Free Speech on Campus: Know Your Rights on April 10, from 3-5pm at the Student Union, Ballroom A.
Today’s political climate has become increasingly inimical to academic freedom. Over the course of the last two years, the academic community has witnessed legislative and gubernatorial attacks on individual faculty members, course offerings, governing boards, the institution of tenure, and, generally, the institutional autonomy of colleges and universities. Websites such as Professor Watchlist are monitoring activities of faculty members and denouncing departures from what they view as acceptable speech. These activities have led to targeted harassment of faculty members.
In light of these worrying events, the Faculty Senate, University Council, and Akron-AAUP are co-sponsoring a lecture by Joerg Tiede on Free Speech on Campus: Know Your Rights on April 10, from 3-5pm at the Student Union, Ballroom A. This presentation provides an overview of the concept of academic freedom, recent attacks on academic freedom, and how you can defend academic freedom.
Hans-Joerg Tiede is Senior Program Officer in the Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance at the American Association of University Professors. He is the editor of Policy Documents and Reports (the AAUP “Redbook”) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015) and author of University Reform: The Founding of the American Association of University Professors (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015).
Light refreshments will be provided, and the entire university community is invited to attend. Please feel free to invite your students, and we look forward to seeing you there!