Boycott of Israeli universities
The Association of University Teachers (in England) voted on Friday to boycott Haifa University and the Bar-Ilan University, both Israeli institutions. The Crooked Timber entry on the subject reflects what should be a clear response from academics: this is a violation of academic freedom. Period. Three years ago, my campus chapter of the United Faculty […]
Baxley/Horowitz bill dead
The consistent story out of the Tallahassee Democrat, Palm Beach Post, and the St. Petersburg Times is that the Baxley/Horowitz bill is dead and that the university presidents made no promises in their meeting with him. There may have been a gentler reception of him at the Board of Governors meeting in the afternoon (the […]
HB837/SB2126 update (Florida legislature)
While the Baxley/Horowitz bill is effectively dead in the state legislature (though the House may pass it in a symbolic move late in the session), Baxley will try the Colorado gambit: asking university presidents to recreate the bill’s provisions in administrative form. I am less convinced of any immediate threat, since the university-system faculty have […]
Al-Arian semi-retrospective
The St. Petersburg Times today printed a retrospective of sorts on the long-term influence of the Al-Arian imbroglio on the campus of USF. On the whole, David Ballingrud has it about right in terms of the fallout thus far, where he discusses it: faculty activism pushed back against efforts to give administrators wholesale discretion to […]
HB837/SB2126 update (Florida legislature)
It looks like the bill wasn’t considered in the Florida Senate Education Committee meeting this week and is probably effectively dead with the face-saving maneuver for Rep. Dennis Baxley (the House sponsor) that the universities promise to better publicize the grievance procedures that currently exist (and are published in the catalog). The Florida Senate staff […]