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Because of academic freedom concerns, Georgetown's Executive Faculty considers alternatives to Zoom, examines university contracts. Here's the resolution under consideration this Friday 11/20. Please RT, share, feel free to adapt:
https://jimmillward.medium.com/following-zooms-repeated-interference-in-academic-freedom-the-following-resolution-is-going-674716efb702 @drewharwell
https://jimmillward.medium.com/following-zooms-repeated-interference-in-academic-freedom-the-following-resolution-is-going-674716efb702 @drewharwell
Zoom several times has shut down meetings when pressured by outside parties -- who are NOT its customers -- namely the People's Republic of China and pro-Israel groups. It shut down meetings about Tiananmen and Hong Kong rights last spring;
and in September it shut down a university seminar about Palestine at State University of San Francisco, then shut down meetings at University of Hawai'i and at New York University discussing the SUSF shut down.
For a university to contract with a third party in such a way that allows that party to arbitrarily interfere in what happens in the classroom and seminar room violates long accepted academic freedom guidelines, such as those of the AAUP from 1940: https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure
It also violates the language of Georgetown's own faculty handbook, and likely that of other universities, regarding academic freedom: https://facultyhandbook.georgetown.edu/section3/c/
Zoom has now caused both the Association for Asian Studies and Middle East Studies Association to publish calls of concern about academic freedom. These are top US / International academic associations for area studies. https://www.asianstudies.org/aas-statement-regarding-remote-teaching-online-scholarship-safety-and-academic-freedom/
Middle East Studies Association Statement on Academic Freedom and Corporate Control of Digital Platforms: https://mesana.org/advocacy/letters-from-the-board/2020/10/29/mesa-statement-on-academic-freedom-and-corporate-control-of-digital-platforms
This is a big deal: the corporate platforms in our classrooms are here to stay. If scholars don't hold the line for academic freedom, outside political groups will win by leaning on Zoom et al., which will always cave if there's not a robust response from our universities.
