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It All Depends on What the Meaning of “Free” Is

BEGGS: It All Depends on What the Meaning of “Free” Is

Check out my opinion piece below that appeared in The Modesto Bee (September 22, 2013), on MJC’s Constitution Day fiasco. You can also read  MJC President Jill Stearns’ very different take on the incident.

The YouTube videoof Rob Van Tuinen being prevented from passing out  free copies of the Constitution sparked a national news story, and hopefully, an ongoing debate about “the inherent…

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New column on the abuse of adjuncts by colleges in The Modesto Bee

New column on the abuse of adjuncts by colleges in The Modesto Bee

Academia lectures the public about caring for the marginalized and oppressed in our society, while systematically marginalizing at least half the faculty teaching in its own institutions:   “Assigned only one or two classes per term with no guarantee of any assignment, they have no benefits, little respect and pathetic pay.  They are the Dixie Cups of higher education:  plentiful, cheap, and…

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To Love, Honor, & Cherish . . .

I did not realize, until spotting Mark Steyn’s column, that today is the 10th anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death through court-ordered dehydration/starvation.  The legal battle between her family and her estranged husband became a national debate, and so was naturally the subject of many heated arguments in the weekly meetings I then attended of Modesto BeeCommunity Columnists.  Frustrated,…

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FIRE'S Top Ten "Winners" in the War Against Free Speech

FIRE’S Top Ten “Winners” in the War Against Free Speech

          Here in America, the danger to free expression is beginning to be greatest where it should be most defended, that is to say, within the walls of the academy.

~Salman Rushdie, 2015

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) just issued its 4th Annual Top 10 List for “threats to free speech on campus.”

As Kirsten Powers said of the list, “Read it and weep.”  I read it, and…

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Yay -- Another diss to the tyranny of graduation speaker disinvitations

Yay! Another diss to the tyranny of graduation speaker disinvitations

Dean Ryan’s letter contains precisely the advocacy for robust debate that FIRE hopes to see from college and university administrators.

~Susan Kruth, FIRE

If only Dean Ryan were the rule, rather than the exception . . .

Read the article here.