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Academic Freedom at Public Universities is in Trouble

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Academic Freedom Alliance was created with the goal of protecting individual professors and scholars from universities that were violating intellectual freedom. While many American universities have reasonable protections against academic freedom, there is still room for improvement. In addition to the First Amendment protecting state university professors from intellectual freedom violations, the First Amendment protects them as well. However, universities aren’t always able to keep their promises. Individual professors may need assistance if they behave poorly.

The danger is real of an erosion in protections for academic freedom. It will not be as important to defend the individual rights they enjoy at particular institutions if their rights aren’t very strong. Many private universities have proposed to cut large holes in the traditional protections of academic freedom. The resistance to professors trying to convince their peers and institutions to follow the principles and protections of the Chicago Statement has been remarkable (and I am grateful to Princeton for being an early adopter).

Another threat to public universities is the rising cost of higher education. There is an additional threat from the politicians and boards of governors across the nation. They are considering ways to significantly reduce academic freedom rights or interfere with intellectual life on colleges campuses. Some of these proposals may have become reality. Tenure protections will be weakened. Scholars are not encouraged to share their knowledge. Some ideas that are not popularized are banned.

At the Washington Post I’ve a new piece that looks at these efforts as well as the challenging road ahead of public universities in America.

State legislatures across the country are considering laws that would limit teaching on campuses, reduce tenure systems, or blur the line between state politics and higher education. States will continue to follow this trend and undermine the quality of the higher education institutions they have, which are some of the most prestigious universities around the globe. As the gap between what’s on offer at public universities and the intellectual freedom available at private universities grows, they could cause these institutions to spiral downward.

Scholars and teachers at universities across the country — at both public and private universities — already have too many reasons to shy away from controversial topics. To offend an inappropriate constituency within a university, administrators can lobby for the expulsion of the infringing scholar. Too often administrators give way to these lobbying efforts. Even when they don’t, all parties get the message that it is important to exercise caution.

But state legislatures and boards of regents are now getting into the game — at a much greater scale.

You can read the entire article here.