assignment 3

Module Overview:

Academic Freedom

Academic freedom is one of the defining characteristics of higher education in the United States, and has distinct meaning to the academic profession versus the law. In its original conceptualization in the early part of the twentieth century as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was being formed, academic freedom provides faculty members the freedom “to conduct research and propound ideas without external interference” (White, p. 800). The AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles explained its purpose:

Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.

Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research. Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning. It carries with it duties correlative with rights (1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure: with 1970 Interpretive Comments, p. 3).

This professional conceptualization of academic freedom, as stated by the AAUP, differs somewhat from the legal concept that has emerged over decades of case law, where academic freedom is used as an overarching term to explain the legal rights and responsibilities associated with faculty at colleges and universities. In addition, in the legal framework, academic freedom is increasingly seen as a right of institutions themselves, an extension of academic freedom that would most likely have never been considered by the founders of the AAUP (White, 2014).

As U.S. citizens, all faculty are afforded freedom of speech from governmental action by the First Amendment of the Constitution. At public institutions, this offers protections from all bodies of government, including the college or university. At private institutions, however, the First Amendment does not apply to internal censorship or challenges without a finding of state action (see Module Two). At both private and public institutions, colleges’ and universities’ authority over their faculty members is limited by contract law. While faculty at public institutions are further protected by constitutional concepts of academic freedom, those at private institutions generally can rely only on the faculty contract as a restriction on institutional authority to limit faculty academic freedom (Kaplin & Lee, 2014).

Institutional Policy Statements and Faculty Handbooks

Colleges and universities typically rely on published statements of academic freedom and faculty rights and responsibilities in faculty handbooks. The purpose of these published statements is to guide institutional decision making and to communicate to stakeholders their rights and responsibilities. In addition, faculty appointment letters and contracts are used to govern the relationship between faculty members and their institutions.

References

American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (1940). Statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure: with 1970 interpretive comments. Retrieved from http://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure

Kaplin, W. A. & Lee, B. A. (2014). The law of higher education (5th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley and Sons.

White, L. (2010). Fifty years of academic freedom jurisprudence. Journal of College and University Law, 36(3), 791–842