"Universities' vulnerability to outside pressure is what brought us academic freedom in the first place. In 1900, the Stanford economist-turned-sociologist Edward Ross said he opposed immigration because it threatened Anglo-Saxon racial purity. Jane Stanford, widow of railroad tycoon Leland Stanford and benefactor of the university (as well as beneficiary of immigrant labor) insisted Ross be fired. Ross countered, 'It is my duty as an economist to impart... in a scientific spirit, my conclusions on subjects with which I am expert.' Mrs. Stanford won."
Eric Rauchway in The New Republic compares recent University of California covtroversies involving Lawrence Summers and Erin Chemerinsky.
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