The Chicago State University faculty muckraking blog has the story, here. The Chicago Tribune reports that the board recently lost a $3M lawsuit to a whistleblower over a retaliation lawsuit, and it is now being sued again by the faculty bloggers and FIRE. Their president and board are trying to use a new online civility policy to restrict free speech and academic freedom. This is the road Bob Berdahl, Mike Gottfredson, Randy Geller, Dave Hubin, and now Doug Park want to take UO down.
The union offered since protections against such things here, when they needed support. What is the current position the union and is there really any protection our contracts can offer against such a board move?
I assume this is why the Board refused to take on the job of approving the faculty contract. By leaving it in Coltrane’s hands, he can argue he doesn’t have authority to “enshrine the Senate in the CBA” as Sharon Rudnick loved to say.
The Senate and its duly adopted policies are enshrined in the CBA via the Constitution.
That said, this Board, and the OUS Board before it, always had the power to unilaterally do away with those governance structures by the force of state law.
I don’t understand why it isn’t possible for free speech and dissenting opinions to be civil. Aren’t there ways to express an adverse opinion without being “in your face” or rude or inflammatory? Especially if the “accuser” is a well educated person who passed the GRE which means they have some fluency in the nuances of the American vocabulary?
The problem with “civility” rules is that those in power are the ones that define civility. So, civility becomes defined as that which offends the powerful. It need not be rude, crude or vulgar to offend. There are obvious problems with this.