#higher-education-governance

#higher-education-governance

Political and social changes in the U.S. and other Western democracies in the 21st century have triggered growing concerns about possible erosion of academic freedom. In the past, colleges and universities largely decided whom to admit and hire, what to teach, and which research to support. Increasingly, those prerogatives are being challenged. In a new working paper, Pippa Norris, the Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, looked at academic freedom and found it faces two very different but dangerous threats.

Lane Community College board members discriminated against President Stephanie Bulger on the basis of race and gender, according to findings in a recently unearthed investigative report. The report paints a damning picture of a board chair who allegedly steamrolled the president-a Black woman-in conversations, dismissed answers from female staff members and sought out their male counterparts instead, and physically intimidated a student outside a meeting.