Professor: Academic Freedoms Are Under Fire Everywhere

AMES — Days after the American Association of University Professors accused Kirkwood Community College of violating faculty rights and asked it to reinstate a professor removed following his inflammatory comments, former AAUP chairman Henry Reichman said academic freedoms are under fire everywhere.“This is an extremely dangerous period for academic freedom and for higher education,” Reichman, professor emeritus at California State University and former chairman of the AAUP Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, told The Gazette on Tuesday.Academic freedom, today’s universities and the faculty they employ are not necessarily alone, or in uncharted territory.“It’s an extremely polarizing and dangerous period for democracy in general now,” Reichman said, citing increased dissemination of misinformation and the discrediting of facts and science-based truths.