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31 Aug, 7 tweets, 3 min read
NEW REPORT:

“Scholars Under Fire” documents 426 attempts to penalize collegiate scholars for their expression since 2015.

An alarming 74% of the attempts were successful.

Press release:

go.thefire.org/scholars-under…

Database:

thefire.org/research/schol…
We found that these incidents increased significantly in recent years, quadrupling since 2015 and peaking in 2020 at 113 incidents.

This year is on pace to match or exceed 2020’s record.
Other findings:

* Most incidents occur because of speech or expression on social media.

* Campuses where the most targeting incidents occur tend to also have severely restrictive speech codes

* Incidents occur most often in disciplines at the core of liberal arts education.
The problem spans ideologies:

While most campaigns (62%) came from the political “left” of the scholar, 34% came from the scholar’s “right.”
“Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated,” said Sean Stevens, FIRE’s senior research fellow and co-author of the report.

“If administrators keep caving in to demands to punish faculty for their expression, the demands will continue to increase."
“Scholars should not lose their jobs for expressing controversial views,” said FIRE Research Fellow Komi German, one of the report’s authors.

"Disagreement should be the catalyst for debate, not a license to silence disagreeable opinions and penalize those who hold them.”
Faculty need legal help to defend their expression — and their jobs.

In light of increased risks to faculty expression, FIRE is officially launching the Faculty Legal Defense Fund to provide free legal assistance to faculty at public colleges and universities across the country. Faculty Legal Defense Fund

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More from @TheFIREorg

5 Aug
Idaho officials launched a task force to root out liberal "indoctrination" in education. But encountering views you find objectionable isn't a problem in higher ed — it's an indispensable feature.

So far, the task force has come up short in its quest.

go.thefire.org/idahoedfreedom
The task force asked for public comments on indoctrination "to protect our young people." But when reporters sought those comments, the lt. gov.'s office clammed up, claiming a litany of bogus exceptions to public records laws.

FIRE ultimately obtained some of those records.
While a handful of comments cited troubling interactions with students or faculty, the overwhelming majority of the thousands of comments were sharply critical of the task force and its claims of widespread indoctrination.
Read 5 tweets
22 Jun
BREAKING:

A recording of an “Anti-Racist Rhetoric & Pedagogies” workshop acquired by FIRE raises alarm bells about the state of free expression and conscience at @UofOklahoma.

go.thefire.org/l/869921/2021-…
@UofOklahoma “I, in this case, usually look for my students who might be, like, entertaining the idea of listening to a problematic argument. Then I say, ‘we don’t have to listen to that.’”

That’s right — even thinking about listening to a disfavored argument is apparently to be discouraged.
One instructor notes that if students use “derogatory remarks, critiques, and hate speech,” as well as “white supremacist ideas or sources,” she will call the student out.

And if it happens again, “report them.”
Read 8 tweets
8 Oct 20
“Do the positives outweigh the negatives?”

It's a standard question asked of history students.

But when a @StJohnsU prof. posed it to his students about the “Columbian Exchange,” he was removed from his class, investigated, and found guilty of bias.

thefire.org/teaching-histo…
@StJohnsU Three days after this lesson, professor Richard Taylor was removed from teaching.

A month later, he was informed he violated the “University’s Policy against Bias, Discrimination, and Harassment."

He was not told which part of the over 2,300-word policy he allegedly violated.
@StJohnsU Taylor was denied access to the evidence used to support the finding that he violated university policy.

“St. John’s might want to ask a history professor about other authority systems that would punish you based on vague wrongdoing with no evidence,” said FIRE's @AdGo.
Read 5 tweets
7 Oct 20
BREAKING:

Duquesne University fired professor Gary Shank this morning, violating his academic freedom rights.

Shank was on leave following controversy over his utterance of a racial slur in class while discussing why the word is inappropriate.

thefire.org/breaking-duque… @duqedu
@duqedu The professor’s use of the slur was pedagogically relevant and protected under Duquesne’s promises of free expression and academic freedom.
@duqedu Last week, FIRE wrote to @usedgov about this matter, alerting the Department that Duquesne appeared to be substantially misrepresenting the nature of its academic program — and violating its promises to its accreditor — by promising rights it does not provide in practice.
Read 7 tweets
17 Jul 20
Once again, @FordhamNYC should be ashamed of itself.

This perennial “worst college for free speech” is now punishing a student who emigrated from China for posting two photos on Instagram ...

thefire.org/fordham-studen…
@FordhamNYC One photo, posted on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, is of the student lawfully holding a gun off-campus, captioned “Don’t Tread on me.”
@FordhamNYC The other photo is of St. Louis police officer David Dorn, who was killed by looters last month.

It's captioned, “Y’all a bunch of hypocrites,” referencing his frustration with what he refers to as “the nonchalant societal reaction over [Dorn’s] death.”
Read 9 tweets
6 May 20
Advocates for free speech and due process on campus won one of their *biggest-ever* victories today with the finalization of long-awaited new @usedgov Title IX regulations.

thefire.org/breaking-educa…
@usedgov The regulations guarantee critical due process protections that Americans recognize as essential to securing justice, but that have for too long been denied to students accused of sexual misconduct on college campuses.
@usedgov Among the procedural protections guaranteed are:

* An express presumption of innocence

* Live hearings with cross-examination conducted by an advisor of choice, who may be an attorney

* Sufficient time and information to prepare for interviews and a hearing

...
Read 7 tweets

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