FIRE warns school: Hate speech code could backfire on students
Friday, January 29, 2021 |
Bob Kellogg (OneNewsNow.com)
Spanish
A small Northeastern university is the latest institution of higher learning to draw the ire of a First Amendment advocacy group.
The speech codes at Northern Vermont University ban disparaging comments and hateful remarks, and that nice-sounding policy earned the school a “red light” rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
NVU, which formed three years ago when two state colleges combined, has approximately 5,500 students on two campuses.
Laura Beltz of FIRE says such restrictions are too broad, and too open for misinterpretation, and thus drew scrutiny from the education watchdog.
Timothy Jackson
A case that rocked the music field last year is back this time in the form of a defamation and retaliation lawsuit against the University of North Texas, one of its graduate students and 17 professors of music history, theory and ethnomusicology.
This phase of the case continues to highlight music theory’s historical lack of diversity and inclusion. It’s also about the boundaries of academic critique. More to the point: Is calling a colleague a racist for his race-based comments against the law?
Timothy Jackson, distinguished university research professor of music theory at North Texas, thinks it is, at least in his case. His suit, filed this month in federal court in Texas, alleges that his colleagues defamed him as a racist for comments he made in the academic journal he founded 20 years ago. And he alleges that North Texas succumbed to the “academic mob” and retaliated against him in violation of his First Amendment rights, by first investigating the
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A faculty-elected oversight body recommends that Duquesne University President Ken Gormley rehire Gary Shank, the education professor fired for using a racial slur during a virtual lecture on race and language in September.
“While Dr. Shank’s use of the N-word was misguided, it was not malicious,” concludes a report by the University Grievance Committee for Faculty, which reviewed Shank’s case, including by conducting interviews and holding a hearing. “Therefore, while sanction of Dr. Shank’s behavior is warranted, it does not reach the level requiring dismissal.”
Universities Urged To Closely Vet Former Trump Appointees Before Hiring Them
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
According to The Washington Post, faculty members and students at a number of universities across the United States believe collegiate institutions should should apply more scrutiny to former Trump officials looking to make similar transitions.
The first wave of criticism came back in May when former Trump official Richard Grenell was granted a one-year fellowship by Carnegie Mellon University. An open letter was written to the university s administrators challenged the decision arguing that a well-documented record of sexism and support for racist political movements. The criticism leveled at Grenell escalated in November when he publicly supported President Donald Trump s attempt to undermine the outcome of the presidential election.
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