The Washington Examiner takes a look at professor John McAdams’ case against Marquette University. It’s now been two years since he was banished from campus for exercising his academic freedom.
For a while there, it seemed as if the tide in academia had finally turned. Academic freedom, the idea that college campuses should be places of rigorous debate, seemed to be making a comeback.
Before the fall semester began, several schools sent letters to students informing them that they would not condone the creation of “safe spaces” on campus or support the idea of “trigger warnings” alerting students to potentially upsetting material in the classroom. Even President Obama, who in many ways personifies the campus liberal mindset, admonished the country in his farewell address to stop retreating into their own bubbles, including the ones that exist “on college campuses.”
Wisconsin’s largest private university didn’t get the memo. January 17 was the first day of class at Marquette University in Milwaukee. But it wasn’t a work day for John McAdams, a tenured political science professor at the school. His story is a reminder of just how much academic freedom remains under assault across the country.