Let’s look at how the Republican fight against free speech and academic freedom is going. Conservative attacks on universities are nothing new, but their recent successes using the levers of state power are relatively recent. The most recent skirmishes have taken place in Indiana, but they are by no means alone in their efforts to turn public universities into mouthpieces for conservatives.
On Thursday, Sara Evans Barker, a federal judge in Indiana who was appointed by President Reagan, Litigation The lawsuit was filed by four Indiana professors seeking to block the implementation of the state’s “intellectual diversity” law. LawThe law, which took effect on July 1, requires public institutions of higher education to grant, vet, or deny tenure based on whether professors foster a “culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity” and expose students to “a range of political or ideological frameworks.”
If that sounds vaguely bad, that’s because it is. This bill was pushed by conservatives, who say that conservative students and views are Being discriminated against In higher education.
Using the term “intellectual diversity” gives that away. right It’s also the only kind of diversity conservatives really like when they want to complain that institutions of higher education don’t respect conservative viewpoints enough.
Indiana Law Define While it explains “intellectual diversity,” it does not explain what “free inquiry” and “free expression” mean. The professors who sued to block the bill have two very legitimate concerns. First, “intellectual diversity” is defined as whether professors offer “diverse, varied, and diverse scholarly perspectives on a wide range of public policy issues.”
One of the professors who filed the lawsuit teaches about the Holocaust and described different perspectives in Holocaust studies. include Either deny the Holocaust outright or revise it. Some teach about slavery, but academic research on slavery is varied. What’s Included The idea that slavery benefited black people. Under the law, professors would supposedly have to teach dangerous ideas that have been proven false in order to demonstrate their commitment to “intellectual diversity.”
The lack of a definition for the other term creates another problem: if no one knows what “free inquiry” or “free expression” means under this law, no one knows how to avoid violating it. Such laws are unconstitutionally vague and stifle speech as people begin to self-censor.
in Reject Judge Barker said the lawsuit is premature and that professors have not yet been harmed because there are no policies that universities would have to implement based on those vague words. That means Indiana professors will start the semester without guidance on how to get around laws that apply to them and could seriously harm their employment.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita gave professors a glimpse into how Indiana views free speech. Claimed Regarding their lawsuit, he felt that it should be dismissed because what the university professors say is actually government speech and therefore the university has control over what they say.
This argument runs counter to all existing court decisions regarding academic freedom of professors. It is routinely concluded The First Amendment protects speech at public universities if the speech relates to education or scholarship.
Rokita didn’t come up with this on his own. Florida has been using this argument for some time to gain its own interpretation of Indiana law. In June, lawyers representing the state filed a lawsuit against the state. said A federal appeals court ruled that “in the classroom, what a professor says is government speech, and the government can restrict professors in general terms and from expressing opposing views.”
Florida offers a rare glimpse into what happens when conservatives take control of public universities. There, Governor Ron DeSantis has made a war on higher education a priority. Transfer of management rights From New College, a small public liberal arts college, to anti-education fanatics. Christopher RuffoOn Tuesday, New College Hundreds of books It was dumped in a trash bin to clear out the Gender and Diversity Center. Obsolete Gender studies last year.
Meanwhile, Ohio State:Center for Intellectual Diversity“It’s required by law at several state universities. In case you’re wondering if these are just conservative taxpayer-funded grievance centers, Ohio State University is the place to go. Lee Strang He will serve as director of the university’s new Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society.
Strang is a former law professor at the University of Toledo. It was helpful Writing legislation requiring a Center for Intellectual Diversity is a prominent Anti-abortion activist He believes in the personhood of the fetus. He boasts that the Center will help them “thrive as citizens in our pluralistic republic.” That’s a hard fact to swallow, given that he seems to believe that those with a uterus are not full citizens.
When it comes to abortion, Idaho places great importance on the marketplace of ideas at its public universities. law In 2021, a bill was passed that prohibits public universities from using taxpayer funds to “promote abortion, provide pro-abortion counsel, or referral for abortion.” Several university professors filed lawsuits challenging the law, but the lawsuits were not successful. Thrown out There were reports earlier this year of similar damage occurring in Indiana, but that no damage had been reported yet.
State Attorney General Notified the court Professors wouldn’t be prosecuted for teaching or researching abortion, which would be great, but it would still put everyone else at risk from a law that doesn’t even define what promoting abortion or pro-abortion counseling means.
In Texas, a professor criticizes the lieutenant governor Investigated And now, officially, she has been censured. That’s exactly what opioid expert and Texas A&M University professor Joy Alonzo received after speaking out about Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s response to the opioid crisis.
Unsurprisingly, Patrick is spearheading Texas’ efforts. Abolish the lifetime employment systemThis is another way Republicans are trying to gain control of public universities. We’re screwed They tried to eliminate tenure for community college professors in the most recent Congress, and are preparing another attempt. If they succeed, They will participate Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin already limit tenure for community college professors.
In the past decade, complete land tenure bans have been proposed in Oklahoma, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and West Virginia. Recent Research When Republicans controlled the state legislature and the governor’s office, the possibility of anti-lifetime employment legislation being introduced was Almost five times More than any other state.
Conservatives will continue to fight this fight because their fight against higher education is part of their overall fight against modernization and multiculturalism. They are furious that they are losing in the marketplace of ideas, and they will keep attacking their own universities until they can no longer withstand the pressure.
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