Recent court rulings have challenged the long-held concept of academic freedom for faculty members. As an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Kevin J. Renken says he felt obliged to speak out about his belief that administrators there were mishandling a National Science Foundation grant to him…

Born out of one legal battle over affirmative action, the Texas college-admissions policy known as the "top 10 percent plan" is now at the center of another. The University of Texas at Austin is being challenged in U.S. District Court over its 2004 decision to return to using race-conscious admissions criteria after years without them.…

The U.S. Supreme Court provided evidence that its membership had shifted to be more critical of affirmative action as it heard oral arguments last week in two cases involving the race-based assignment of students to public schools. Although the court did not exhibit any desire to reconsider its stand on affirmative action in higher education, the…