Chicago State University Lawyers Attack Faculty Bloggers

An anonymous reader writes "A blog run by faculty members at Chicago State University (CSU) has been threatened by university lawyers with a cease and desist notice. Since 2009 the blog has posted information critical of CSU's policies and hiring practices. The notice threatened legal action if the site is not disabled by Friday due to violations of 'trade names and marks' without permission and violations of University policies. The blog admin changed the name of the blog in the meanwhile to Crony State University and replaced an image on the page pending legal counsel. Also the blog is currently still active."

Comments

Name change

[Anonymous Coward]

I might also recommend: Crony Streisand University

Double standards?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do Chicago State University lawyers also send cease ad desist letters to faculty bloggers that are supportive of its policies and hiring practices? Or do they apply the government standard of never prosecuting leaks that makes the government looks good even if they damage national security?

Re:Attacked?

[Lieutenant_Dan]

No, they used "sarcasm". The deadliest attack of them all.

only in academia

[onyxruby]

Only in academia would faculty feel entitled to freely criticize their employer while expecting their employer to turn a blind eye. In any other field you would be canned on the spot for doing something like this. Possibly government employees in some departments would have similar attitudes?

Now you can argue that academia has it right and the rest of society has it wrong or you could call the faculty self entitled tenured representations of antiquity. Having worked in the private industry as well as some years in a very large University one could argue this either way.

Re:only in academia

[Ardeaem]

Only in academia would faculty feel entitled to freely criticize their employer while expecting their employer to turn a blind eye. In any other field you would be canned on the spot for doing something like this.

There are principles at play here that don't exist in other employment situations; for instance, academic employees have this thing called "academic freedom" which, for decades, has meant that "[c]ollege and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline..." and that "a faculty member’s expression of opinion as a citizen cannot constitute grounds for dismissal unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty member’s unfitness for his or her position. Extramural utterances rarely bear upon the faculty member’s fitness for the position."

Re:only in academia

[newslash.formatblows]

Somebody mod this up! GP has no idea what the point of higher education is. The faculty aren't just "employees". While administrators job-hop from school to school, the faculty are the long-term caretakers of the institution. They largely determine whether the degree granted means anything or if the place is a clown college. It's sad that the idea of being able to safely point out shortcomings (= tenure) in an enterprise as large as a university is seen as such a crazy perk by those who work at the whim of others.

Re:only in academia

[khallow]

The thing to ask here is whether Chicago State University has agreed to some sort of contract that requires it to honor "academic freedom". As it turns out, in order to be accredited, the university had to agree to certain standards of academic freedom. They are accredited with the Higher Learning Commission. From the link:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the Higher Learning Commission

The current version of this commissionâ(TM)s Handbook of Accreditation includes shared governance under the first of its five âoeCriteria for Accreditation,â specifically, under core component 1d, which states that âoethe organizationâ(TM)s governance and administrative structures promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the organization to fulfill its mission.â The explanatory paragraphs that follow describe shared governance (without defining it) as âoea long-standing attribute of most colleges and universities in the United States,â adding the qualification, âoewhatever the governance and administrative structures, they need to enhance the organizationâ(TM)s capacity to fulfill its mission.â Among the âoeexamples of evidenceâ that might indicate compliance with this core component is this: âoeFaculty and other academic leaders share responsibility for the coherence of the curriculum and the integrity of academic processes.â Under criterion 2a (âoeThe organization realistically prepares for a future shaped by multiple societal and economic trendsâ) explanatory paragraphs describe shared governance as serving âoeas a check and balance to ensure academic integrity.â

While the North Central commissionâ(TM)s handbook does not employ the phrase âoeacademic freedomâ under criterion 4a (âoeThe organization demonstrates, through the actions of its board, administrators, students, faculty, and staff, that it values a life of learningâ), it does include the following âoeexample of evidenceâ relevant to this bedrock concept: âoeThe board has approved and disseminated statements supporting freedom of inquiry for the organizationâ(TM)s students, faculty, and staff, and honors those statements in its practices.â

Re:Great for the bloggers!

[Anonymous Coward]

CSU has a VP and General Counsel who doesn't know the difference between "tenet" and "tenant". Says a lot about the administration there.

Re:Terrible blog

[sribe]

I poked around the blog a bit. It's more than a little creepy. They have people's resumes and pay scales available for all to see. That's just weird. What did the janitors at Olive-Harvey do to deserve having their names and wages published? That's wholly inappropriate, and not necessary to make the author's point.

When you work for the government, your pay is a matter of public record, whether you're a senator or a janitor.

Re:Anti-SLAPP Law?

[Jane Q. Public]

Doesn't this fall under some anti-slapp law?

I would think so. "Chicago State University Faculty Blog" is a statement of fact, not a trademark infringement.

Having said that, they may have some logos, etc. they will have to take down.

Re:Attacked?

[AthanasiusKircher]

I looked at the blog and all I saw was a bunch of petty complaints. Things that may technically be true, but are not anywhere near the horrendous scandal that the blog's author tries to claim.

I'm also an external observer to all of this, but I think if you had read further, you might see the point of all of these seeming "petty" details.

Basically, it sounds like a blog aimed at a huge increase in non-academic administration personnel. Apparently, in the past 4 years or so, the number of non-academic administrators and staff has risen by almost 50%, from 76 people to 112 people, while the rest of the university (including academics, etc.) has remained relatively stable. Salaries and numbers of upper-level administrators apparently also have risen significantly.

I have no idea about the internal stuff that might be going on here, but a 50% increase in non-academic staff at a university in just a few years, while the rest of the university doesn't grow, does seem like an issue that people might care about.

But, if you haven't heard, there's a significant concern these days with the large amount of administrators and administrative staff being hired at colleges, which has apparently significantly contributed to the huge increases in college tuition at many schools.

The random stories you refer to apparently are related to the way that some administrators are refusing to hire professors or consider them qualified on the basis of some minor details in their academic credentials:

[The administrator] has also taken it upon himself to uphold the highest standards of the academy by weighing in on degrees and the quality of schools attended by CSU faculty applicants (across disciplines, it seems like he has a Ph.D. in everything). He has apparently decided that no one without a Ph.D. in hand should be hired at Chicago State and has often expressed the notion that CSU faculty should be able to "transfer" to Harvard.

Etc. The blogger seems to be responding in kind, by picking apart some minor details in the credentials of the new administrative staff.

Is some of this "petty"? Probably.

But that doesn't mean there aren't larger issues buried if you read more than the top two blog posts.

Re:Attacked?

[nbauman]

For example, a couple of university press releases and documents from university board of trustees meetings refer to a person as "Dr. Henderson" 6 weeks before she officially received her PhD. Oh the horror!!

Actually, it was two years before she got her PhD.

If you're a PhD in academia, it is a big deal. Falsifying credentials is academic fraud, like plagiarism.

It's like a military officer wearing a battle ribbon for a battle he was never in. There was a Navy officer who killed himself after Newsweek reported that he did such a thing.

Re:Anti-SLAPP Law?

[daremonai]

I was unaware that Chicago State owned Blogspot (where the blog is hosted).

Re:Anti-SLAPP Law?

[daremonai]

In other words, you should probably check your "facts" before you go off on a rant.

I know, I know, that takes all the fun out of it.

Re:Anti-SLAPP Law?

[g0bshiTe]

Get boycotted by the "Homosexual Students of Chicago University" possibly.

Re:Anti-SLAPP Law?

[jalopezp]

In the United States, truth is always an absolute defense against defamation. http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/substantial-truth