The modern American university faces declining financial support from federal and state governments, and one way institutions have saved money has been to offer tenure to fewer professors. The key reason for tenure, is to ensure academic freedom--professors' freedom to teach, conduct research, and perform other duties without fear of job loss or…

This article provides a consideration of the problem of equity in education. In the first part of the discussion, the author draws on philosophical and sociological literature to consider what equity means and its implications for education. Drawing on work by Burbules, Lord and Sherman, she looks to curriculum as a condition of access and the…

There's a received view of the troubles of academia which lays the blame on a new corporate culture of soulless managerialism. Geoff Sharrock isn't convinced. He argues that critical scholars are often ill-placed to be able to understand their own predicament. And many of the problems of the sector lie in its incapacity to adjust to the changed…

This article reports a conference held at the University of Edinburgh on December 4, 2006. The "Islam on Campus" conference had considered a range of issues related to the future of Islamic Studies. It considered whether Islamic Studies should be considered a discipline or a subject area, whether its methods were essentially textual or…

In late April, John D. Lewis, a historian and classicist at Ashland University, flew to Virginia to deliver a lecture at George Mason University about U.S. policy toward Iran. Mr. Lewis is an admirer of the late Ayn Rand, and he shares her belief that democracies should respond to external attacks without much concern for civilian casualties. He…

Examines the conflict between the First Amendment and immigration policy and law (particularly the 1952 McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act), as seen in the case against Margaret Randall (an alien facing deportation from the U.S. because of her pro-leftist writings) by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. (SR)

Discusses the phenomenon of indoctrination and the almost universal rejection of it. Includes a history and an analysis of indoctrination and describes prevention and counteraction programs. (JOW)

Suggests that commercial broadcasters are less capable of identifying and reacting to violations of free speech than are individuals who regulate the communication channels. (Author/RB)

If patrons are afraid -- should others know what they read -- of being wrongfully indicted for such reading, then librarians have had little success curtailing censorship or extending intellectual freedom. (Author)

The report of a free speech conflict in Missouri, involving the "Columbia Free Press (renamed "Free Press Underground in Oct. 1967), which led to the ouster of Joan H. Bodger as Consultant to Children's Services of the State Library. (Author/RM)

In recent years, framers of the American republic, especially George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, have taken a public opinion thrashing for allowing the institution of slavery to persist during and after the American Revolution. Their defenders respond that these men are being judged unfairly by twenty-first century standards; that they should…

The overall aim of the article is to analyse how the universal right to education have been built, legitimized and used. And more specifically ask who is addressed by the universal right to education, and who is given access to rights and to education. The first part of the article focuses on the history of declarations, the notion of the…

This report examines the problem of the pervasiveness of politics in today's higher education, particularly in the humanities, and argues the need for college and university campuses to return to seeking the truth and telling it rather than straying into the position that the aim of education is for students to become politically transformed. Too…