Inside Higher Ed reports on a tenured University of Colorado professor receiving an ultimatum regarding her approach to teaching about prostitution in her Sociology of Deviant Behavior course: “the choice of accepting a buyout now, or staying but not teaching the course, and not giving the prostitution lecture, and to be aware that she could be fired and lose her retirement benefits if anyone complained about her teaching in the future” (Jaschik, 2013, para. 13). Professor Patricia Adler claims that this ultimatum is a violation of her academic freedom to teach her courses as she sees fit, and that it reflects “a culture of fear” and “the bureaucratization of the university” (Jaschik, 2013, para. 16).
Georgia State University is no stranger to controversy regarding teaching sexuality issues in the classroom. Explore the controversies surrounding academic freedom in higher education – check out these resources at the University Library and the College of Law Library:
- Lukianoff, G. (2012). Unlearning liberty: Campus censorship and the end of American debate. New York: Encounter Books.
- Schrecker, E. (2010). The lost soul of higher education: Corporatization, the assault on academic freedom, and the end of the American university. New York: New Press.
- Nelson, C. (2010). No university is an island: Saving academic freedom. New York: New York University Press.
- DelFattore, J. (2010). Knowledge in the making: Academic freedom and free speech in America’s schools and universities. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Horowitz, D., & Laksin, J. (2009). One-party classroom: How radical professors at America’s top colleges indoctrinate students and undermine our democracy. New York: Crown Forum.
- Horwitz, P. (2007). Universities as First Amendment institutions: Some easy answers and hard questions. UCLA Law Review, 54, 1497-1558.
- Jeltema, L.A. (2004). Legislators in the classroom: Why state legislatures cannot decide higher education curricula. American University Law Review, 54, 215-255.