Earlier this month, Princeton professor Robert George’s appearance at Washington College provided yet another example of what’s known as the “heckler’s veto.”
The Israeli government and anti-Semitism advocacy groups had urged removal of the allegedly antisemitic book from a professor’s course reading list — the latest in a national trend of threats to academic freedom.
Student groups have the right to determine their own membership. That was FIRE’s message to Penn State after one of its administrators incorrectly told student members of the College Independents they weren’t allowed to remove a disruptive member.
The troubling decision says faculty speech about institutional governance doesn’t get First Amendment protection, giving public universities broad power to oust faculty whistleblowers, dissenters.