The US loses academic freedom? 17 Jun 2009 Since we’re talking about law, here’s an interesting piece at Crooked Timber on the chilling effect on academic free speech a couple of recent court decisions, Garcetti v. Ceballos and Hong v. Grant may end up having. Although the courts did not intend for these decisions about whistleblowing to affect academic speech, it seems that it already has. Don’t criticise your university administration in the US, folks, or you’ll lose your job. A letter sent to the UC Davis Senate said: According to recent court rulings, your speech and behavior in job-related duties as a public employee rather than a private citizen have no First Amendment protection. This means that disciplinary action may be taken against you (including dismissal) for statements you make in the course of your employment. Read the comments too. Education Freedom
Education If only he had used his science for niceness, instead of evil 11 Sep 2010 In the Great Tone Debate, it seems to me that we have been overlooking some of the crucial elements of mixed strategies. Something that works in one case may not work in another, and so general arguments that one should be nice or dickish all the time are going to… Read More
Australian stuff The policy policy 4 Mar 2010 Australian Prime Minister for the Obvious has said that there should be a “zero tolerance” policy against bullying. In other news, a 13 year old Victorian girl who held a kitchen knife to the throat of a 12 year old girl – allegedly – is not to be charged by… Read More
Education Philosopher threatened with prison for copyright violations 5 Apr 2009 I’m very conflicted about this: An Argentinian professor who put Derrida’s works in translation online because the published works were out of print or too expensive (way more than the European editions) has been charged with criminal copyright infringement, according to this page. While I think that publishers, especially academic… Read More