The situation regarding the appointment of Erwin Chemerinsky as the Dean of the law school at UC Irvine is another example of the one way street regarding political views in academia.
 
When Chemerinsky and his liberal political views were not welcomed by conservative commentators the purists in academia went on a rampage.  They claimed it was a violation of academic freedom.

The response to the outrage has been for UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake to do a complete u-turn (via a trip to Duke University) and welcome Chemerinsky to UC Irvine with a joint statement on "academic freedom".

At UC Irvine the faculty agrees with Chemerinsky so they demand that he be able to serve as Dean.

Meanwhile at UC Davis and with the UC Regents the view of academic freedom has a very different conclusion.  This article in the Davis Enterprise explains how former Harvard President Larry Summers was "uninvited" to be a speaker at a meeting of UC Regents. 

The UC Davis faculty does not agree with Summers so he is not allowed to speak to the Regents.

I may or may not agree with Summers but it is clear it was the content of the views that were expressed that got him "uninvited".  Academic freedom isn’t so important when the faculty does not agree with the views expressed.  This is just the latest example of the one way street of politics in academia.

Chemerinsky could make a great move to celebrate "academic freedom" by asking Summers to be the first commencement speaker for the UC Irvine School of Law.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.