Category: Resources
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Berkeley’s Bizarre, Mistaken Concept of Freedom to Publish
By Chris Hoofnagle Buried in a 1991 campus policy with an admirable title, Policy Guidelines Governing Openness and Freedom to Publish, is a blanket prohibition on an entire category of scholarship. The policy is right about a great deal: It bars extramural sponsor from veto power over what a faculty member publishes, and it correctly…
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What Does UC Leadership Mean When They Use the Word “Equity”?
BLUF: When administrators say equity they mean equal outcomes.
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On Clark Kerr’s “making students safe for ideas”
This is taken from Kerr, Clark. The Gold and the Blue, Volume Two: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967, Political Turmoil. 1st ed. vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/ppt38b/cdi_walterdegruyter_marc_9780520929531 THE OPEN FORUM: The Open Forum policy allowed any affiliate of the Associated Students or otherwise “recognized” student group to invite…
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Michigan report: DEI statements are political litmus tests
The University of Michigan Diversity Statement Working Group found that “these standalone documents [DEI statements] should no longer be solicited as part of faculty hiring and consideration for promotion and tenure. This first recommendation is based upon the nearly 2,000 faculty member responses to a survey we created, our reading of numerous actual diversity statements…
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Leiter on Academic Freedom
Professor Brian Leiter recently have a public lecture on the law and philosophy of academic freedom in the U.S.
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UC’s SB 108 Speech Guidelines
UC President Michael Drake, in response to a requirement imposed by California legislatures, released guidelines for all UC campuses to implement and enforce rules surrounding protests. The guidelines require several categories of rules: UC Berkeley’s implementation of the student conduct rules are here. UC Berkeley also has a more general summary here.
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Pinker’s Five-Point Plan for Harvard
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…
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Alivisatos on Campus Free Speech
University of Chicago President (and former Berkeley Professor) Paul Alivisatos wrote a message to campus extolling free speech as both a gift and a collective responsibility: Ours is a culture built upon a fundamental commitment to place evidence, reason, logic, and rigor over authority, tradition, ideology, or dogma. The University can only achieve this vision…
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Provost on Political Activity
On October 25, 2023, Provost Benjamin Hermalin posted this message to CalMessages. Dear Community, I write to remind people of University policy as pertains to academic freedom and political advocacy in the classroom. While instructors enjoy considerable freedom and all individuals, when acting as private citizens, enjoy free speech rights, University policy does impose…
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Chancellor guiding values and principles
This is archived from https://chancellor.berkeley.edu/guiding-values-and-principles Extracted text: Diversity broadly conceived and expressed in the composition of our faculty, students, and staff; and the breadth and inclusiveness of our academic programs, research enterprise, and public service Excellence an unwavering commitment to maintaining Berkeley as a research university of the very highest quality in all of its…