Category: News

Institutional drift toward mediocre hires begins with a blurring of institutional goals. The rise of administrative authority, whose legitimacy comes from procedural control rather than scholarly achievement, can also foster institutional mediocrity. Several conditions identified in this report suggest that our institution may already be moving in that direction.

Excellence is Inseparable from Freedom of Inquiry

The Academic Senate must remain vigilant in its protection of academic freedom interests, and ACFR’s recommended procedural reforms offer key safeguards.

BerkeleySide reports on the Berkeley settlement with the Brandeis Center, quoting BIFI’s Chris Hoofnagle: “Berkeley can say ‘We won because we didn’t adopt [the definition],’ but the Brandeis Center can say they won because the view of what is antisemitism will now be titrated through that document,” said Chris Hoofnagle, secretary of the Berkeley Initiative…

Katherine S. NewmanProvost and Executive Vice PresidentUCOP Academic Affairs Dear Provost Newman, We are a group of Berkeley faculty representing diverse viewpoints and disciplines who share a common commitment to free inquiry, academic freedom, shared governance, and the integrity of scholarly judgment. We write regarding the Congress on Math Preparation and STEM Pathways and recent…

Berkeley Law Dean Chemerinsky and Chancellor Gilman have published Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times (Yale University Press 2026). The book is a must read for understanding the differences between academic freedom and free speech and it has detailed analyses of recent campus speech conflicts.

BIFI secretary Chris Hoofnagle filed comments with the Department of Education on Updates tothe Accreditation Handbook, an effort to “update the Handbook to ensure that the accrediting agency recognition process is transparent, efficient, and not unduly burdensome.” Hoofnagle using UC Berkeley’s accreditor as an example, explained three problems arising from the incentives created by the…

William Fithian and Daniel Sargent published a response to Brian Soucek’s essay “Universities Can’t Be Neutral” (WSJ, Jan 3, 2026). (Appeared in the January 9, 2026, print edition as ‘A College Can’t Be Neutral. But Why Not Try?’.)