DATE: 4 p.m. Dec. 4, 2008.

EVENT: Cass Sunstein, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, will deliver the 18th Annual University of Michigan Senate’s Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom. His topic: “My University.com; My Government.com: Is the Internet Really a Blessing for Democracy.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

The lecture was established in 1990 by a resolution of the Senate Assembly to honor three University of Michigan faculty members, Chandler Davis, Clement Markert and Mark Nickerson, who in 1954 were called to testify before a Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities. All invoked Constitutional rights and refused to answer committee questions about their political associations. For these actions, the three were suspended and Nickerson was denied the summer portion of his fiscal year salary. Subsequent hearings and committee actions at U-M resulted in different outcomes. Markert was reinstated; Nickerson, a tenured professor, and Davis were dismissed from the University.

PLACE: Honigman Auditorium, 100 Hutchins Hall, University of Michigan Law School, Central Campus. Map: http://www.umich.edu/news/Maps/ccamp.html

CONTACT: Peggie Hollingsworth, (734) 764-0303, [email protected]

SPONSORS: The lecture is sponsored by the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund, American Association of University Professors Michigan Conference and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Chapter, U-M Office of the President, U-M Office of the Vice President for Communications, U-M Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Information, U-M Law School and the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs.

WEB: For information about the Lecture Fund, visit http://www.umich.edu/~aflf