The BP Oil Spill and Academic Freedom

In this much-discussed article, Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), reflects on British Petroleum's hiring of university professors to conduct research with the intention of investigating, solving, and preventing a future oil spill like that in the Gulf. The researchers hired by BP are restricted by confidentiality agreements that seem out of order with academia's investment in academic freedom. The comments on this article reflect the controversy over this issue.