In this Martin Center policy brief, "Scholastic Gag Orders: NDAs, Mandatory Arbitration, and the Legal Threat to Academics," Stephen Baskerville explores how non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) and mandatory arbitration (MA) provide a veil of legally enforced secrecy, shielding administrations from negative publicity, professional…

The existing legal position of Australian universities with respect to ownership and exploitation of intellectual property by faculty, students, and outside consultants is described. Issues requiring attention are noted, including resources for exploitation, sharing of proceeds, and copyright considerations; and some possible solutions are…

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)

Discussion of trends concerning academic freedom compares the limits to academic freedom traditionally rooted in professional ethics and applied by the academic profession with the areas of protection prescribed by courts. It is concluded that even when generous, rulings have not necessarily been in the best interest of the academy. (MSE)

Increased appreciation of the commercial value of intellectual property has triggered a major debate on college campuses, focusing on two issues: ownership of intellectual property and use of copyrighted works in teaching and research. Because these raise faculty-rights issues, faculty must identify its claims and interests clearly and make itself…

Increasingly, college faculty members accused of sexual harassment say their rights have been breached and are suing their institutions. Some observers see the trend as a backlash to new expectations about appropriate faculty behavior. Others worry that administrative definitions of harassment are too broad, and faculty due process is violated.…

Discussion of academic freedom and college teacher dismissal first examines the expectations that institutions should have of faculty, traces the history of academic freedom in America, and looks at conditions that might constitute adequate cause for teacher dismissal. Examples are drawn from court litigation. Catalysts in the institutional…

The results are reported of court litigation in which Boston University faculty were denied the right to collective bargaining because faculty are considered supervisors. The role of the American Association of University Professors is also discussed and excerpts from the court's opinion are presented. (MSE)

Intellectual property questions, as they concern college faculty, are composed of many issues and have substantial and far-reaching implications for the work of faculty and students and for administrative decision making. Both faculty and the American Association of University Professors must become involved to guard against incursions of academic…

A discussion of legal aspects of college faculty efforts to profit from their research activities considers whether judicially acknowledged distinctions between faculty's academic and personal pursuits will apply in such cases of commercialization. Implications for increased regulation of core institutional and faculty activities are examined.…

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 court decision in Bishop vs. Aronov, that public universities may suppress a professor's classroom comments on his personal religious beliefs, is discussed, focusing on the conflict between a professor's right to express personal religious beliefs and a university's right to take action to limit that expression. (Author/MSE)

The status of Australian law and policy concerning college faculty's intellectual property rights is examined briefly. A number of recent occurrences, some reflecting trends and some discrete events, are used to illustrate the legal and cultural circumstances that frame the discussion about intellectual property and academics. (MSE)

The statement of the American Association of University Professors' Special Committee on Distance Education and Intellectual Property addresses the rights and responsibilities of faculty, institutions, and third parties in the current volatile, highly entrepreneurial environment of distance education. A statement on copyrights is included. (MSE)

Court litigation and decisions concerning the conflict between first amendment rights of free speech for United States citizens and the rights of controversial international figures, invited by college faculty to speak on campus, are discussed and compared. (MSE)