Home >> Errata to January 7, 2002, memorandum to Dr. Gregory Paveza
Errata
The following are errata to the memorandum I wrote to Greg Paveza January 7, 2002, regarding historical perspectives on academic freedom (in Rich-Text and Adobe Acrobat formats):
- p. 3: "... the AAUP often assists such negotiations... " The AAUP web site (http://www.aaup.org/) indicates that there are perhaps a few dozen such mediated settlements per year. There are many, many more negotiated resignations nationwide than the AAUP handles.
- p. 3: "... perhaps a more reliable way to put the firing of a tenured professor in a national context ..." Dr. Steven Brem (USF College of Medicine) noted that my presentation to the faculty senate January 9 (and, fairly, the memorandum) described mostly cases of academic freedom violations rather than faculty dismissals per se. Mea culpa. I relied on the existing historical literature, which also focuses on academic freedom violations. If someone will point me to pieces on other dismissals, I will gladly include the references on this page.
- p. 4: "... legal subterfuge ..." The University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees refused to make any statements on Scott Nearing's dismissal for several months and then produced a vague justification. The wording in the memo may have suggested a different chronology.
- p. 5: "... a broader with-hunt ..." Witch-hunt, clearly.
- p. 5: "An example of such an investigating committee..." The Johns Committee was a state legislative investigating committee exerting pressure on Florida schools and universities, not a tribunal established by any university.
- p. 6: "It is notable that this explanation of necessity ..." This sentence refers to Bennington President Coleman's original explanation of the firings, not the apologies that accompanied the legal settlement.
- Dr. Roy Weatherford has pointed out that the memorandum omits discussion of faculty unions. Again, this is true. Faculty unions, including in Florida, have worked over the past 30-40 years to create legally enforceable protections of tenure.
- The memorandum omits the cases of D.F. Fleming and Sheldon Grebstein, which led to AAUP censure of the University of South Florida in 1964. See "Academic Freedom and Tenure: The University of South Florida," AAUP Bulletin (Spring 1964): 44-57.