Academic Freedom can't be safeguarded when activists run the show

My newest National Post piece on the disturbing shift toward academic boycotts

This year the American Association of University Professors changed their well-motivated longstanding opposition to academic boycotts, suggesting an endorsement of dangerous new trend calling for academic boycotts of Israeli scholars because of their government’s actions. My newest National Post piece is about this.

_______________________________________________

Following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, the effort to balance academic freedom and free speech on campuses while protecting all members of the university community has been sorely tested. The failings of numerous senior academic administrators have become evident, and several have lost their jobs. At the same time, these new tensions have reached a precarious low point.

Various university administrators and government legislators now attempt to restrict what can be said and taught in the classroom. A newly emerging ethos on the left, in which language is considered a form of violence, has also produced a chilling effect on what both professors and students feel comfortable discussing both in class and outside of it…..

To read the rest, go to https://nationalpost.com/opinion/lawrence-krauss-academic-freedom-cant-be-safeguarded-when-activists-run-the-show