Academic Freedom Media Review-November 13-19, 2010

photo: Chris Hildreth

Compiled by Scholars at Risk

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

Second Azerbaijani ‘Donkey Blogger’ Freed
Claire Bigg, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 11/19

Azerbaijani Activist Detained On Georgian Border
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 11/19

Nobel Winner’s Absence May Delay Awarding of Prize
Andrew Jacobs and Alan Cowell, The New York Times, 11/18

Law students march to support UP professors
ABS-CBN News, 11/18

SINGAPORE: Yale partnership to go ahead, NUS says
Stanislaus Jude Chan, University World News, 11/18

Law clinics that go beyond theory face attacks
Sarah Cunnane, Times Higher Education, 11/18

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Academic Freedom Media Review, November 6-12

Compiled by Scholars at Risk

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

Kazakh Government Wants Scientists Abroad To Return Home
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 11/12

Nasrin Sotoudeh Still on Hunger Strike; Allows Herself Water
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, 11/11

Prominent Human Rights Attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh Must be Released
Amnesty International

London Tuition Hike Protests Turn Violent
Sarah Lyall, The New York Times, 11/10
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Academic Freedom Media Review, October 30 – November 5, 2010

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

Singapore suppresses dissident
Drew Anderson, Yale Daily News, 11/5

Scholars at Risk Expresses Concern Over Professor Denied Entry to India
Scholars at Risk, 11/4

Iran Sets New Conditions For Employing Teachers
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 11/4

News of Government Guidelines on ‘Pluralism’ Alarms Israeli Academics
Matthew Kalman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/4
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Academic Freedom Media Review, October 23-29, 2010

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

Warning on Bologna
Hannah Fearn, Inside Higher Ed, 10/29

Iranian Scholar Accused of Acting against National Security
Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR), 10/28

Students say: new report recommending specialised universities would spell disaster for accessible education and academic choice
CNW, 10/27

Scholars at Risk calls for letters on behalf of Svyatoslav Bobyshev and Yevgeny Afanasyev, Russian scholars held in pretrial detention since March
Scholars at Risk, 10/26

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Academic Freedom Media Review

October 16 – 22, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available at here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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Tibetans Protest China’s Plan to Curb Language
Edward Wong, The New York Times, 10/22

Jailed Iranian Scholar Denies Charges in Court
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 10/21

Is affirmative action for men the answer to enrollment woes?
Carolyn Abraham and Kate Hammer, The Globe and Mail, 10/21

Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Ward Churchill’s Bid to Get His University Job Back
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/21

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Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

October 9 – 15, 2010

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here.  The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

Arrest and mistreatment of US Professor of Anthropology
Network for Education & Academic Rights, 10/15

Call for Urgent Action for Detained Mechanical Engineering Professor Abdul Jalil Al-Singace of Bahrain
Scholars at Risk, 10/14

Research Contracts Sponsored by Big Oil Companies Fail to Protect Academic Interests
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/14

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Virginia’s Attorney General and the Universities

Colleges and Universities in the State

The University of Virginia said Monday that it would continue to fight state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II‘s efforts to obtain documents related to a climate scientist’s work, just hours after Cuccinelli reissued a civil subpoena for the papers.

The new Civil Investigative Demand revives a contentious fight between Cuccinelli (R), a vocal global warming skeptic, and Virginia’s flagship university over documents related to the research of Michael Mann, who worked at the university from 1999 to 2005. A judge blocked Cuccinelli’s first bid to obtain the documents.

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Mann, whose research concluded that the earth has experienced a rapid, recent warming, works at Penn State University.

Cuccinelli has been trying to force the public university, technically a client of his office, to turn over documents related to Mann’s work since April. Cuccinelli has said he wants to see the documents to determine whether Mann committed fraud as he sought public dollars for his work.  — The Washington Post, October 5, 2010

Academic Freedom Media Review, September 25-October 1, 2010

Compiled by the Scholars at Risk Network

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

Scholars at Risk calls for letters on behalf of detained Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh
Scholars at Risk, 10/01

Forskerkonkurranse i videregående skole (in Norwegian)
University of Oslo (UiO), Rector’s Blog, 10/1

University Transparency Bill Vetoed in California
Inside Higher Ed, 10/1

Vietnam Putting Professor on Trial for Online Dissent
Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, 9/30

Low grades for the party: The Communist Party’s grip is holding back the country’s best and brightest
The Economist, 9/30
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Gay Teens and Suicide

Tyler Clementi, Freshman, Rutgers University

Authorities have found the body of Tyler Clementi floating in the Hudson River. Clementi is the 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who jumped of the George Washington Bridge after his roommate allegedly posted to the internet a video of him being intimate with another man. In the fall semester of his first year in college, a time that is supposed to be full of possibility, this young man felt humiliated to the point that he gave up hope. I wonder at the mentality of those who would play such a prank, but my mind is incapable to wrapping itself around the possibility such cruelty could have been deliberate. I can only believe that the two students who posted the video did not think through the consequences.

Also shocking, it has emerged that Clementi had once reported a similar incident. He

reportedly notified his resident adviser and other university officials about an incident earlier this month in which his roommate, Dharun Ravi, allegedly live streamed video of Clementi having a sexual encounter with a male classmate.

According to the ABC News report on that, his complaint was not ignored, but I’m not sure it was handled properly.  Had it been, perhaps the death could have been averted.

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In Memory of Mohamed Arkoun

Few of Arkoun's Books are available in translation, but this is on Amazon.

Mohamed Arkoun, a great philosopher and scholar, particularly on the role of Islam in the development of Maghrebi society and on the relationship of Islam and the West, died Tuesday September 14 in Paris and was buried the following Friday, September 17 in Achouhada cemetery in Casablanca. He was 82 years old. In Robert Altman’s cinema adaptation of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, the angel of death whispers to a woman weeping over the discovery that a loved one has died peacefully, “The death of an old man is not a tragedy.”

That struck me as fundamentally true. But I thought to myself that it doesn’t make it less painful to those close to him. And while it may not be a tragedy, it is certainly still a loss, especially when the man is a figure of the stature of Mohamed Arkoun. I remember reading his writing when researching my dissertation, and it returned to my mind in the weeks and months after 9-11. It comes to mind again now, as we see nasty rhetoric against heating up again in this country.
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