UPDATE February 1st:  Inside Higher Ed reports that Peterson-Overton has been rehired for his teaching position.  The American Association of University Professors describes this as “a victory for Academic Freedom and for the faculty.”

Oregon State University is coming under fire after canceling an invitation to  Tristan Taormino, a self-described feminist pornographer, to be the keynote speaker for the school’s upcoming Modern Sex Conference. 

In a post on his blog today professor of education and former Weather Underground leader William Ayers responds to the cancellation of two of his lectures at the University of Wyoming.  

The bulk of his piece is a criticism of UW President Tom Buchanan’s official statement claiming to support academic freedom while cancelling Ayers lectures.  But towards the end of his response Ayers points out that much of his talks would have focused on the importance of academic freedom in educating the citizens of a democracy.

“We want our students to be able to think for themselves, to make judgments based on evidence and argument, to develop minds of their own. We want them to ask fundamental questions—who in the world am I? How did I get here and where am I going? What in the world are my choices? How in the world shall I proceed?—and to pursue answers wherever they might take them. Our efforts focus not on the production of things so much as on the production of fully developed human beings who are capable of controlling and transforming their own lives, citizens who can participate fully in civic life…

A primary job of teachers and scholars and journalists, and a responsibility of all engaged citizens, is to challenge orthodoxy, dogma, and mindless complacency, to be skeptical of all authoritative claims, to interrogate and trouble the given and the taken-for-granted. The growth of knowledge, insight, and understanding depends on that kind of effort, and the inevitable clash of ideas that follows must be nourished and not crushed.”

That a significant portion of Ayers’ talk was to focus on the free exchange of ideas adds a certain sense of poetic injustice to an already unfortunate incident.  You can read the full text of Ayers response here