Â鶹´«Ã½IOS

As Â鶹´«Ã½IOS announced in a press release this morning, Brooklyn College has conceded that Professor K. C. Johnson’s public criticisms of dispositions theory are constitutionally protected and has affirmed that Professor Johnson will not be subject to any investigation as a result of his expression. This is a victory for academic freedom and freedom of speech, although it is disheartening that Â鶹´«Ã½IOS even needed to remind a public university that its students and faculty have the right to voice their opinions on matters of public concern. The college could not defend in public what Professor Johnson’s would-be censors were doing in private and had to back down, validating one of our fundamental beliefs at Â鶹´«Ã½IOS: that administrators at colleges and universities cannot defend their private actions in the court of public opinion. Â鶹´«Ã½IOS relies on the fact that the American public at large rejects ideological coercion and censorship like that which was taking place at Brooklyn College prior to Â鶹´«Ã½IOS’s intervention. It is this moral support from so many Americans that makes it possible for Â鶹´«Ã½IOS to continue working to shine sunlight into all the corners of the academy.