Here is a photo of the campus of the University of Akron. It is the alma mater of Deborah L. Cook, federal judge, US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. It is also the site of an ongoing test case of academic freedom. Academic freedom is a moral conception arising from the confidence that freedom of inquiry by faculty members is critical to the mission of colleges and universities Scholars ought to have to contractually protected right to communicate, to their students or the public at large, ideas that are offensive to the authorities or political groups without that serving as the cause for job loss or demotion. I'll let Leiter Reports take up the subject from here. https://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2021/02/faculty-purged-at-university-of-akron-need-our-support.html
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This is alarming: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/24/universities-mccarthyism-mp-demands-list-brexit-chris-heaton-harris The government of the UK is committed to the exit from a broader entity, the EU. I believe on the basis of my own limited study of the matter, that that is a rational decision. Also, it is the decision mandated by a referendum. Well and good. But ... The Guardian reports that a high ranking MP in the ruling party has sent letters to honchos in the country's universities asking them what they are teaching about the subject of Brexit and asking for a list of lecturers' names. THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE REASON FOR A GOVERNMENT TO ASK. Bryan Leiter discussed this on his blog, and drew an intriguing email from a well known political philosopher, Thom Brooks, dean of Durham Law School. Brooks wrote: Lists of courses can be readily found online and most department websites carry information about individual staff interests. The MP, Chr...