the faculty and academic freedom, relationship of the Board of Trustees to the faculty, relationship of the…