Understanding words: Liberal
Understanding words: Liberal
Hype for the Future 101: Introduction to the Term
Overview — Special Interest The term “101” may also be used as a term to not be taken literally in how-to manuals, discussions, and guides. Sometimes, the use of the term “101” can be deceiving; however, when pronounced “one-oh-one,” the assumption is that the manuals and how-to guides are effectively one-on-one connections.https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/09/hype-for-the-future-101-introduction-to-the-term/
University of North Carolina moves to define academic freedom – Asheville Citizen-Times
EDUCATION
UNC System moves to define academic freedom, battles profs union
By Clayton Henkel, NC Newline, Asheville Citizen Times, Jan. 30, 2026, 6:04 a.m. ET
The UNC Systems’ Committee on University Governance gave an initial nod Wednesday to a formal definition for academic freedom.
“Academic freedom as a concept is included in our code and has been for some time,” explained Andrew Tripp, UNC System’s senior vice president and general counsel. “What has been lacking is a definition of academic freedom for both faculty and students.”
Tripp said university leadership identified that gap over a year ago and tasked the chair of UNC’s Faculty Assembly and others to work out a consensus definition that could govern how university campuses operate.
“It does a couple of things — that definition defines [academic freedom] in words that our faculty assembly have provided, but it also talks about what academic freedom is with concrete examples and where it applies most pointedly to protect the classroom and course development, research, and scholarly inquiry,” Tripp said.
The proposed policy also defines what academic freedom isn’t, which is important to acknowledge, Tripp told members of the Board of Governors.
“I think it’s a good balance of what the responsibilities we have are and what the opportunities we have are, because academic freedom is critical to us using our expertise to do the teaching and research the faculty are supposed to do,” Maki said.
The policy defines academic freedom as “the foundational principle that protects the rights of all faculty to engage in teaching, research/creative activities, service, and scholarly inquiry without undue influence. It ensures that faculty can freely pursue knowledge; express, discuss and debate ideas; and contribute to knowledge and understanding related to their areas of expertise.”
The policy further states that faculty have the rights and responsibility to determine “pedagogical strategies, instructional materials, evaluation methods, and classroom discourse that supports student learning” provided those methods align with professional standards.
But the policy also cautions that academic freedom is not absolute.
Under the policy, faculty are expected to exercise academic freedom that falls “within the parameters established by academic disciplines, professions, and in compliance with institutional policies and rules.”
Other guardrails spell out that academic freedom does not permit instructors to teach content “clearly unrelated” to the course description or to use university resources for political or ideological advocacy.
The North Carolina State Conference of the American Association of University Professors says that proposed revisions to the policy differ considerably from language adopted in the UNC Faculty Assembly’s Resolution on Academic Freedom back in October 2025. What started as six lines defining the limitations of academic freedom last fall mushroomed to 35 lines when presented this week.
“That’s a really big increase, and that increase was not done in a way that was presented with shared governance, but that increase was done with very little faculty input over the holiday break when very little faculty were even available to weigh in,” said Annelise Mennicke, a AAUP member and associate professor in the School of Social Work at UNC-Charlotte.
Attorneys for NCAAUP say the list of parameters effectively weakens the historical scope of academic freedom.
“Much of the language in the Resolution and proposed additional language is also vague and, therefore, risks creating an academic environment that is inconsistent with principles of academic freedom and free speech articulated by the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit,” NCAAUP attorneys write in a January 26 letter to the UNC System.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: University of North Carolina moves to define academic freedom
#AcademicFreedom #AshevilleCitizenTimes #Define #Definitions #January302026 #NCNewsline #NCAAUP #UNC #UNCChapelHill #UNCCharlotte #UniversityOfNorthCarolina #VagueLanguageIt's been a long time since I wrote a "definitions, manifestations, translations, transmissions" #dmtt #poem. I got this one the other night. Here is "definitions; vacuums"
#definitions #manifestations #translations #transmissions #poetry #shortpoetry #shortpoem
Imagine if your language had a word that meant both "food" and "junk food", or at least that's how it was used in common parlance. Then people started pushing back against critiques of (junk) food, saying, "well we've always had food." This is exactly like the people (and i've seen this a lot lately) online pontificating about technology and how it's so great and important to humanity and we've always had it and in fact it predates humans. This is like saying otters busted open shells with rocks 5 million years ago so you should let your children eat nothing but takis all day long.
So. Stupid. I contend that to make an argument that collapses a term so much, conflates it with more general concepts in order to purposely confuse the issue, is gaslighting and basically makes the term meaningless, cuts off in advance any real conversation that's actually going on. fuck you people. You all know that all the modern complaints about tech are talking about _modern tech_. Do a little pattern match in your head and stick "modern" in before every use of the word "technology" and then come back and discuss in good faith.
#ADNotam #definitions #urbandictionary
Jorp lol
Hype for the Future 28C: Building an Identity on Travel and Events
geoTopFlex vs futoTopFlex In the past, novaTopFlex had identified numerous travel and cultural opportunities under the banner "futoTopFlex." In the near future, the novaTop Identity shall research potential opportunities to identify different "catchment area" zones for different major and perhaps even minor events in the community. When referring to "catchment areas" for different types of events, applications utilizing QGIS and/or OpenStreetMap data shall be redesignated geoTop content and […]