Ever spend much time with academics...professors? Outside the classroom, in the near occasion of alcohol? Yes, they're fragile. And they're whiners. But they are never more than a glass away from dropping "pedagogical freedom" as an existential element of their professional life. Like tenure, this is something we in the real world never have, and yes, unfireable government bureaucrats are not part of the real world. So what is this "pedagogical freedom?" In a nutshell, it means no one, not a colleague, not a department head, not a provost and not a university president can tell them what to do or how to do it in their classes. No one. Anyone who tries, and in fact, anything they don't like, will be declared an existential threat to their pedagogical freedom. For some unfathomable reason, it has been widely accepted that the academy would collapse if professors' pedagogical freedom were to be infringed in the slightest.
Not anymore.
Seems the University System of Georgia is rolling out a requirement that all syllabi be made publicly available. Professors are outraged. Seems they think transparency is something that applies to government and somehow their working as an academic in a public university means they are not government employees, despite the fact that they actually are. But they really don't like anyone telling them what to do, even their bosses at USG.
The histrionics are reminiscent of Campus Carry. You know, where bodies were going to drop by the hour and some profs protested by having office hours exclusively online (before pandemic shutdowns) so as to not be exposed to an armed student. Their imaginings include social media attacks based on syllabus topics. Heaven forbid! A troll. They see physical threats in their future. They expect self-censorship--like that's going to happen. They may actually fear that students, who now see the syllabus ahead of time, might choose another professor, like an in-your-face Rate My Professor. Should students not be allowed to vote with their feet? And parents' money? But mostly they whine about pedagogical freedom. You'd think they were Mel Gibson's William Wallace screaming "Freedom!" as he was about to be drawn and quartered.
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