H/T to America's Finest Blog for hipping me to this Dan Walters column on the seemingly one-way street of academic freedom among UC faculty:
As the counter-pressure mounted Friday, Drake met with Chemerinsky. On Monday, they jointly announced that Chemerinsky will come to Irvine after all. "Our new law school will be founded on the bedrock principle of academic freedom," said their joint statement. "The chancellor reiterated his lifelong, unqualified commitment to academic freedom, which extends to every faculty member, including deans and other senior administrators."
A victory for academic freedom? Seemingly so, but it would appear that among UC faculty members the principle should be applied only to those on the political left, judging by what was happening simultaneously a few hundred miles to the north at another University of California campus.
Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard University, had been invited by UC Regent Richard Blum (husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein) to address a private Board of Regents dinner at UC Davis. When faculty members objected, Summers was disinvited.
This is just an excerpt. You can and should read Walters' entire column here. Still waiting for that chorus of Leftist defenders of academic freedom to lambaste the UC Regents for caving into political pressure to squelch a voice.
Give it a rest...can't you tell from the lack of comments that nobody cares? Chemerinsky is comming and that's a good thing. Let Red County Alameda (if there is such a thing)deal with the Summers issue. Or, maybe you can get LA County Sup Mike (carpet bagger) Antonovich to hitch a ride on your wagon...
Posted by: | September 18, 2007 at 05:31 PM
What does Alameda County have to do with anything? Davis is in Yolo County and I'm reasonably certain there is no UC Oakland. Regardless, good for the Davis faculty for taking a stand. I graduated from UCD and don't recall any professor being particularly willind to speak with a conservative voice. I'm delighted to see that the times may finally be changing.
Posted by: | September 18, 2007 at 09:06 PM