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Don Moynihan Profile picture
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Feb 18 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The University of Texas faculty called for respecting academic freedom and in response the Lt Governor has called for ending tenure protections and firing faculty who teach in areas he dislikes.
This is true, but also entirely opposite to the way that Patrick believes and wants to see.

In the meantime, faculty at privates and blue state institutions are emailing those UT faculty they always wanted to recruit. Net effect will be to weaken higher Ed in Texas.
When Scott Walker messed with tenure in WI a bunch of talented faculty started heading for the door. Most of them did not feel personally vulnerable but did not see a long-term commitment to protecting higher Ed in the state. Same will happen in Texas.
Bold move: will people want to go to a university where world-class faculty or political hacks have the final say on the curriculum? Hard to say
Wrote this in The NY Times in 2017 about a “free speech” movement that actually attacked speech. If anything, things have gotten worse since then. nytimes.com/2017/01/09/opi…
As best as I can tell, the timeline is:
*Patrick called for banning certain topics in universities
*faculty issues statement defending academic freedom
*Patrick is offended, asks why faculty didn’t set up an appointment to see him
*maps out plan to end tenure
How bad can it be if faculty in Texas lose tenure protections?
You should ask the faculty in Texas who didn't have those protections, and got fired for things like tweeting about Mike Pence, or advocating for removing confederate statues. dallasobserver.com/news/history-p…
Sneak peek at Dan Patrick-approved curriculum for UT Austin
Of course, we should not ignore the possibility that Patrick’s faculty-bashing is an effort to change the conversation away from a very bad story that dropped about him yesterday

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More from @donmoyn

Don Moynihan Profile picture
Feb 19
Even by the very degraded standards of Wisconsin democracy this is truly extraordinary jsonline.com/story/news/pol… Image
We are well past the point of saying “uh-oh, democracy is in trouble.” Conspiracy nuts are trying to use state power to imprison public officials for resisting their efforts to overturn elections.
And it’s a local story as opposed to a national scandal. jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
It’s no exaggeration to say that the people who fought to defend American democracy in 2020 face greater personal threat and legal jeopardy than the people who sought to destroy it. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/a-year-on-th…
Read 5 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
Feb 18
There is a debate about why economists are paid a premium within social science.
One market-based response is that economists are scarce relative to demand (see below). But since economists control the supply of economists (through grad admissions) what does that tell us?
Maybe economists are better negotiators. This might be true at the margin, but in most places there are broad disciplinary bands. If you are a sociologist getting $80K & 2/2 load, you can try asking for $160K 1/1 load your peer in the Econ dept is getting, but it won't work.
Maybe economists are just smarter. I guess that depends on the criteria you use to evaluate "smart." But based on those prioritized by Econ, the academics in stats and math should be paid more. But they are not. aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…
Read 4 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
Feb 18
Great piece about the challenge that administrative burdens pose.

It's not just a technocratic problem, its about the kind of government we want to have, and how we want to be treated by that government.

Hassles, or help? nytimes.com/2022/02/18/opi…
This piece quotes some of the smartest people I know about how to make government work (full disclosure, I married one of them).
Lets start with @pamela_herd
Nodding along to @ElizabethLinos here. (Noting she has been promoted to "economist" - congrats!)
Read 5 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
Feb 17
This is incredible. Second-most powerful politician in Texas sent a deceptive mass mailer giving bad voter registration information to the public, putting their votes at risk texastribune.org/2022/02/17/tex…
New Texas voting laws are already creating confusion about vote-by-mail, leading to 25-40% of ballots being rejected in some counties. Elected officials should be helping to reduce this confusion. Patrick is making it worse. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-to-think…
Dan Patrick pushed Trump's fraud narrative. Which has reduced trust in elections. Patrick has used that distrust to then justify misleading voters into sending their request for ballots to *the wrong office.* Absolute contempt for the public.
Read 6 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
Feb 17
Functional governments do allow radical actors to routinely veto leadership positions
For better or worse, the US system of government depends on political appointees to lead public organizations. Hawley, Cotton and Cruz are serial offenders when it comes to blocking qualified appointees for their pet reasons…or for no reason at all
Hard to top the time that Cotton blocked Obama's nominee to Ambassador to Barbados for reasons that had nothing to do with her. After more than 800 days waiting for a hearing, she died waiting. Image
Read 7 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
Feb 16
My normal tag-line for this sort of thing is "the commanding heights of universities are actually conservative places" but honestly, there is nothing conservative about this.
Doesn't seem like too much to ask that the leaders of American higher education institutions support American democracy ajc.com/education/geor…
If you think Purdue participating in a Stop the Steal rally is not disqualifying for a higher ed position, he also made clear in his job as Secretary of Agriculture that he was perfectly willing to punish researchers whose views did not align with his.
Read 7 tweets

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