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Posts tagged as “Academic Freedom”

FIRE redlights UO’s student conduct codes over free speech issues

The people at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education are dogged fighters for campus free speech rights. They’ve now given UO a “red-light warning” on its free speech policies, as explained here. While UO has a strong policy on freedom of speech, signed by President Lariviere and approved by…

Gottfredson pads resume with credit for Academic Freedom, after getting Tim Gleason and Randy Geller to fight it for 18 months

He has no sense of shame. He is trying to claim credit for what was accomplished by 18 months of hard work by the Senate and the United Academics faculty union, over his determined opposition: The policy as approved by the Senate April 9th is here. Notable points? Members of…

Gottfredson hasn’t signed Academic Freedom policy because of rape allegations

5/8/2014: That’s the latest rumor. The Senate’s Academic Freedom policy would allow all UO employees to criticize UO policies. There are plenty of UO employees – apparently including some in the athletic department – who are outraged by how UO has handled the rape allegations. But their bosses have told them they can’t talk to the press. If Gottfredson signs this policy,  they can. So he won’t.

4/9/2014: From the Senate website, for debate and vote today. Great policy. The sticking point will be “c. POLICY AND SHARED GOVERNANCE. Members of the university community have freedom… ” The administration wants to restrict this freedom only to faculty. Why?

Gottfredson: Weak on Freedom?

4/16/2014 update: It’s been a week now, no signing ceremony. The rumor is that President Gottfredson has stuck Dave Hubin with the job of finding some explanation – plausible or not, doesn’t really matter – for why although he would personally love to sign this policy, it would be a violation of his fiduciary responsibility as “The University”.

4/10/2014 updates: Senate passes academic freedom motion unanimously

InsiderHigherEd has a report on the “months of contentious negotiation” between the Senate, the union, and Gottfredson over academic freedom, and Betsy Hammond has a story on this in the Oregonian here:

Gottfredson, in an emailed response to The Oregonian, said, “I look forward to closely reviewing (it) …I fully support the strongest policy on academic freedom possible. Academic freedom is central to our mission and underlies everything we do as a university.”

This is our passive-aggressive president’s typical non-response. “Asked and answered.” “I’ll take that under advisement”. ” “I look forward to reviewing it”. Then nothing.

Here’s some more history, with his Randy Geller’s redlines of an earlier Senate draft. And here’s Gleason and Rudnick’s restrictive proposal on academic freedom, from 2/17/2013 during the union bargaining. All about the limitations, authority, and of course that easily abused requirement for “civil dialogue” – and if The University thinks it’s not, then discipline!

Senate calls for nominations for next President by 3/4, vote on 3/12.

Dear Senators and members of the UO Community, The University Senate will be holding elections for Senate Vice President / President-Elect at its upcoming meeting on Wednesday, March 12th from 3:00 – 5:00 pm. We welcome all nominations for the this important office, including self nominations. The Senate Bylaws define…

UO Foundation claims defamation and demands retraction from UO Matters

11/12/13: I recently received the “demand for retraction” below, from Thomas Herrmann, legal counsel to the UO Foundation, presumably writing on instruction from the Foundation’s Chairman Jon Anderson, a former marathon runner with longtime Nike connections, and the Foundation’s 2013 Chair-elect and committed athletics booster Stephen Holwerda. A bio-piece on Mr Holwerda…

Wed Senate meeting on academic freedom and legal services

Update: UO administration time-travels back to 2009, finalizes UO’s draft Academic Plan.For four years, the official copy of UO’s Academic Plan – ballyhooed today by President Gottfredson in the Senate – made clear it was just a draft: Now it’s suddenly been post-dated a day, and it’s final.Sporadic Senate live-blogging.…

Update on admin fact check site

The University of Oregon administration has been bargaining a union contract with the UO faculty’s AAUP/AFT affiliate local since November. I regularly blog about the bargaining sessions. In February the University of Oregon’s administrative bargaining team wrote an unsigned “Open Letter” to the UO community, saying: “We write this letter…

President calls for more academic freedom!

10/14/2013 update: That would be President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. The Chronicle has the story.9/16/2013 update: InsideHigherEd reports on UO Academic Freedom fight UO’s free speech fight has gone global. Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed broke the story on Thursday, then CUNY’s Cory Robin posted his take on his blog and on the popular Crooked Timber (tagline:…