Florida bans academic travel
Academic freedom took a major hit in Florida this summer when the Legislature passed a bill that prohibits the use of state funds to "implement, organize, direct, coordinate or administer activities related to, or involving, travel to a terrorist state." The bill, called "Travel to Terrorist States", ends all educational activities in Cuba, Syria, Iran, North Korea and the Sudan.

It’s a disaster for education in the state on a number of fronts, says Tom Auxter, president of the statewide United Faculty of Florida/AFT/NEA. The union vigorously opposed the fast-tracked bill. Its far-reaching effect is from ending research in marine biology on the coral reefs between Miami and Cuba, to shutting down research projects on climate change and the spread of disease, to closing up archaeological excavations to ending cultural exchange.

The UFF is preparing legal and legislative responses, reports the UFF newsletter. The faculty senate at Florida International University joined the American Civil Liberties Union in filing a lawsuit.

Name that zealot
Identify the source of the following quote:

"Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities."

1. Candace de Russy, trustee, State University of New York

2. David Horowitz, president, David Horowitz Center for Academic Freedom

3. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran

A) is a good guess, since conservative reformer de Russy has been on a two-year tear to implement an academic bill of rights at SUNY, as Free Exchange on Campus has reported. Students, faculty and campus presidents have resisted, however, and a committee of de Russy’s trustee peers voted unanimously to shelve the idea last spring.

An answer of B) is not far off the mark, since Horowitz, a well-known right-wing instigator, routinely urges his followers to challenge their "dangerous" professors. On Sept. 11, the lead story of his of Web-based magazine, FrontPagemag.com, was "Revolution: A Back to School Guide". It begins: "Conservatives, welcome back to campus, that bastion of hostility toward your faith, politics and lifestyle, where Marx is revered, common sense eschewed, and multiculturalism matters more than mathematics."

But wannabes aside, the correct quotation source is C). The president of Iran, who began a crackdown on free speech in Iranian higher education last year, met with a group of students Sept. 5, reports the Associated Press, and recruited them as soldiers in his campaign to restrict their academic freedom.

Japanese thought police
While its economy is enviable, Japan’s extreme nationalism is exacting a heavy toll on free expression, academic freedom and civil discourse, according to a recent Washington Post Outlook commentary. When an editor at a foreign policy think tank expressed concern over the rise of "hawkish nationalism", the think tank was subjected to a campaign of such intimidation that it shut down its journal and wrote a letter to its attackers begging for forgiveness. In another example cited by New America Foundation’s Steven Clemon, co-founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute, Sumiko Iwao, professor emeritus at Keio University, wrote an article stating that much of Japan is ready to accept female succession in the imperial line. The right-wing activist response was so great, she issued a retraction and went into hiding.

Clemon’s point is that healthy verbal debate in Japan has descended dangeroulsy into harassment and violence. It is a cautionary reminder in the current U.S. environment, a Free Exchange commentator notes.

I Spy, on tape
The Internet world of home videos—also known as YouTube—is fun and freewheeling, but it has a down side. Students have been filming their teachers and professors without permission and putting the clips online. This kind of thing violates most university rules, not to mention intellectual property law, many told Inside Higher Education, which reported the story Sept. 6, and often has a political element. However this latest classroom creepiness is hard to police.