#academic-freedom

#academic-freedom

The university told computer science lecturer Peyrin Kao earlier this month it was placing him on six months of unpaid leave, citing an optional post-class session in which he talked about the relationship between tech companies and the Israeli military ending with Free Palestine and a separate incident in which he said during class that he was on hunger strike for a cause he believed in.

Hettinger's mounting discomfort with US higher education led her last spring to Class Action, a two-year-old grassroots network of students and recent graduates promoting a critique of elite institutions' contributions to an increasingly divided American society. At times, the group's criticism echoes the one exploited by Trump in his campaign to reshape US higher education to fit his ideological agenda.

Last Tuesday afternoon, Dean Andrea Baccarelli at the Harvard School of Public Health sent out a brief message announcing that one of the country's most experienced and accomplished public health leaders, Dr Mary T Bassett, would step down as director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. The email struck a polite, bureaucratic tone, thanking her for her service and offering an upbeat rationale for a new focus on children's health.

"The article discussed peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms. I do not necessarily see this as a problem. God made male and female and made us differently from each other on purpose and for a purpose. God is very intentional with what He makes, and I believe trying to change that would only do more harm," Fulnecky wrote. "Overall, reading articles such as this one encourage [ sic] me to one day raise my children knowing that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and cherishes them deeply and that having their identity firmly rooted in who He is will give them the satisfaction and acceptance that the world can never provide for them."

The content of the course was the reason for the dismissal and not the stated reason: failure of academic responsibility,

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The foreign affairs select committee is drawing up plans to examine Chinese government interference in academia as part of its inquiry into the UK's strategy towards Beijing. MPs are broadening the scope of their investigation into the China audit, an internal government review of UK-China relations that concluded in June, to look into Chinese state influence at British universities. Ministers are under pressure to take a more robust approach after the Guardian disclosed

A South Yorkshire police spokesperson said the force had referred the investigation on because the allegations fall under Section 3 of the National Security Act, the BBC reported. Section 3 of the act deals with assisting a foreign intelligence service. An offence is committed if someone behaves in a way that intends that conduct to materially assist a foreign intelligence service in carrying out UK-related activities, or in conduct likely to assist that service.

Sheffield Hallam University staff in China were threatened by individuals described by them as being from China's National Security Service who demanded the research being done in Sheffield be halted. And access to the university's websites from China was blocked, impeding its ability to recruit Chinese students, in a campaign of threats and intimidation lasting more than two years. In an internal email from July 2024, university officials said "attempting to retain the business in China and publication of the research are now untenable bedfellows".

The desire is about more than bricks and mortarboards. Students from other countries have long sought out American values of academic freedom and open discourse. They are excited by ideas and experiences that are as emblematic of the American way of life as tailgating on game day: criticizing the government, discussing LGBTQ+ rights or learning about the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, the Armenian genocide in Turkey or the comfort women victimized by the Imperial Japanese Army.

The discriminatory "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" extortion scheme, promising preferred access to federal funding in exchange for submitting to the administration's demands over how to run the schools, was pitched to nine colleges and universities in a letter sent at the beginning of October. The 10-point plan demanded the schools' submission to the president's "gender ideology" obsession, effectively erasing trans identity in higher education, along with a cap on international undergraduate enrollment at 15% and banning the use of race or sex in hiring, among other diktats.

I appreciate the various points of view shared with me by many members of our community. Although USC has declined to join the proposed Compact, we look forward to contributing our perspectives, insights, and Trojan values to an important national conversation about the future of higher education.

Dear Colleagues, We at University Administration are now prepared to issue our Academic Freedom guidelines for your classes. As you know from last year's memo, we in administration are strong advocates of free speech on campus. With some guidance from us, we believe you will feel more empowered to speak your mind, with proper limits. While the previous provost, president, and general counsel have "resigned," we assure you our commitment to education remains steadfast.

The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has been met with joy and relief across the Middle East and beyond. Over the past two years, outrage at Israel's war in Gaza has erupted across Europe and the US, manifesting itself in university campus protests, massive marches through countless capitals and the disruption of major sporting events. Even as hopes rise of an end to the war, international anger over Israel's actions in Gaza, which have been deemed a genocide by a UN commission of inquiry, remains raw, as evidenced by last weekend's huge rallies in Spain and Italy.

"I'm a historian of fascism and I understand that the way that authoritarian movements grow is by coming up with a boogeyman term like 'Antifa,'" said Bray, author of "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Playbook." "It really started after [President] Trump's executive order declaring Antifa a quote-unquote terrorist organization."

In a year already defined by polarization and violence, the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University plunged higher education into crisis. The killing of one of the nation's most prominent conservative activists on a college campus has been weaponized by political factions, prompting administrative crackdowns and faculty firings. What were once familiar battles in the campus culture wars have escalated into something more dangerous: a struggle over the very conditions of inquiry, where violence, scandal and political pressure converge to erode academic freedom.