Source: Raw Story
By David Ferguson
University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Biddy Martin has responded to the Wisconsin Republican Party's request for the emails of professor William J. Cronon with some, but not all of Cronon's correspondence. Along with the requested emails, she released a statement defending Cronon and the university against what she and many others see as a direct attack on academic freedom. Cronon is a prominent critic of Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Republican Party, both on his personal blog and in an op-ed piece in the New York Times.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Martin wrote that the request by Stephen Thompson, the state GOP's deputy executive director, was a legitimate request under the open records law. But she said the university decided to exclude some reresponsibilities and that could be considered personal . . . "
"We are also excluding what we consider to be the private email exchanges among scholars that fall within the orbit of academic freedom and all that is entailed by it. Academic freedom is the freedom to pursue knowledge and develop lines of argument without fear of reprisal for controversial findings and without the premature disclosure of those ideas," she wrote.
Read more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/03/wi-repubs-get-some-but-not-all-of-profs-emails/