Academic Freedom and Educational Responsibility............. ..

1. 1
Balancing Student
and Faculty Academic
Freedom and
Responsibility

2. 2
Thomas Jefferson wrote:
 “Whenever the people are
well-informed, they can be
trusted with their own
government.”

3. 3
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.
United States Constitution
Bill of Rights

4. 4
Free Speech in the News
 Newt Gingrich speaking at the Nackey
Loeb First Amendment Award Dinner:
“The country will be forced to reexamine
rules of free speech to meet the threat of
terrorism.”

5. 5
Freedom to Offend?
 Actor Michael Richards use of the word
“nigger” at a Los Angeles comedy club
 NCAA Guidelines for sport team mascots
University of North Dakota Hockey Team
the “Fighting Sioux” invited to Dartmouth
Hockey Tournament

6. 6
Free Speech on College Campuses
“University students are not blank slates.
They are capable of assessing the value of a
professor’s teachings.”
-President Richard L. Judd,
Central Connecticut State University,
defending a Middle-Eastern Study Seminar

7. 7
Academic Freedom and Responsibility
 The right of scholars to pursue research, to
teach, and to publish without control or
restraint from the institutions that employ
them.
Defined by the American Association of
University Professors’ in 1940
“Statement of Principles on
Academic Freedom and Tenure”

8. 8
State Law – Academic Bill of Rights
 Created by Conservative David Horowitz,
President of the Center for the Study of
Popular Culture in 2004
 “To remove partisan politics from the
classroom” and to ensure that “no faculty
should be hired, fired or denied promotion or
tenure on the basis of his or her religious or
political beliefs.”
 Legislation introduced in 21 states - yet no
state has passed the Academic Bill of Rights

9. 9
Defining Academic Content?
 “Faculty and instructors shall not
infringe upon the academic freedom
and quality of education of their
students by persistently introducing
controversial matter into the
classroom or coursework that has no
relation to their subject of study and
that serves no legitimate
pedagogical purpose.”

10. 10
American Council of Trustees and
Alumni – founded by Lynne Cheney
“Rarely did professors publicly mention
heroism, rarely did they discuss the
difference between good and evil, the nature
of Western political order or the virtue of a
free society. Indeed, the message of many
in academe was clear: BLAME AMERICA
FIRST.”- Defending Civilization: How Our
Universities Are Failing America and What
Can Be Done About It

11. 11
Federal Law – The Patriot Act
 Increased Government observation via
wiretaps and surveillance orders
 The concern in University communities is
that these laws limit the freedom of inquiry
and open access to research
 “This involves a fundamental clash of
virtues between University openness and
security interests in clamping down.”
Eugene Skolnikoff-MIT Professor Emeritus
of Political Science

12. 12
Bioterrorism Provision
 The first paragraph of a 166 page law
“gave rise to a veritable Frankenstein of
federal regulation and subsequent laws
and policy.”
 Bottom line: “chilling effect on the
ability to do research freely and publish
results”

13. 13
Restrictions on Foreign Students
 Stricter review of foreign students and
more difficult to obtain a visa
 SEVIS Program: monitoring system for
foreign students in the U.S.
 Restricted access to sensitive research
has been extended into the biological
sciences

14. 14
Bioterrorism Preparedness Act
 Higher level of scrutiny of anyone
having access to bio-hazard materials
 Attempts to balance research freedom
and community protection
• Background checks for anyone working with
select list of pathogens
• Restricted access of nationals from
Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.

15. 15
Academic Freedom of Speech
 Climate of fear ~ willingness to override
some freedom of speech rights out of fear
of prosecution under federal law
 “If academic freedom is going to prevail it is
important that institutions defend the rights
of individuals to speak out on politically
unpopular subjects.”
Cynthia Vroom at the Academic Freedom
Forum, June 11, 2003

16. 16
Patriot Act Section 215
 Allows the FBI to get a special court order
asking for any type of document from any
institution relating to a terrorism
investigation or a person suspected of
being a terrorist
 Librarians concerned about ramifications
 Section 215 was set to expire December
31, 2005, but was reauthorized twice, most
recently on March 10, 2006

17. 17
Dr. Sami Al-Arian
University of Southern Florida
 Accused and indicted of conspiracy to provide
services for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad
 Accused of using the University of Southern
Florida as a cover for Islamic Jihad fundraising
 Terminated for using the University of Southern
Florida name and resources for
“illegal and improper purposes”
“This is not about academic freedom. It’s not about
tenure. It’s not about free speech. It’s about
disruption and safety.”- Judy Genshaft, President
of the University of Southern Florida

18. 18
Dr. William Woodward
University of New Hampshire
 Member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth
 U.S. Senator Judd Gregg “In my view, there are
limitations to academic freedom and freedom of
speech. I believe it is inappropriate for someone at
a public university which is supported with
taxpayer dollars to take positions that are generally
an affront to the sensibility of most all Americans.
 Former Governor Walter Peterson, said the
tenured professor should not be fired:
“I don’t think trustees should be trying to influence
professors and what they say, but if it gets too
bizarre, the chairman of the department, should
have a chat with him.”

19. 19
Speakers on College Campuses
 University administrators withdrew invitations
before 2004 elections, e.g. filmmaker Michael
Moore, a critic of the Bush Administration
 “Because academic freedom requires liberty to
learn as well as to teach, colleges and universities
should respect prerogatives of campus
organizations to select outside speakers whom they
wish to hear.”
American Association of University Professors
1967 Statement of Principles

20. 20
American Association of University
Professors 1940 Standards for Tenure
 Ensures that private college and university faculty
have “contractual safeguards” that address the
primary components of Academic Freedom
 “A faculty member’s expression of opinion as a
citizen cannot constitute grounds for dismissal
unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty
member’s unfitness for his or her position.
Extramural utterances rarely bear upon the faculty
member’s fitness for the position. Moreover, a final
decision should take into account the faculty
member’s entire record as a teacher and scholar.”

21. 21
Constitutional Protection
 “Academic freedom is a special
concern of the First Amendment,
which does not tolerate laws that cast
a pall of orthodoxoy over the
classroom.”
Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967)

22. 22
1996 Solomon Amendment
 Colleges and Universities that accept
federal funds must allow military recruiters
on campus, despite objections to the
Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” military
policy on gender orientation
 The United States Supreme Court upheld
the Constitutionality of the Solomon
Amendment, saying that First Amendment
free speech rights were not violated
because faculty and students are “free to
voice their concerns” over the policy

23. 23
FAIR v. Rumsfeld (2006)
 In a case brought by the Forum for Academic and
Individual Rights (FAIR), the United States
Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the
Solomon Amendment, saying that First
Amendment free speech rights were not violated
because faculty and students were “free to voice
their concerns” over the “don’t ask, don’t tell”
military policy

24. 24
New Hampshire State Law
 Silva v. University of New Hampshire (1994)
U.S. District Court ruled that the University must
reinstate Donald Silva to his position as a
tenured professor after he claimed that UNH had
violated his academic freedom and right to free
speech by suspending him from teaching when
he made comments many students deemed to
be “sexual harassment”

25. 25
SB 623 Defeated in NH Legislature
 Protection of Freedom of Speech on College
Campuses
“The governing body of any public postsecondary
institution shall not make or enforce any rule which
subjects any student, professor, teacher,
administrator or other employee to disciplinary
sanctions solely on the basis of speech that, when
engaged in outside of a campus of such institution
is protected from governmental restriction by the
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution …”

26. 26
Bibliography
American Association of University Professors
www.aaup.org
“The Patriot Act and Academic Freedom”, by Cynthia Vroom,
presented at the Academic Freedom Forum, June 11, 2003
“Defending Civilization: How Our Universities are Failing
America and What Can Be Done About It,”
American Council of Trustees and Alumni, 2002
“Academic Freedom in the USA,” Ronald B. Standler
www.rbs2.com
“Higher Education Issues After the USA Patriot Act,” Division of
Legal Affairs, Office of the President, University of North
Carolina.