Austin Thornton

Eric Reichenbach
Courtney Sandbo
Alexandria Ungrady

Academic Freedom and Repellent Speech

By: Professor David M. Perry

The authors profile (identity, occupation, reason involved in discussion, purpose in article):

The author of the article is David M. Perry a professor at Dominican University

and occasionally writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

He is writing about an issue that he finds to be a pressing issue and wants to

make his stance known.

His purpose is to to take a stance on the issue of Academic Freedom and

Repellent Speech.

The authors claim and reasons (be direct and specific; list the main reasons the author holds

the position):

The author is evidently biased against those who exhibit repellent speech in the

classroom.
He even goes as far to call one professor(Deborah OConnor) a bigot.
However he does talk about certain statements professors make that he doesnt

believe are repellent but rather intellectual stances that offended some people.
He takes another stance about how professors are also not given a fair voice and

talks about how some teachers arent granted due process.

He agrees with the professors in saying they should have a voice when they

have been removed from the situation instead of not being able to present their side of

the argument.
Perry doesnt think that most professors personal views affect teaching in the

classroom, especially if the two topics are not related.

The audience for the article (place of publication, who are the readers, other clues as to who will

care):
 The audience includes mainly administrators or college professors, but also

anyone interested in the concept of having a line drawn between the professional

workplace and nonprofessional work place in speech.

Entry was originally posted on The Chronicle of Higher Education and then

posted in academic jobs, Campus culture and language

Readers are anyone who is concerned with what is the difference between a

professional setting and a nonprofessional setting (separating ability to do one's job and

there opinions on other subjects)

Affects school administrations with encouraging to have a system handling these

situations

The genre and conventions of the article (what kind of article, style, format):

It includes personal pronouns and phrases such as I agree and I believe when

the author is giving their opinion on the subject. The article as a whole is basically

written in first person

This article is essentially like a blog entry because the author gives his opinions

on a certain subject, and any thoughts he has.

It is set up in a very typical essay style format. He introduces the issue, provides

some main points, and closes with a conclusion.

However, he started his article with a question, but he never really took a position

on the subject. He just kept questioning each side.

Other existing perspectives on the issue that the author acknowledges:

The author expresses how he may not agree with the things that OConnor had

said, but believes there should be a system in handling the situation instead of having

the individual lose their job

The possible dangers of academic freedom
No evidence that the professor's personal views affect her teaching ability
A social media policy may be more beneficial and effective in these types of

situations