Team 3

3. Professors Face Long

Odds in Court Battles Over
Speech Rights:
The Authors profile: The author, Peter Schmidt, writes about affirmative
action, academic labor, and issues related to academic freedom. Schmidt was
involved in the discussion, because he had interest in lawsuits that professors
had against their employers regarding their academic freedom of speech. The
purpose of this article was to display the low odds that professors have of
winning court cases against their employers surrounding their freedom of
speech, and his does so through interview as well as graphical representation.
The Authors claim and reasons: The main topic of conversation is the
freedom of speech on campus. Schmidt argues that previous to the case of
Waters v. Churchill, freedom of speech court rulings had to show proof of
disruption to normal operations. The author uses Michael LeRoys (a professor of
labor and employment at University of Illinois) research of court rulings and the
representation of college facultys First Amendment right on campus. The
research conducted found that both men and women won at roughly equal rates
and that most of the cases that won had to do with campus critics.
The Audience for the article: The intended audience may include
individuals that have encounter court rulings or issues with freedom of speech on
campus. In addition, the secondary audience could include individuals who are
researching or wanting to know more about the setbacks of freedom of speech
on a college campus.
The genre and conventions of the article: The genre of this article is an
informative political article. The conventions of this genre have to do with bringing
up political issues, making a stance on that political issue, and a reasoning
behind why it is the way that it is, with evidence to support that reasoning. .
Other existing perspectives on the issue: Article consisted of facts and
it is pretty hard to refute the facts that are represented

Key Words:
Speech Rights
College Lawsuits
First Amendment Protections
Academic Freedom
Team 3

Challenges

kbaker89@uncc.edu Kate Baker 708/336-8141

pwesterh@uncc.edu Pierce Westerholt 704-773-4579
dminehar@uncc.edu Dillon Minehart 704-701-6024
bbenfie2@uncc.edu Brennan Benfield 704-749-4169
jshiel16@uncc.edu Justin Shields 336-486-0682

Experiences and observations on campus

Gender- depends on class and college, gender representation-
nursing-more women, engineering-more men
Segregation- groups/fraternities that are on campus that serve to
provide a place for minority students to congregate, more self-segregation that
doesnt force minority groups to exist
2 articles that discuss technology in the classroom-flipped
classroom and wasting time on the internet class
Underfunding of community colleges, focus on other more
profiting expenditures like online classes