March/April 2009

Anti-evolution bill in Oklahoma
The "Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act" was introduced in the Oklahoma Senate in February, the first anti-evolution bill of 2009, says the National Center for Science Education, which tracks threats from creationism. Senate Bill 320 would require educational authorities to "assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies." The only topics the bill specifically defines as controversial, says NCSE, are "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning."

While Oklahoma is home to the initiative to put creationist disclaimers in the front of science textbooks, it also has organizations deeply committed to credible science teaching, such as Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education.

What was she thinking?!
Sharon Hahs, president of Northeastern Illinois University, has reconsidered her Policy Concerning Demonstrations on Campus, Distribution and Display of Visual Communications and Solicitation of Signatures on Campus, known as DDS for short.

Last fall, shortly after Election Day, she circulated the 10-page policy on the Chicago-based campus, seeking the endorsement of student government and the faculty senate. The policy, which raised the ire of free speech groups, would have set up free speech zones; required one-week prior approval for the posting of signs anywhere on campus and imposed time, place and manner restrictions on actions ranging from securing signatures on petitions to gathering one or more persons to publicly express a point of view.

On Jan. 6, Hahs called the whole thing off in an e-mail, asking faculty and personnel committees to "suspend consideration" of the policy.

Canada denies entry to Bill Ayers
AFT's sister union, Canadian Association of University Teachers, strongly protested the Jan. 18th refusal of the Canadian government to allow University of Illinois-Chicago education professor William Ayers into the country to give a lecture at the University of Toronto.

Ayers, a member of the 1960s campus radical group, the Weather Underground, which was tied to violent actions in opposition to the Vietnam War, is now an education reform expert. His past became an issue in the presidential campaign because he and President Obama at one time served on the same board in Chicago, an association Republicans used to suggest that the candidate was a terrorist.

In an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, CAUT writes: "The actions of your border officials in denying entry to this eminent academic brings disrepute to Canada and shows that your government has little regard for academic freedom.... It is wrong for the Government of Canada to decide which scholars universities can invite to their campuses."