Academistics has an update on the case of Robert Day, the Cumberland College professor who was summarily fired (or "offered the opportunity to resign") after he posted a website last fall calling for fiscal and procedural accountability at the school. Day remains fired, though the AAUP has written several letters to Cumberland's president defending the principle of academic freedom (which Day was arguably exercising when he posted his site) and arguing, too, that the school should have honored Day's attempt to retract the resignation he gave in the heat of the moment when he was confronted about his site. The news now is that Cumberland is punishing Day's former department chair, James Bailey, for standing up for Day. Bailey has been put on a special contract next year, one that stipulates the college's right to fire him at will; the reason for the special contract is "three instances of poor performance," each of which involved efforts Bailey made on Day's behalf. Cumberland College is on course to be censured by the AAUP. Too bad the administrators there don't seem to care, since censure is the only sanction the AAUP can dole out.

Bonus points for you for the catchy title! I was originally going to call the post "Cumberland College Doubles Down," but double secret probation was just too irresistable.

Thanks for helping expose the neanderthals at Cumberland. Eventually this absurdity will come to the attention of someone who can apply the proper pressure, if given enough exposure.

Hey, you, there's no call to be associating them Cumberland perfessors and ministraters with an honorable tribe. You might give us sensitive Neanderthals a bad name.

That brings up some questions for me. How many times has the AAUP actually censured a school? Do schools usually cave before a censure takes place? It seems to me that AAUP censure might have a significant negative impact on new faculty hiring, enrollment, donations, etc.

These guys do academic freedom as well as their 1916 team did football.

That is the wrong Cumberland football team. The football team in which you refer is from Cumberland University in Lebanon, TN.