FIRE’s Ashland University Case on Volokh

Our recent involvement at Ashland University continues to gain attention on the web with a post on the widely read Volokh Conspiracy blog by David Bernstein. Torch readers will recall that Ashland denied Professor John Lewis tenure for engaging in Objectivist scholarship that did not comport with the school’s “Judeo-Christian tradition.” This was after Ashland accepted $100,000 from a private foundation that granted the money expressly for the purpose of funding Lewis’ Objectivist research. Ashland ultimately granted Lewis tenure in exchange for his resignation, after FIRE wrote to the university that Ashland was contractually obligated to uphold Lewis’ academic freedom and, as Bernstein noted, that Ashland’s academic regulations “made it far from clear that the professor, John Lewis, was violating university policy.”