Posted on 07/15/2019 3:38:11 AM PDT by reaganaut1
In March 2018, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees adopted new rules that fatally undermine academic freedom. We authored this piece for the Martin Center explaining the damage the amendments would inflict on higher education in the state.
Unfortunately, the Board of Trustees ignored our warning, a warning reiterated by numerous other faculty and academic organizations. So earlier this month, three of our colleagues filed a lawsuit that seeks to bar application of the revisions to faculty with tenure or who were on the tenure track at the time the changes were adopted. Should the lawsuit succeed, some of the harm caused by the new rules will be forestalled.
The purpose of academic freedom is to protect freedom of speech, thought, and expression in the university setting so that learning and knowledge can flourish. Tenure is the primary mechanism by which academic freedom is ensured. It prohibits the termination or punishment of faculty for any reason that could plausibly be used to stifle academic speech and inquiry. Tenured faculty members may be fired or disciplined only for “cause.”
Tenure and academic freedom have been bedrock principles in higher education for a century.
Unfortunately, in recent decades some university administrators have engaged in an all-out assault on both by seeking to 1) replace outspoken full-time faculty with part-time adjuncts who lack tenure protection and 2) gut the rules governing academic freedom and tenure. The changes adopted by the University of Arkansas fall into the second category. Consider some of the deeply problematic changes.
The new rules both quantitatively and qualitatively alter the definition of “cause.” The original policy set forth a list of four examples of conduct that constitute cause for dismissal. The revised policy has sixteen. And the four examples in the original policy all aptly reflected serious problems
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Frankly, tenure has never made sense to me. Why would any professor ever be “fired” for a new proof in Math or a different explanation of Physics? Why would you fire a Chemistry professor who found new things to do with methane?
Academics are some of the shortest sighted meanest “colleagues” ever. The honestly attack one another instead of analyzing ideas. It is brutal.
Even worse than Medicine?
Don’t know about medicine, is it vicious?
The backstabbing is ubiquitous.
I doubt that this has anything to do with Freedom of Speech. They want to protect the underperforming faculty who are shielded by tenure. They are also intolerant lefties who will do whatever is needed to keep out anyone who disagrees with their political philosophy. They are the real enemies of free speech.
Fayetville, home of University of Arkansas, is a hot bed of liberal activity.
NW Arkansas in general is also a nexus for liberal activism. The once bucolic pace has been replaced by an instant strip mall city stertching from the Missouri line to the Boston Mountains with all the trappings of any metro area and increasingly populated, thanks to wamart’s mandate, with transplants from the NE. The local television stations give all manner of favor to liberal activities of any stripe particularly abortion, pot legalization, lgbt crap, globull warming, illegals and sanctuary to name but a few. They always spin in favor of liberal causes and never miss an opportunity to repay national news that bashes Trump.
The regents appear to be trying to curb some of this on the campus of the hogs.
That’s a shame to hear. I lived in Fayetteville from 2001-2005 whenI worked at the corporate HQ for Wally. It wasn’t some bastion of Leftism then but the area was growing really fast thanks to all the suppliers setting up fairly large branch offices there complete with some senior VP to manage the Wally account. Also Wal-Mart itself was growing really fast sucking in people from elsewhere. You could see the once unique corporate culture fading away then. It’s probably completely gone now.
You should have seen the month of June. Everything was given over to local queer parades. I suggested a spray of THIS to combat the fag infestation that month. After all, this is HOG country.
That was a long time ago these days. We have seen changes in 3 years up there.
Pretty much looked like they gave the whole month over to them. 40/29 news seems to want to go to ever deeper lows in their liberal support. Who owns that station?
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