Interesting essay Dorian. I hope for more of this and less of the lamer posts. Your being appointed to the BoT of a Florida university is the second good thing I have heard about Florida in the past week: the other one being that the Guv signed a bill to make intentional release of party balloons unlawful. I had to look it up - it's half…
Interesting essay Dorian. I hope for more of this and less of the lamer posts. Your being appointed to the BoT of a Florida university is the second good thing I have heard about Florida in the past week: the other one being that the Guv signed a bill to make intentional release of party balloons unlawful. I had to look it up - it's halfway between Orlando and Tampa - even though it's inland, I expect it's in swampland still vulnerable to sea level rise. I suppose they might benefit from your specific expertise on causes of sea level rise, etc, in addition to your measured opinions on academic issues.
I'd quibble with your hoped-for hypothetical response to #5. I'm not sure academic freedom is properly thought of as a right, but if it is, it is not only an individual right but also a collective right. Far below is a quote and a link on that specific issue. But first, I'll drift into semantics ...
Is gravity a force? We speak of the "force of gravity" but isn't that because gravity is something more than just a force? Likewise, is freedom a right, or something more? I think it is something more which encompasses the professional rights we assert under its conceptional framework.
Of course one has only so much time to respond, and your hypothetical responses were necessarily short, but #5's presumes much, especially that the Dept Chair was responsible for the posting on the Dept website. Also, the President ought not get directly involved in that level of micromanagement - the President might delegate that to an appropriate dean to investigate and deal with, I'd guess.
"Silence is Violence" can be best appreciated for its Johnny Cochran-esque rhyme and meter, "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit."
"institutional academic freedom safeguards the university as a whole from government or other outside interference. It permits the university to select its faculty and to determine areas of study, appropriate teaching methods, and which students to admit." https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/academic-freedom/
Interesting essay Dorian. I hope for more of this and less of the lamer posts. Your being appointed to the BoT of a Florida university is the second good thing I have heard about Florida in the past week: the other one being that the Guv signed a bill to make intentional release of party balloons unlawful. I had to look it up - it's halfway between Orlando and Tampa - even though it's inland, I expect it's in swampland still vulnerable to sea level rise. I suppose they might benefit from your specific expertise on causes of sea level rise, etc, in addition to your measured opinions on academic issues.
I'd quibble with your hoped-for hypothetical response to #5. I'm not sure academic freedom is properly thought of as a right, but if it is, it is not only an individual right but also a collective right. Far below is a quote and a link on that specific issue. But first, I'll drift into semantics ...
The ALA describes it as a conviction, but the AAUP and others say it's a professional right. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/academicfreedom and https://www.aaup.org/programs/academic-freedom/faqs-academic-freedom
Is gravity a force? We speak of the "force of gravity" but isn't that because gravity is something more than just a force? Likewise, is freedom a right, or something more? I think it is something more which encompasses the professional rights we assert under its conceptional framework.
Of course one has only so much time to respond, and your hypothetical responses were necessarily short, but #5's presumes much, especially that the Dept Chair was responsible for the posting on the Dept website. Also, the President ought not get directly involved in that level of micromanagement - the President might delegate that to an appropriate dean to investigate and deal with, I'd guess.
"Silence is Violence" can be best appreciated for its Johnny Cochran-esque rhyme and meter, "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit."
"institutional academic freedom safeguards the university as a whole from government or other outside interference. It permits the university to select its faculty and to determine areas of study, appropriate teaching methods, and which students to admit." https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/academic-freedom/