The slow death of academic freedom

[marmar]

The slow death of academic freedom
As academic freedom erodes at universities, saving it will require dedicated infrastructure and long-term support

By Tracy Kuo Lin
Published April 2, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) State legislatures restricting what faculty can teach about race or gender — banning discussions on transgender and nonbinary identities. Public health scholars facing political retaliation for vaccine research and guidance. Legally mandated-national climate assessment reports disappearing from government websites.

These are not hypotheticals — this is what universities and research communities are facing right now. To see how quickly academic freedom can erode when legislatures meddle, look at the University of Texas. Faculty senates have been dissolved, courses are subjected to political approval, leadership appointments are based on ideology and professors are quietly changing syllabi out of fear.

But it’s not just happening in red states like Texas. Universities nationwide are making changes in an attempt to hang on to funding from the federal government. The Trump administration reportedly pressured lawyers to find evidence of antisemitism at the University of California, Los Angeles as an excuse to gut a renowned public university and exert political influence over its speech, disciplinary processes and institutional autonomy.

As the chair of the University of California, San Francisco’s Committee on Academic Freedom, I’ve witnessed first-hand how precarious that freedom can be. Recent proposed revisions to the University of California’s academic personnel manual included language that would shift academic freedom from a protected right to a mitigating factor in disciplinary processes. There’s a profound chilling effect when faculty are no longer protected for speech the university deems troublesome, and academic freedom is merely a consideration they can raise while going through a burdensome and stressful disciplinary process. Although there was backlash against the policy at all 10 University of California campuses and a task force has been formed to evaluate the policy, it’s unclear whether the university will ultimately listen to their faculty. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/02/the-slow-death-of-academic-freedom/

[in2herbs]

1. IMO the only way to prevent what is happening in our country right now is to spend money on

public education - up to and including college.

How many smart people are falling for F45's lies compared to the number of uneducated people?????