[BIFI] Berkeley Initiative for Free Inquiry

Category: News

  • 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
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    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…

  • Gutkin: A Decade of Ideological Transformation Comes Undone

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    Chris Hoofnagle
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    In a wide-ranging essay in the CHE, Len Gutkin asks, “Why, in the last 10 years, have elite colleges in particular become sites of such relentless ideological confrontation and objects of such severe political contestation?” In the essay, written after the Senate hearings on antisemitism on college campuses, Gutkin observes: …From one point of view,…

  • Julia Schaletzky on Free Speech

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    Chris Hoofnagle
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    BIFI’s Julia Schaletzky, writing in Tablet, diagnoses campus free speech problems and recommends solutions.

  • Pinker’s Five-Point Plan for Harvard

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in ,

    Harvard Professor Steven Pinker published a five-point “plan to save Harvard from itself:” Free speech. Universities should adopt a clear and conspicuous policy on academic freedom. It might start with the First Amendment, which binds public universities and which has been refined over the decades with carefully justified exceptions. These include crimes that by their very…

  • University of Toronto forms Academic Freedom Group

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    Chris Hoofnagle
    in

    The Council on Academic Freedom University of Toronto (CAFUT) is a faculty-led group devoted to: Free inquiry The Council will advocate for academic freedom in teaching, research, and speech for members of the U of T community. Intellectual diversity The Council will promote thoughtful engagement by students and scholars who represent a broad range of…