Commentary: Assault on Academic Freedom at UC Irvine

Eileen Boris November 01, 2024 1 min read

Eileen Boris
Academe Blog

Excerpt: In yet another assault on academic freedom, civil liberties, and peaceful protest, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, associate professor of global studies at the University of California, Irvine, is facing three misdemeanor charges for her effort to protect students when an excessive force of armed riot police (from twenty-one different units) assaulted the UCI Palestine solidarity encampment on May 15, 2024.

For her compassion and concern, this prize-winning mentor and teacher received charges of “failure to disperse at the scene of a riot,” “resisting a peace officer with the threat of violence,” and “resisting arrest.” Others arrested are facing the first two charges but only Willoughby-Herard faces threatening an officer in the process, a clear discrimination.

Click here for link to full article

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.


Also in National Free Speech News & Commentary

After punishing people for Charlie Kirk comments, colleges are paying steep settlements
After punishing people for Charlie Kirk comments, colleges are paying steep settlements

Graham Piro  July 16, 2026 1 min read

Violating the First Amendment will cost you. Universities and other public institutions are learning this lesson the hard way as the dust settles on a series of lawsuits brought by university faculty and staff who were punished for their comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder last September.

Read More
Inside An Elite University’s Campaign To Bring Conservatives to Campus
Inside An Elite University’s Campaign To Bring Conservatives to Campus

Vince Bielski July 16, 2026 1 min read

If Johns Hopkins University wanted to signal its seriousness about creating an alternative to the left-leaning orthodoxy that permeates higher education, it couldn’t have done better than the recent hire of economist Peter Arcidiacono.

Read More
House Republicans Advance Legislation to Formally Dismantle ED
House Republicans Advance Legislation to Formally Dismantle ED

Jessica Blake July 16, 2026 1 min read

House Republicans have now formally backed President Donald Trump in fulfilling his campaign promise to dismantle the Department of Education, voting Wednesday to advance 10 bills that would codify the White House’s efforts to disperse numerous education programs and offices to other federal agencies.

Read More