Editor's note: This article was updated on Feb. 3 to reflect a change in speakers, with Rachel Levinson replacing Robert M. O'Neil.

8:48 a.m., Dec. 7, 2009----Provost Tom Apple and the University of Delaware chapter of the American Association of University Professors will co-sponsor a forum on recent court decisions affecting the academic freedom of faculty at public universities.

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The forum, open to all faculty and staff, will begin at noon on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010, in the Trabant University Center Multipurpose Rooms A and B. Lunch will be served. Those who plan to attend should RSVP to [provost-office@udel.edu] by Feb. 10.

A panel on free-speech rights of students in public universities will be held at 3:30 p.m. that same day in Room 100 Kirkbride Hall. The 3:30 event will be open to the entire University community, and students are encouraged to attend.

Noontime Faculty Forum

Rachel Levinson, senior counsel to the American Association of University Professors, will join Lawrence White, vice president and general counsel at UD, in leading the forum. They will examine the impact of a 2006 Supreme Court decision, Garcetti v. Ceballos, and subsequent lower-court decisions.

In Garcetti, an assistant district attorney claimed that his supervisors had violated his constitutional right to free speech by penalizing him for writing a memo in which he criticized the issuance of a warrant. The court ruled that as a public employee -- that is, someone who works for a government entity -- he was subject to discipline for speech undertaken in the course of his professional duties.

Although Garcetti did not involve public universities, the decision included brief references to its potential effect on academic freedom.

Within three years, a series of lower-court decisions had settled any doubt that might have existed about whether Garcetti would be applied to faculty in public universities.

In the most recent of these decisions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit declared in March 2009 that even if the dismissal of a department chair at Delaware State University was motivated by his criticism of then-president Allan Sessoms -- a point the court did not concede -- the university would have been within its rights.

Responding to the Supreme Court's suggestion that the free speech of public employees might be better protected by internal policies than by the courts, the American Association of University Professors appointed a subcommittee -- chaired by O'Neil -- to draft a response to Garcetti and subsequent decisions.

The report is available online at the AAUP Web site.

Among other things, the AAUP report suggests actions that faculty in public universities may take to codify academic freedom at their institutions.

Rachel Levinson

After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, Levinson clerked for the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Prior to coming to the AAUP, Levinson was a trial attorney in the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, for which she litigated fair housing cases.

At the AAUP, Levinson oversees the efforts of the legal office, which include providing information to and conducting presentations for various legal and academic audiences; coordinating the submission of amicus briefs on matters implicating AAUP policies, faculty interests, and issues in higher education; and advising the AAUP on a variety of legal matters.Most recently, she staffed a year-long subcommittee of AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure that produced a comprehensive report on the state of academic freedom and the First Amendment.

Lawrence White

White was appointed UD vice president and general counsel in July, 2009. In this role he serves as chief legal counsel at the University and works on a variety of law-related and policy-making issues -- including litigation, compliance, risk management, internal audit, employment, and business and commercial transactions.

White's experience includes serving as chief counsel to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, university counsel at Georgetown University, deputy general counsel at the University of Virginia, counsel to the University System of Maryland, and associate secretary and assistant counsel of the American Association of University Professors.

A frequent speaker, lecturer, writer and consultant on higher education issues, White has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School of Business.

White is a graduate of Harvard University and holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.