The American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s (ACTA) Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Jonathan W. Pidluzny, testified on Thursday, April 7, 2022, before the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The purpose of the subcommittee hearing, entitled “Free Speech Under Attack: Book Bans and Academic Censorship,” was to examine instances of censorship in the K-12 curricula around the nation. In addition to discussing K-12 curricula, Dr. Pidluzny directs committee members’ attention to the free speech crisis exploding on America’s college and university campuses.
Dr. Pidluzny highlights numerous instances of speaker disinvitations and intimidating shout-downs, as well as the prolific growth of bias response teams designed to target students and faculty who express disfavored (generally conservative) viewpoints.
It is an honor to address the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Thank you, Chairman Raskin, Ranking Member Mace, and members of the subcommittee. For the last 26 years, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has been working to protect academic freedom and […]
Two reports this week show the United States is facing an unprecedented wave of school book banning — spurring Congress to hold a hearing Thursday focusedon the issue, which free-speech advocates warn will undermine democracy. PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression, found there have been 1,586 book bans in schools over […]
In July 2020, a Princeton University professor, Joshua Katz, wrote an article containing provocative language that generated controversy on campus. While voicing strong disagreement with that language, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber clearly and publicly stated a few days later that it was protected by Princeton’s university-wide rule on free speech. But since then, through other […]
This past November, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) released the second edition of “No U.S. History? How College History Departments Leave the United States out of the Major.” Higher education donors may want to take a look at this report, which reveals the sorry state of American history courses at our nation’s […]
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