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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScott Walker wants to fire academics with whom he disagrees politically
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/11/scott-walker-wants-fire-academics-disagrees-politicallyTenure earned by a researcher after many years of work, original contributions to the body of knowledge that constitutes his or her discipline and extensive vetting by his or her institutional and disciplinary colleagues protects academic freedom and scientific integrity by making it so that the researcher cant be fired for investigating awkward questions or reaching conclusions powerful people dont like. Shared governance is the means by which academics shape their institutions academic programs through the development of curriculum and the hiring of faculty - to meet the highest standards in the production and dissemination of knowledge.
In Wisconsin, legislators have just lowered the high bar for dismissing tenured faculty at the direct demand of Scott Walker and the state Republican regime. Shared governance, in which the Wisconsin university system once led the world, has been reduced to a mere advisory process. In practice, this means that decisions about academic programs and the faculty who work on them will be made by administrators who are either themselves political appointees or who serve at the leisure of these appointees.
The consequences of these changes are likely to be immediate, concrete and negative both for the state of Wisconsin and for the community that depends on the knowledge the states university researchers create. As the author of the scientific work that undergirds the hockey stick graph illustrating the unprecedented nature of human-caused climate change, Michael Mann, co-author of this article and Director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, has been the subject of baseless politically motivated attacks, as he has detailed in his book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars.
Coming soon to a country near you?
951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,134 posts)That man is absolutely creepy, almost as creepy as Cruz.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Anti-intellectualism is mandatory when you have religious belief as a substitute for reason.
"First, we kill the lawyers", same principle.
TeddyR
(2,493 posts)Is the most dangerous Republican in America. He's not a clown like Trump and isn't unpalatable like Cruz or Santorum. He's managed to win the popular vote in a swing state like Wisconsin and should not be underestimated.
malaise
(269,172 posts)He's one of the most unqualified dunces to run for office - but he has a PhD in stealing elections.
Walker is a fascist
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)He wouldn't know a true Academic if one bit him in the ass. And I sincerely hope one (or more) does.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)That is straight out of the Austrian Corporal's playbook.
Blue Owl
(50,505 posts)Hey Focker why don't you finish your degree before going after the instructors...
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,438 posts)how Republicans are supposed to be for freedom and stand boldly against tyranny? Between hearing about stuff like this, Huckabee and Jindal's loose talk about using federal agencies/agents to pursue their opponents (just like they accused President Obama of doing with IRS), it's clear that Republicans have moved into no-man's land of advocating dictatorship-like power. People had best be paying attention to them. They are as clearly as ever telegraphing their intentions if they were ever to achieve ultimate, unchecked power. And here I thought that we were headed towards a dictatorship under the George W. Bush (mis-)Administration post-9/11. These guys will clearly follow in his and Cheney's dangerous footsteps.
Deadshot
(384 posts)by forcing their agendas.
I guess big government is okay when it suits them.