Hofstra professor facing possible termination for saying 'word salad' trib.al/p96aj4q

We sent a letter urging South Florida State College to reinstate Professor Vinita Prabhakar, who was terminated after she assigned an award-winning short story in her Freshman English II course. Prabhakar had used Ottessa Moshfegh’s “Bettering Myself” for nearly a decade to teach narrative voice and characterization. After one student expressed discomfort, College President Fred Hawkins overrode the support of Prabhakar’s department chair, dean, and vice president and ordered her to stop teaching the story. She was then fired. Our letter calls this out as a violation of the college's First Amendment obligations and its own policies. It concludes: "These types of egregious actions break the college’s own stated commitment to academic freedom and send a chilling message to other members of the faculty who must discuss difficult and controversial material as part of their teaching duties.” Full letter here: academicfreedom.org/wp-conte…

NEW PODCAST out now on the Pernell decision: Keith Whittington @kewhittington is joined by Greg Greubel, a senior attorney at @TheFIREorg and one of the lead attorneys who argued against Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act. The 11th Circuit just handed down an opinion in that case, Pernell v. Florida Board of Governors, one of the most consequential academic freedom cases of recent years. They discuss the case, the constitutional doctrine relating to academic freedom, and the implications of the opinion for the future. podbean.com/ew/pb-icchs-1b18…

We are urging Hofstra University to end its harassment investigation of Prof. Richard Himelfarb. Criticism of a colleague’s proposal, even if blunt, is not discriminatory harassment. Universities cannot protect academic freedom and shared governance while treating ordinary faculty debate as a policy violation. Read our letter to learn more: academicfreedom.org/wp-conte…

NEW PODCAST EP: Keith Whittington interviews @BRSoucek of @UCDavisLaw, a member of AAUP's Committee A and author of the recent book "The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education." They discuss diversity initiatives, institutional speech, and their relation to academic freedom and the mission of the university. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. academicfreedom.org/podcasts… @kewhittington

Please join AFA members Evan Morris, Peggy Mason, and Lee Jussim at Yale (virtually or in-person) as they present their critique of current IRB practices and their proposed reforms - The Mudd Code. Yale IRB Chair Dr. Edward Monico will respond. Wednesday, June 3 | 5:00–6:30 PM ET Register: yale.zoom.us/webinar/registe… AFA endorsed the Mudd Code in a recent guidance statement: academicfreedom.org/afa-rele…

AFA is cohosting an event with Harvard Alumni for Free Speech, where our members Nadine Strossen and Jeffrey Flier will join a conversation on open inquiry and academic freedom in higher education. The discussion centers on the new Harvard Medical School Working Group report on free expression, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse. Thursday, May 28 | 3:00–4:00 PM ET | Zoom Register here: zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_…

For years, Institutional Review Boards at universities have steadily drifted away from their original purpose of assessing risk to human research subjects and toward a much broader effort to supervise the intellectual content and political implications of research. This has become an affront to academic freedom. Today, we released a new guidance statement urging universities and their IRBs to adopt a new set of principles to refocus them on their original mission and purpose. Specifically, we encourage adoption of the Mudd Code, which proposes reforms in three areas: 1. Transparency – including open deliberations, named reviewers, and timely decisions 2. Justification of risk evaluation – tying all requirements explicitly to the principles of the Belmont Report, consistent with the original ideal of IRBs 3. Limits on risk reduction – defining the minimal-risk threshold and rejecting the logic of total-risk elimination Learn more/ read the full statement here: academicfreedom.org/wp-conte…

New episode of the Academic Freedom Podcast out now: @KEWhittington speaks to U. Chicago's Genevieve Lakier about the Trump Administration's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," which would condition federal funds on meeting certain demands. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts... @glakier podbean.com/eas/pb-qq7fw-19f…

Thank you, @McCormickProf! Anyone interested in becoming an AFA member can learn more about us on our website: academicfreedom.org/

Maybe a good time to shout out an academic freedom organization I helped launch, the @AFA_Alliance Defending the contractual and constitutional speech rights of professors across the ideological spectrum from foes within and without the ivory tower

Today we sent a letter to Texas State University @TxSt regarding its decision to fire Professor Thomas Alter after he spoke at a conference on socialism, where he discussed the need to "overthrow" the U.S. government. As we wrote: "American First Amendment law protects a great deal of extreme political rhetoric and has adopted a very narrow understanding of what speech can qualify as illegal incitement to violence that might fall outside the scope of First Amendment protections. Alter’s remarks in his address to this conference do not even approach that constitutional line." Full letter here: academicfreedom.org/wp-conte…

Our statement on the Charlie Kirk tragedy: The assassination of Charlie Kirk was an attack on freedom of speech and, therefore, an attack on a vital practice of American universities. The Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) condemns this heinous murder. Mr. Kirk was killed in the context of a university forum for the robust exchange of ideas and arguments—something to which he had personally dedicated himself. It is critical that the impact of Mr. Kirk’s assassination not be that the threat of violence looms over anyone who speaks his or her mind on a college or university campus. It should be remembered that the murder of Mr. Kirk followed numerous attempts at institutions around the country to deplatform him or use other means to prevent his voice and the voices of others from being heard. All attempts to shut down debate and the airing of diverse opinions at colleges and universities should be deplored by friends of higher education. The issue is not whether one agrees or disagrees with a speaker, be it Charlie Kirk or anyone else. What unites true friends of learning is the conviction that words rather than force, reasons rather than violence or intimidation, are the proper and best way to deal with disagreement. American colleges and universities historically and today pride themselves on educating students to become informed and engaged citizens and leaders. These institutions cannot succeed in their mission if they fail to establish and maintain a climate hospitable to robust but civil dialogue and debate. To do that, they must—by precept and example—inculcate in their students a commitment to pursue knowledge by considering honestly and in a truth-seeking spirit the evidence and best arguments to be advanced on competing sides of contested questions. The forum at which Mr. Kirk was assassinated was one in which he invited students and others who disagreed with positions he was advancing to “prove me wrong.” The forum invited people to advance reasons, adduce evidence, and marshal arguments. Everyone in the audience was invited to listen to Mr. Kirk and to those challenging him, and to make up their own minds: no coercion; no intimidation; no violence. But violence shattered the forum when someone who disapproved of Mr. Kirk’s ideas silenced his voice with a high-powered rifle. In this way the assassin who took Mr. Kirk’s life also attacked the basic freedom of those in academic communities to discuss, debate, and learn. It is the mission of the Academic Freedom Alliance to defend that indispensable freedom from anyone and everyone who threatens it. Finally, the Academic Freedom Alliance acknowledges that the murder of Mr. Kirk, though a tragedy for the academic world and for the country, was most fundamentally and above all a personal tragedy. We as an organization send our deep and sincere condolences to his loved ones, above all his wife and two small children.

🚨Dr. Michael Joyner's case against the Mayo Clinic is headed to trial - a first for our org where we have provided 100% of the funding support. It's an important case for open scientific inquiry, and costs are rising fast. We need your help to meet this moment. Please consider donating & sharing our message today: academicfreedom.org/michael-…

BREAKING: Dr. Michael Joyner’s case against the Mayo Clinic, which is funded and supported by the AFA, has been approved by a judge to move forward to a jury trial in September. The ruling is the latest development in a case dating back to 2023, when Dr. Joyner alleges that the Mayo Clinic violated its contractual obligations by punishing him over comments he made to the media about sex-specific differences in sports performance and about the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of COVID-19. Read more: academicfreedom.org/afa-anno…

Should the government tax university endowments? Our latest podcast is out now, featuring Brian Galle, Professor of Tax Policy at Georgetown University Law Center podbean.com/eas/pb-z9mv6-18d…

New Podcast Out Now: Keith Whittington and Harvard Law's Cass Sunstein discuss the legal and constitutional questions raised by the Trump administration's withholding of federal grants from Columbia and Harvard to force internal policy reforms. podbean.com/ew/pb-egdf7-18bd…

New podcast ep out now: @kewhittington and NYU Law's Daniel Hemel discuss the Trump administration’s threat to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status and the implications of the tax code for the workings of American universities. Prof. Hemel has expertise in taxation, nonprofits, and constitutional law. Stream here or wherever you get your podcasts: podbean.com/media/share/pb-6…

We are deeply concerned about the published report that New College of Florida fired Prof. Kevin Wang because of his Chinese nationality. Wang is a Chinese national lawfully authorized to reside and work in the United States as he seeks asylum for political persecution by the Chinese government. The college reportedly terminated him because of a Florida law that prohibits universities from employing people from “countries of concern,” including China. But the statute grants the Board discretionary authority to review contracts and approve them case-by-case. Read the full letter we sent today to the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida. academicfreedom.org/wp-conte…