By Megan Zahneis
Chronicle of Higher Education
June 28, 2023
1 min read
By Megan Zahneis
Chronicle of Higher Education
Excerpt: A psychologist spoke out this week about what critics see as a job offer gone awry over an ideological spat about diversity statements.
Yoel Inbar, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, was up for a job at the University of California at Los Angeles. But the psychology department there decided not to proceed after more than 60 graduate students in the department signed an open letter urging the university not to hire him. At issue, the students wrote, were Inbar’s comments on his podcast expressing skepticism about the use of diversity statements in hiring, as well as about other efforts intended to make the academy more inclusive.
Read More By Brandon Waltens June 22, 2023
1 min read
By Brandon Waltens
Texas Scorecard
Excerpt: After public backlash, Texas Tech University has walked back plans to offer a class on ”Witches, Bruxas, & Black Magic” this fall. As reported by Texas Scorecard earlier this week, the course was described as introducing the “study of beliefs and practices, past and present, associated with magic, witchcraft, spirituality, magic realism, and religion.”
Read More By Jack Stripling June 21, 2023
1 min read
By Jack Stripling
The Washington Post
Excerpt: On a Thursday morning in February, Charles Negy stood before a group of about 40 students, presiding over his theories-of-personality class at the University of Central Florida. Scattered across a large auditorium, students jotted notes as Negy, a 62-year-old associate professor of psychology, spoke about Sigmund Freud. Projection, Negy explained, is when “we see in others what we don’t want to see in ourselves.” It’s like calling someone else a racist, Negy continued, when, in truth, “everybody is a little bit racist.”
Read More By Jonathan Turley June 19, 2023
1 min read
By Jonathan Turley
Jonathan Turley's Blog
Excerpt: After years of resisting demands under the Public Records Act (including alleged violations), UC Berkeley has finally turned over documents to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) on its hiring criteria. The files show that Berkeley has been grading faculty on their commitment to DEI, including viewpoints that should be protected by free speech or academic privileges.
Read More By The Editorial Board June 11, 2023
1 min read
By The Editorial Board
Wall Street Journal
Excerpt: A Fourth Circuit majority [ruled] that Virginia Tech's bias response team does not have a chilling effect on free speech. The ruling, written by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a Clinton appointee, states: "[T]he First Amendment does not stand in the way of modest efforts to encourage civility on college campuses." Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee, wrote in dissent: "The stark reality of the record is that programs like the Bias Intervention and Response Team are being used in the service of discouraging that open inquiry from which education draws its very meaning and sustenance.”
Read More By Amanda Nordstrom June 02, 2023
1 min read
By Amanda Nordstrom
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
Excerpt: Graduation time used to be known as “disinvitation season” around FIRE’s offices, as we prepared for the yearly increase in demands by faculty members and students to revoke the invitations of guest speakers — often commencement and keynote speakers — because of something the speaker did, said, or believes.
Read More 
