Two Takes: Was UC Berkeley right to suspend a lecturer over his pro-Palestinian advocacy?

Two Takes: Was UC Berkeley right to suspend a lecturer over his pro-Palestinian advocacy?

Christopher Kutz, Erwin Chemerinsky January 28, 2026 1 min read

In December, UC Berkeley administrators handed down a six-month suspension without pay to Peyrin Kao, a 26-year-old computer science lecturer, after finding that he had violated university policy by making pro-Palestinian comments to students in a classroom after class and advertising that he was participating in a hunger strike.

We asked two UC Berkeley professors with opposing views, Christopher Kutz and Erwin Chemerinsky, to succinctly lay out their case in support, or in opposition, to the measure.

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Academic freedom suffers blow after blow in Florida

Academic freedom suffers blow after blow in Florida

Garrett Gravley  January 28, 2026 1 min read

In 2023, FIRE raised the following question: What’s going on in Florida? In light of recent affronts to academic freedom in the Sunshine State, we regret to raise this question once again.

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Bollinger calls for universities to take ‘collective action’ against Trump administration in first post-presidency Spectator interview

Bollinger calls for universities to take ‘collective action’ against Trump administration in first post-presidency Spectator interview

Joseph Zuloaga, Matt Luo, Spencer Davis  January 22, 2026 1 min read

Former University President Lee Bollinger, Law ’71, called on universities to take “collective action” against President Donald Trump’s administration amid its “authoritarian assault” on higher education in his first interview with Spectator since stepping down from the presidency in May 2023.

Since leaving his post after more than two decades as Columbia’s 19th president, the University has cycled through three presidents—Minouche Shafik, Katrina Armstrong, and Claire Shipman, CC ’86, SIPA ’94—as it experienced intense national scrutiny for its response to campus protests over the war in Gaza.

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Americans Overwhelmingly Agree On What Universities Should Focus On

Americans Overwhelmingly Agree On What Universities Should Focus On

Joseph Klein January 20, 2026 1 min read

From congressional hearings to donor revolts to headlines about campus protests, American universities are being told—loudly—that they’ve lost the public’s trust. But beneath the noise, there’s a quieter question that rarely gets asked: when Americans criticize universities, what do they actually want them to do instead?

A new study published in Science Advances by economists at Cornell University and the University of Regensburg examines what societal roles Americans believe universities should engage in beyond their core mission of education and research.

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Yale Achieves Academic Nirvana: Study Cannot Find A Single Republican Donor on the Faculty

Yale Achieves Academic Nirvana: Study Cannot Find A Single Republican Donor on the Faculty

Jonathan Turley January 15, 2026 1 min read

Yale University has finally achieved the academic version of Nirvana, a state of perfect peace and enlightenment. A recent study found that the faculty had finally purged every Republican donor from its ranks. While 98 percent of the political donations went to Democrats, not a single professor could be found who gave to a single Republican candidate. The complete lock for Democrats is in a country that is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

The Yale Daily News reviewed more than 7,000 Federal Election Commission filings from 2025 listing Yale as the employer: “Of 1,099 filings that included ‘professor’ in their occupation, 97.6 percent of the donations went to Democrats, while the remaining 2.4 percent went to independent candidates or groups,” the student newspaper reported Jan. 14.”

The study reinforces the recent Buckley Institute report, which found that, of the 43 departments surveyed, 27 entire departments contained zero Republican professors.

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Penn-affiliated groups motion to intervene as defendants in federal antisemitism lawsuit

Penn-affiliated groups motion to intervene as defendants in federal antisemitism lawsuit

Lavanya Mani  January 15, 2026 1 min read

Multiple Penn-affiliated groups filed a motion on Tuesday to intervene as defendants in an ongoing lawsuit filed against the University by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

The lawsuit followed a July 2025 subpoena from the EEOC that required Penn to submit detailed information on workplace antisemitism complaints and membership lists for various Jewish-related campus groups. In November, the agency sued the University for allegedly failing to comply.

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