(No, this isn’t a proper academic freedom issue; disgraceful, but not an issue of viewpoint suppression. Conservatives who claim such things when the shoe is on the right foot still won’t complain, though, I’ll bet.)
The University of California at Irvine is in the process of setting up a new law school. They had asked distinguished law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky of Duke to be dean, and he’d agreed.
Then, abruptly, UC-Irvine asked to cancel the contract — conservatives opposed Chemerinsky, according to one claim.
Sources and commentary:
- Filasteen (with a tip of the old scrub brush for alerting us)
- Los Angeles Times, “UC Irvine reverses field on Chemerinsky”
- Left Coaster
- Brian Leiter’s Blog on Chemerinsky’s move to Duke
(no comment yet on UC-Irvine thing) - Leiter’s Law School Blog, with much more commentary — Leiter reminds me that no, this isn’t really a proper academic freedom issue. And besides, he notes, “No Deans have real academic freedom.”
- “Pepperdine’s Douglas W. Kmiec defends Chemerinsky in LA Times opinion note
- LA Times columnist Dana Parsons, “Excuse for UCI’s fumble on law school dean not good enough“
- Earlier, LA Times, “Law professor may be OC law school’s first dean”
(Waiting for conservatives who complained about breaches of academic freedom for conservatives to explain the injustice . . . still waiting . . . still waiting . . .)
Not waiting any more. Instapundit links to a bunch of conservatives who have sprung to Chemerinsky’s defense. Great news that they’d do it at all!
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Many conservative strongholds oppose this decision as some of these comments point out; one need only look as far as the National Review’s PhiBetaCons to find some pithy analysis. PBC is an excellent blog for the non-Conservative who wants to keep their fingers on the pulse of the conservatives. Their posts are usually quite short and are well-written.
And, really, academic freedom isn’t a partisan issue.
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FYI, fellow Tubbies who may not be familiar with Dean Dad. He doesn’t seem to have mentioned this case, but he does have an interesting perspective on the romance of the university/cc.
Confessions of a Community College Dean
In which a veteran of cultural studies seminars in the 1990’s moves into academic administration and finds himself a married suburban father of two. Foucault, plus lawn care. Comments are welcome.
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That’s really good news.
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Addition: Your “conservatives opposed Chemerinsky” title is a misrepresentation of that article.
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You were so quick to jump on Reynolds on the Pete Seeger issue, I’m surprised you missed his links to the many conservatives and libertarians who had negative things to say about the firing. http://instapundit.com/archives2/009263.php
Interesting that it provides immediate evidence that in this instance, you are guilty of your own accusation.
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Just adding in that we have a few comments on the whole situation over at Free Exchange as well:
http://www.freeexchangeoncampus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=718&Itemid=48
But alas, you are still waiting!
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