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Academic freedom is the freedom of teachers, students, and protects academic freedom by ensuring that teachers can be fired only for causes such as gross professional incompetence or behavior that evokes condemnation from the academic community itself. THE RATIONALE FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM Proponents of academic freedom believe that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy. They argue that academic communities are repeatedly targeted for repression due to their ability to shape and control the flow of information. When scholars attempt to teach or communicate ideas or facts that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities, they may find themselves targeted for public vilification, job loss, imprisonment, or even death. For example, in North Africa, a professor of public health discovered that his country's infant mortality rate was higher than government figures indicated. He lost his job and was imprisoned.Robert Quinn (2004). " Defending 'Dangerous Minds .'" The fate of Biology in the Soviet Union is also cited as a reason why society has an interest in protecting academic freedom. A Soviet biologist named Trofim Lysenko rejected Western scientific advances and proposed a new, unscientific approach to biology (called Lysenkoism ) that was based on the principles of Dialectical Materialism . Because of their propaganda value, Lysenko's ideas proved appealing to the Soviet leadership, and he became the director of the Soviet Academy of Agricultural Sciences; subsequently, Lysenko directed a purge of scientists who professed "harmful ideas," resulting in the expulsion, imprisonment, or death of hundreds of Soviet scientists. Lysenko's unscientific ideas were implemented on collectivised farms in the Soviet Union and China. Famines that resulted partly from Lysenko's influence are believed to have killed 30 million people in China alone.Jasper Becker (1996). ''Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine''. New York: Free Press. ACADEMIC FREEDOM FOR STUDENTS The ideas of academic freedom as a right of the student is German in origin. In this model (known in German as ''Lernfreiheit''), the student is free to pursue their own course of study, taking whatever courses they like at whatever university they choose. This ideal was carried to the United States in the 19th Century by scholars who had studied at German universities. It was most prominently employed in the United States by Charles William Eliot at Harvard University between 1872 and 1897 , when the only required course was freshman Rhetoric . In the U.S., students' academic freedom is regulated by the faculty's prerogative to determine which viewpoints are supported by scholarly standards, peer review, and established norms in their disciplines according to their own judgement. According to a U.S. appellate court decision,Bonnell v. Lorenzo, 241 F.3d 800 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 951 (2001). "a professor's rights to academic freedom and freedom of expression are paramount in the academic setting." For this reason, U.S. students do not have the right to insist that professors provide "equal time" for competing viewpoints.Edwards v. Aguillard 482 U.S. 578, 586 n. 6 (1987). A student may be required to write a paper from a particular viewpoint, even if the student disagrees with that viewpoint, as long as the requirement serves a legitimate pedagogical purpose.Brown v. Li, 308 F.3d 939, 953 (9th Cir. 2002), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 908 (2003). However, the faculty's rights to determine legitimate subject matter are not absolute to the point of compromising a student's right to learn in a hostility-free environment." Professorial speech is protected only to the extent that it is "germane to the subject matter."Hardy v. Jefferson Community College, 260 F.3d 671 (6th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 970 (2002). ACADEMIC FREEDOM FOR PROFESSORS The concept of academic freedom as a right of faculty members (''Lehrfreiheit'' in German) is an established part of German, English , French and American academic cultures. In all four a faculty member may pursue research and publish their findings without restraint, but they differ in regard to the professor's freedom in a classroom situation. In the German tradition, professors are free to try to convert their students to their personal viewpoint and philosophical system.Walter P. Metzger (1955). ''Academic Freedom in the Age of the University.'' New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Nevertheless, professors are discouraged or prohibited from stating their views, particularly political views, outside the class; in regard to his teaching, there should be no duties required of the professor, no prescribed syllabus, and no restriction to a particular subject. In the United States, academic freedom is generally taken as the notion of academic freedom defined by the "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," jointly authored by the work with American colleges and universities, including private and religious institutions, to implement this standard. Additionally, the AAUP, which is not an accrediting body, works with this same institutions. The AAUP does not always agree with the regional accrediting bodies on the standards of protection of academic freedom and tenure.For example, the Northwest Association Of Schools And Of Colleges And Universities reviewed Brigham Young University 's academic freedom statement and found it in compliance with the 1940 statement, while AAUP has found Brigham Young University to be in violation The AAUP lists those colleges and universities which it has found to violate these principles.''Censured Institutions'' {Link without Title} A professor at a public French university, or a researcher in a public research laboratory, is expected, as are all rather than through normal administrative procedures. ACADEMIC FREEDOM FOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES A prominent feature of the English university concept is the freedom to appoint faculty, set standards and admit students. This ideal may be better described as institutional autonomy and is distinct from whatever freedom is granted to students and faculty by the institution. (Kemp, p. 7) The Supreme Court Of The United States said that academic freedom means a university can "determine for itself on academic grounds: # who may teach, # what may be taught, # how it should be taught, and # who may be admitted to study." ('' Regents Of The University Of California V. Bakke '', 438 U.S. 265, 312. 1978.) ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT In the U.S., the Freedom Of Speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment , which states that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...." By extension, the First Amendment applies to all governmental institutions, including public universities. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that academic freedom is a First Amendment right.Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234 (1957); Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967); Regents of Univ. of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985). However, the First Amendment does ''not'' apply to private institutions, including religious institutions. In addition, academic freedom involves more than speech rights; for example, it includes the right to determine what is taught in the classroom. Therefore, academic freedom is, at best, only partially protected by free speech rights. In sum, academic freedom and free speech rights are not coextensive and the relationship between the two remains unclear. In practice, academic freedom is protected by institutional rules and regulations, letters of appointment, faculty handbooks, collective bargaining agreements, and academic custom.Donna Euben, Political And Religious Belief Discrimination On Campus: Faculty and Student Academic Freedom and The First Amendment. CONTROVERSIES Public utterances and academic freedom In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 Attacks and the resulting patriotic feelings that swept the U.S., public statements made by faculty came under media scrutiny. For example, in January 2005, University Of Colorado professor Ward Churchill published an essay in which he asserted that the attack on the United States was justified because of American foreign policy. On news and talk programs, he was criticized for describing the World Trade Center victims as " Little Eichmanns ," a reference to Hannah Arendt's Eichmann In Jerusalem . Many called for Churchill to be fired for overstepping the bounds of acceptable discourse. Others defended him on the principle of academic freedom, even if they disagreed with his message. The Bassett Affair at Duke University is an important event in the history of academic freedom. The "Academic bill of rights" Students for Academic Freedom (SAF) was founded in 2001 by David Horowitz to protect students from a perceived liberal bias in U.S. colleges and universities. The organization collected many statements from college students complaining that some of their professors were disregarding their responsibility to keep unrelated controversial material out of their classes and were instead teaching their subjects from an ideological point of view. Academic Freedom Abuse Center In response, the organization drafted model legislation, called the Academic Bill of Rights, which has been introduced in several state legislatures and the U.S. House of Representatives. The Academic Bill of Rights is intended to offset the liberal bias in the nation's colleges and universities, evening the playing field for the expression of the full spectrum of ideas. According to Students for Academic Freedom, academic freedom is "the freedom to teach and to learn." They contend in ''" The Academic Bill of Rights "'' that academic freedom promotes "intellectual diversity" and helps achieve a university's primary goals, i.e., "the pursuit of truth, the discovery of new knowledge through scholarship and research, the study and reasoned criticism of intellectual and cultural traditions, the teaching and general development of students to help them become creative individuals and productive citizens of a pluralistic democracy, and the transmission of knowledge and learning to a society at large." Accordingly, the Academic Bill of Rights calls for state and judicial regulation of colleges. Such regulation would ensure that professors:
Some opponents claim that such a bill would actually restrict academic freedom, leaving education to ideologically-motivated legislators and judges, rather than ideologically-driven professors. According to the directs universities to implement the principle of neutrality by requiring the appointment of faculty "with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives," an approach they claim is problematic because "It invites diversity to be measured by political standards that diverge from the academic criteria of the scholarly profession." For example,"no department of political theory ought to be obligated to establish 'a plurality of methodologies and perspectives' by appointing a professor of Nazi political philosophy." Concurring, the president of Appalachian Bible College in West Virginia fears that the Academic Bill of Rights "would inhibit his college's efforts to provide a faith-based education and would put pressure on the college to hire professors... who espouse views contrary to those of the institution."Alyson Klein (2004). "Worried on the Left and Right." ''Chronicle of Higher Education'' (July 9, 2004). However, the language of the bill itself makes clear that the objective is simply neutrality in hiring. REFERENCES FURTHER READING Articles
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