"I'm hoping everyone working in higher education is aware of the recent events at Texas A&M, where a student recording of an exchange with an instructor ultimately led to the dismissal of the instructor and the demotion of both the department chair and college dean that had backed the instructor's classroom autonomy. I looked at the big-picture academic freedom implications in a newsletter for the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom,"
"The instructor was a model of professionalism- watch the video yourself if you don't believe me -and yet this student set out with a plan deliberately engineered to get the instructor fired, and it worked. I've been thinking a lot about this student, about what has to happen for a young person to enter college seeing something like this-personally targeting and destroying another human being who is just doing their job-as what they want to spend their college years doing."
A student recording of an in-class exchange at Texas A&M triggered the instructor's dismissal and the demotion of the department chair and college dean who supported classroom autonomy. Texas A&M president Mark Welsh initially told the student that firing the instructor was "not happening," but reversed that stance after intense right-wing outrage and political pressure. The instructor maintained professionalism during the incident, yet the student's deliberate plan to provoke a complaint succeeded. The incident raises concerns about academic freedom, targeted personal destruction by students, and the unsettling possibility of young people using college years to pursue punitive campaigns.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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