LuminousVoid

Michael Berube, Professor at Penn State, provides in a long blog post the text of a recent speech he gave. The speech is entitled “Recent Attacks on Academic Freedom: What’s Going On?”

He covers the definition and meaning of academic freedom, and how and why it is under attack. He connects it to attacks on the liberal/left side of the political spectrum, and addresses some difficult points about how these attacks are gaining traction — how these attacks are based on an at first compelling justification but in the end fall flat. The dangers of where these attacks are taking us are also highlighted. An excerpt:

There is no mystery why some of our critics loathe liberal campuses: it is not simply that conservatives control all three branches of government and are striking out at the few areas of American cultural life they do not dominate. That much is true, but it fails to capture the truly radical nature of these attacks on academe: for these are attacks not simply on the substance of liberalism (in the form of specific fiscal or social policies stemming from the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society) but on procedural liberalism itself, on the idea that no one political faction should control every facet of a society.

So here is the last semester of law school. I’m glad. I can’t wait to get back into the real world of having a job. One of the little things that bugs me is the runaround at law school. Every hour or so I have to pack up my stuff, and move somewhere else — whether it’s in class or out of class. I miss having an office. I also sometimes need about a 5-15 minute nap after lunch. I got that when I had an office.

Oddly enough, last Fall was the semester I got the best grades in. And it was the one I did the least work during. I can’t think why. At first I thought it was maybe becauseI was competing with other students who had already gotten jobs — they didn’t care. But that wouldn’t make much sense: I was competing with 2Ls and 3Ls, just like last year. Maybe I did ‘trim the fat’ and just do the focused bit of work that was needed? There was a big crunch at the end and with a bit more time my grades could have improved even more.

Maybe I took classes I find easy and interesting? Copyright was an interesting topic, but poorly taught. Consumer protection was a neat topic and well taught — though sometimes the heavy statutes made class dry. Antitrust was kind of a joke: a potentially very intellectual and rewarding subject horribly taught. And legislation was fascinating, though at times bewildering. Maybe my classes didn’t need to have work during the semester, and only needing outlining and exam prep, I focused on that? Not quite. I did read for some of my more interesting classes. Who knows.