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tag: Academic freedom

Blog Post
July 25, 2024

Academic Freedom in the Classroom

Results from a New Survey of Faculty Members

To what degree are faculty facing challenges to academic freedom in their instructional practices? Are there topics they avoid when talking to their fellow faculty or students? Do they feel safe on campus and supported by their institution? These are some of the topics we probed in a special section of a national survey of US Faculty fielded earlier this year.
Research Report
July 25, 2024

Perceptions of Academic Freedom in Teaching

Findings from a National Survey of Instructors

Since 2021, people across the political spectrum have become preoccupied with questions of free speech and censorship on college campuses, and state legislators have driven the proliferation of new policies that limit spending and programming related to DEI and alter academic autonomy or shared governance arrangements. Against this backdrop, we included a short block of questions centered on academic freedom in a national survey of US instructors at four-year colleges and universities.
Blog Post
May 15, 2024

Restoring Trust in Higher Education Requires Colleges and Universities Being Trustworthy

As numerous surveys make clear, America’s trust in higher education institutions continues to decline, a sentiment that is coming from all political directions. The chaos on college campuses across the country in response to pro-Palestinian encampments, leading to conflict with police, student and faculty arrests, and canceled commencements, will further erode the public’s support. These events have highlighted the tensions on campuses between commitments to free speech and the right to peaceful protest and policies protecting against harassment and…
Blog Post
March 28, 2024

New Report on Self-Censorship and Public University Libraries

In the Fall of 2023, Ithaka S+R reached out to 15 library leaders at public research universities throughout the United States and asked them to speak about their current experiences regarding censorship, self-censorship, and academic freedom. Today, we are publishing our anonymized findings from these semi-structured interviews.
Research Report
March 28, 2024

Censorship and Academic Freedom in the Public University Library

Research libraries are expected to provide and preserve collections in support of their institutions’ research and teaching priorities and to support long-term access to cultural, historical, and scientific works. In today’s polarized political environment, both libraries and universities have been at the heart of controversy. In this project, we examine some of the impacts of this polarization at public research university libraries.
Blog Post
February 29, 2024

Crossing Boundaries

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Twin Campuses and International Collaboration

On September 1, 2022, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) opened a new “smart green” campus in Guangzhou, China. Described as “heralding the university of the future” and designed for climate emergencies, this campus represents a significant milestone in HKUST’s strategic vision as it partners with the original HKUST campus located just across the border in Clear Bay, Hong Kong.