[BIFI] Berkeley Initiative for Free Inquiry

Category: News

  • Bar-Yoshafat Event Held Without Incident

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in ,

    The Los Angeles Times reports: Three weeks after violence broke out at a private event organized by Jewish student groups at UC Berkeley and protested by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the speech took place Monday and unfolded without issue.

  • Statement on Return Event for Ran Bar-Yoshafat

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    Executive Committee Statement We write as Berkeley faculty in response to the news that several student groups plan to host the Israeli speaker Ran Bar-Yoshafat for a return visit on Monday, March 18. Our group has no position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but we are committed to defending free expression on campus. The last time…

  • Harvard May Consider Institutional Neutrality

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    The Harvard Crimson reports: Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 is expected to announce a working group that will consider a policy of institutional neutrality, a move that comes just months after the University became embroiled in controversy over its response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

  • Is Institutional Neutrality Catching On?

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    The CHE reports: Amid a polarized political climate and debates about the war in Gaza and hot-button social issues like abortion rights, university leaders’ statements about current events have attracted attention and scrutiny. A small but growing number of institutions are responding to the pressure by swearing off such statements altogether.

  • “Faculty for Yale” Formed

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    The group’s founding commitments are: Of course, not everyone agrees with the diagnosis made by Faculty for Yale. A group of Yale faculty critical of institutional neutrality have penned “A Letter to the Next Yale President” with a different vision for the university.

  • Gutkin: The Hyperbolic Style in American Academe

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    CHE essayist Len Gutkin writes: …Over the last several years, a curious species of overheated activist prose has proved attractive to scholars across the university. Call it the hyperbolic style in American academe.

  • Columbia Embraces Kalven

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in ,

    Jerry Coyne reports that Columbia University has endorsed the Kalven (institutional neutrality) principles—one of just four campuses to do so.

  • Columbia Adopts Institutional Neutrality, Governance Resolution

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in ,

    In a 68-0 vote, Columbia’s Academic Senate adopted a resolution “Reconfirming our Commitment to the Principles of Academic Freedom and Shared Governance.” The Senate resolved: Columbia’s senate details the debate and discussion surrounding the adoption here. In the Senate minutes, one proponent of the resolution explained academic freedom as both creating rights and responsibilities: Sen.…

  • Columbia Creates Faculty Academic Freedom Council

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    Over 70 faculty have come together to create the Columbia Academic Freedom Council. The group endorsed these responsibilities: I. Responsibility to protect academic freedom. Like many on campus, we believe that the liberal ideal of academic freedom—the freedom to think, write, publish, and teach without restrictions in the course of our duties as scholars—is core…

  • Primacy of Teaching and Research

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    The WSJ reports that two Yale professors, Nicholas Christakis and Kate Stith, sent an email to faculty urging a refocus on academic endeavours. The email is not public, but the WSJ has reproduced parts of it: Yale faculty are the custodians of a system of values that is presently under threat from a number of…