You use the term "Academic Freedom"

[ciao_yall]

California CC faculty sue over DEI, claiming First Amendment

I do not think you know what it means.

[marshwiggle]

California CC faculty sue over DEI, claiming First Amendment

I do not think you know what it means.

From the article:

California's new community college rules sound simple enough: As of this year, all instructors must teach in a way that is culturally inclusive and must prove during employee evaluations that they respect and acknowledge students and colleagues of diverse backgrounds.

But what if an instructor holds so-called color-blind views and prefers to ignore people's race, ethnicity, gender or other physical and cultural characteristics as a personal philosophy?

How does one "prove" that one respects people of diverse backgrounds?

And what does it mean to "acknowledge" people of different backgrounds? Unless someone refuses to interact with another person, it's hard to see how anyone could nor be "acknowledged".

And how is "ignoring" peoples' various identity characteristics and treating people as simply people somehow showing some sort of disrespect?

The rules seem to be about a whole lot of posturing rather than specific identification of what constitutes bad behaviour.

[dismalist]

It is not at all clear that faculty at public universities have free speech rights. Speech at such institutions can be considered "government speech" as in K-12. Some courts have provided some free speech protection. Scope is unclear. [paraphrasing Prof. Volokh]

Here's the CHE version: Free Speech

Looks to me like  this will go differently in different States and/or different courts. I have nothing against that. Let the jurisdictions compete with each other.

[ciao_yall]

It is not at all clear that faculty at public universities have free speech rights. Speech at such institutions can be considered "government speech" as in K-12. Some courts have provided some free speech protection. Scope is unclear. [paraphrasing Prof. Volokh]

Here's the CHE version: Free Speech

Looks to me like  this will go differently in different States and/or different courts. I have nothing against that. Let the jurisdictions compete with each other.

Well, "Academic Freedom" doesn't mean doing or saying whatever you want, whenever you want. All it protects is the truth of the discipline.

So a chemistry teacher can't claim "academic freedom" if he wants to complain about BLM during class because he teaches chemistry.

The history teacher who wants to point out flaws in work by Nikole Hannah-Jones or Howard Zinn is welcome to do so, as long as he uses appropriate historical research methods.

If a community member (or faculty) wants to be known as someone who dehumanizes other community members, some of whom happen to be sitting in their classroom, not sure how they expect to be supported.

That said, I have a friend who teaches Engineering but has very strong opinions about a particular controversial aspect of world affairs. She insists on having links to her preferred information sources on her campus website. While she has received complaints, she insists that "Anyone can talk to me, I'm open" and "I don't treat any students differently" and she stubbornly refused to remove them. Definitely not a case of academic freedom.