The Academic Freedom Alliance now has a brand new episode available of The Academic Freedom Podcast. So you won’t miss an episode, subscribe through your preferred platform.
This episode features David Rabban talking about professors’ controversial speech and how university policies should protect them. While academic freedom principles and protections in America in the early 20th century were a topic of heated debate, the American Association of University Professors’ major policies included protections for professors speaking in public. David and I both believe that protecting such speech should be understood more in light of academic freedom policies than free speech policies. You can find my article here.
On college campuses, extramural speech is still a common point of contention. Social media offers many opportunities for professors and critics to speak out in public. The AFA intervened in a number of extramural speech controversies including Amy Wax at Penn, Ilya Sharpiro at Georgetown University Law Center and Stephen Kershnar SUNY Fredonia. Allyn Walker Old Dominion University. Robert Mann at Louisiana State University. Tom Smith at University of San Diego. Lynne Chandler Garcia at Air Force Academy.
David Rabban is a University of Texas Law School professor and an expert on academic freedom and First Amendment. His previous duties included general counsel for the American Association of University Professors. He currently serves as an academic member of The Academic Freedom Alliance.
This episode is a deep dive on the history and controversy of extramural Speech Protections, including the principles and protections available for such speech. The whole episode is available here.