Charting Academic Freedom 103 Years of Debate DAVID RANDALL NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOLARS JANUARY 2018 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 CHARTING ACADEMIC FREEDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure (1915 AAUP Declaration, 1915) .4 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure (1940 AAUP Declaration, 1940) . . . . . . . 5 Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action (Kalven Report, 1967) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale (Woodward Report, 1974) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Academic Freedom and Educational Responsibility (AAC&U Statement, 2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression (Stone Report, 2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents’ 2015 Statement Reiterating the Board’s Commitment to Academic Freedom and Affirming its Commitment to Freedom of Expression (2015 Wisconsin Statement, 2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom (NAS Statement, 2016) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Academic Freedom in the Age of Political Correctness (Pope Center Report, 2016) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Truth Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression (George & West Statement, 2017) . . . 14 Free Inquiry on Campus: A Statement of Principles (Middlebury Statement, 2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Campus Free Speech: A Legislative Proposal (Goldwater Statement, 2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Forming Open and Robust University Minds (FORUM) Act (ALEC Model Legislation, 2017) . . . . . . . . . . 17 Statement of Principles: Free Expression on Campuses (Students for Free Expression, 2017) . . . . . . . . . 19 ADDITIONAL MATERIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Timeline of Academic Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Timeline of Academic Freedom: Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Other Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 INTRODUCTION The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is pleased to Our chart does not attempt to trace those battles. Rather, offer Charting Academic Freedom. The pages that follow it offers a synopsis of the most important statements that are parts of a single chart that compares fourteen published followed. Some of those statements, such as the 1940 statements on academic freedom in twenty-five categories. Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, The oldest of the statements is the 1915 Declaration of could best be understood as treaties in the long battle between Principles from the American Association of University college presidents and faculty members over what “academic Professors (AAUP). The newest is the April 29, 2017 freedom” means. Statement of Principles: Free Expression on Campuses We publish this chart today because America faces a growing issued by Students for Free Expression. crisis about who can say what on our college campuses. At In addition to the chart, we include (1) an annotated Timeline of root this is a crisis of authority. In recent decades university Academic Freedom, with notable events such as Supreme Court administrators, professors, and student activists have quietly decisions and riots; (2) a list of significant Other Resources by excluded more and more voices from the exchange of views organizations such as the Foundation for Individual Rights in on campus. This has taken shape in several ways, not all of Education (FIRE) and the Heterodox Academy; and (3) a Select which are reducible to violations of “academic freedom.” The Bibliography. narrowing of campus debate by de-selection of conservatives from faculty positions, for example, is not directly a question The chart does not purport to cover all statements on of academic freedom though it has proven to have dire academic freedom in American history, or history since 1915. consequences in various fields where professors have severely Many colleges and universities have formulated their own limited the range of ideas they present in courses. statements, often building on the well-known 1940 AAUP Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, This example suggests some of the complications in the but sometimes venturing in a different direction. Before concept of academic freedom that were not apparent to the 1915, the concept of “academic freedom” was known to some drafters of the 1915 Declaration of Principles. The threats American academics, especially those who had studied at to academic freedom do not always arise from outside the German universities, but academic freedom was definitely not university. Potent threats to academic freedom can arise a well-established doctrine in the United States. In the quarter- from the collective will of faculty members themselves. century before the 1915 AAUP Declaration of Principles, This is the situation that confronts us today. Decades of discontent with peremptory actions by college presidents progressive orthodoxy in hiring, textbooks, syllabi, student and trustees and interventions by clerical authorities led affairs, and public events have created campus cultures where to growing interest among faculty members in mounting a legitimate intellectual debates are stifled and where dissenters, defense of what they saw as a legitimate claim to a measure when they do venture forth, are often met with censorious of autonomy. This finally took shape in the 1915 document and sometimes violent responses. Student mobs, egged on which became the first sustained articulation of the principles by professors and administrators, now sometimes riot to of academic freedom in America. prevent such dissent. The idea of “safe spaces” and a new view Academic freedom thus emerged not from state or federal of academic freedom as a threat to the psychological well- legislation, or from a common law tradition, but by an being of disadvantaged minorities have gained astonishing assertion of will from a small group of distinguished scholars. popularity among students. Much on their mind was the need to defend scholars and Even among its defenders, the concept of “academic freedom” scholarship from the prejudices of outside authorities and is now often muddled with the First Amendment right of free the general public. The 1915 Declaration was, in this light, speech. The two are of very different origins, legal standing, a rhetorical statement meant to persuade faculty members and applicability to higher education. themselves that they had certain extra-legal rights, and to persuade the powers-that-be and the general public that those Part of our project in drafting this chart is to put the discussion “rights” should be respected. It was an uphill fight carried on of “academic freedom” back on its legs. Those who wish to in numerous battles over the decades that followed. defend academic freedom can benefit from understanding the important debates over the last century or more. Our chart 2 | Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate offers a way to grasp the main contours of those debates. Is The current crisis has prompted a surge of new statements academic freedom grounded in the pursuit of truth or the pursuit supporting academic freedom and legislative proposals to of democracy? Are the things faculty members say constrained guarantee it (at the least) on public universities. These statements by the limits of their disciplinary knowledge or is academic and proposals collectively intend to articulate what precisely freedom a license to speak on any issue the faculty member academic freedom is, why it matters and should be defended as a chooses? Is academic freedom solely or primarily a privilege of first principle of the academy, and how it should be articulated in faculty members? Or does it extend to students, administrators, the different contexts of university life. These statements provide and visitors? What should happen to individuals who violate theoretical anchors by which academic freedom ultimately may the standards of academic freedom? Should students be free to be re-established in the everyday practice of campus life. record their teachers? Or should teachers’ academic freedom Every American ought to carry a compact Constitution in include a right of privacy from being recorded? his pocket, to keep America free by easy reference to his None of these questions has been settled once and for all, but country’s traditions and principles of freedom. We hope anyone who enters the debate ought to reconnoiter the most Charting American Freedom will serve likewise, as a digest authoritative pronouncements on such matters. of the principles that underlie intellectual freedom. Peter Wood David Randall President Director of Communications National Association of Scholars National Association of Scholars Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate | 3 1915 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND ACADEMIC TENURE (1915 AAUP DECLARATION) Seligman Committee: Edwin R. A. Seligman, Chairman; Richard T. Ely; Frank A. Fetter; James P. Lichtenberger, Franklin H. Giddings; Roscoe Pound; Ulysses G. Weatherly; J. Q. Dealey; Henry Author(s) W. Farnam; Charles E. Bennett; Edward C. Elliott; Guy Stanton Ford; Charles Atwood Kofoid; Arthur O. Lovejoy; Frederick W. Padelford; Howard C. Warren Originating Body American Association of University Professors Year 1915 Occasion Numerous cases of alleged infringement of academic freedom Interest by American Council on Education in 1925 started process that ultimately led to Endorsements drafting of the 1940 Statement of Principles; influenced The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom inquiry; human knowledge; general instruction; developing expertise for public service; University Purposes generating new truths; conserving old ones Pursuit of Truth as Ground for Free Yes: inquiry into “ultimate realities and values” Speech Direction of Threats to Free Speech Trustees; public and its representatives Sanctions for Violators Yes: “judicial severity when the occasion requires” References to Notable Violations Yes: many, all unnamed Freedom of Teacher Yes: Lehrfreiheit Yes: “to make teaching honorable and secure; to make professor independent of financial Role of Tenure Emphasized inducement or fear” Yes: “only those who carry on their work in the temper of the scientific inquirer who may justly Professorial Duties assert this claim” Classroom Privacy Yes: “[classroom] utterances ought always to be considered privileged communications” Freedom of Inquiry and Research Yes Freedom of Extramural Utterance and Yes Action Freedom of Student Yes: Lernfreiheit Yes: present scientific truth with discretion; “guard against taking unfair advantage of the Student Immaturity student’s immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teacher’s own opinions before the student has had an opportunity fairly to examine other opinions upon the matters in question.” Students Presumed to Support Free Yes: “candor and courage which youth always demands in those whom it is to esteem” Speech Recognition of Special Circumstances Not mentioned for Invited Speakers Yes: “It is, in short, not the absolute freedom of utterance of the individual scholar, but the Distinction Between Freedom of Speech absolute freedom of thought, of inquiry, of discussion and of teaching, of the academic and Academic Freedom profession, that is asserted by this declaration of principles.” Yes: “The trustees are trustees for the public. … They cannot be permitted to assume the University Duties to Public proprietary attitude and privilege, if they are appealing to the general public for support. “ Religious Institutions Can Regulate Yes: such institutions are becoming rarer, and they must state their religious commitments Free Speech Relevant to their Creedal openly Commitments University Duties to its Members None mentioned University Neutrality Not mentioned Administrative Freedom and Duties Not mentioned https://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/A6520A9D-0A9A-47B3-B550- Source C006B5B224E7/0/1915Declaration.pdf 4 | Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate 1940 STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND TENURE (1940 AAUP DECLARATION) Joint Committee(s): AAUP committee members including Ralph E. Himstead (AAUP General Secretary); Anton J. Carlson; Walter Wheeler Cook; Michael C. D’Argonne; Frederick Deibler; William Hepburn; William Thomas Laprade; and Louise Pound; and Author(s) college presidents from the Association of American Colleges (now the Association of American Colleges & Universities) including Henry M. Wriston; W.C. Dennis; S.P. Capen; E.J. Jacqua; Meta Glass; and W. O. Tolley. Other members of the AAUP involved in drafting the 1940 Statement included Alzada Comstock and Mark Ingraham. Originating Body American Association of University Professors, Association of American Colleges Year 1940 restatement following a series of conferences, 1934-; given impetus by campaigns Occasion seeking to limit Communist influence on and employment in academia 256 professional organizations, including American Library Association, Association of Endorsements American Law Schools, American Political Science Association University Purposes common good Pursuit of Truth as Ground for Free Speech Yes: “The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.” Direction of Threats to Free Speech Not mentioned Sanctions for Violators None mentioned References to Notable Violations None mentioned Freedom of Teacher Yes: research, classroom, extramural utterance Yes: freedom and “economic security to make the profession attractive to men and Role of Tenure Emphasized women of ability” Professorial Duties Yes: academic freedom “carries with it duties correlative with right” Classroom Privacy Not mentioned Freedom of Inquiry and Research Yes Freedom of Extramural Utterance and Action Yes Freedom of Student Yes Student Immaturity Not mentioned Students Presumed to Support Free Speech Not mentioned Recognition of Special Circumstances for Not mentioned Invited Speakers Distinction Between Freedom of Speech and Not mentioned Academic Freedom University Duties to Public Yes: obligations to society and the common good Yes: 1940: “Limitations of academic freedom because of religious or other aims of the Religious Institutions Can Regulate institution should be clearly stated in writing at the time of the appointment.” 1970: Free Speech Relevant to their Creedal “Most church-related institutions no longer need or desire the departure from the Commitments principle of academic freedom implied in the 1940 “Statement,” and we do not now endorse such a departure.” University Duties to its Members Yes: to provide academic freedom and to follow tenure rules strictly University Neutrality Not mentioned Administrative Freedom and Duties Not mentioned Source https://www.aaup.org/file/1940%20Statement.pdf Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate | 5 REPORT ON THE UNIVERSITY’S ROLE IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ACTION (KALVEN REPORT) Kalven Committee: Harry Kalven, Jr., Chairman; John Hope Franklin; Gwin J. Kolb; George Author(s) Stigler; Jacob Getzels; Julian Goldsmith; Gilbert F. White Originating Body University of Chicago Year 1967 Occasion pressure to take an official position on the Vietnam War Endorsements influenced Campus Free Speech: A Legislative Proposal (Goldwater Statement) University Purposes discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge Pursuit of Truth as Ground for Free Not mentioned Speech Direction of Threats to Free Speech Not mentioned Sanctions for Violators None mentioned References to Notable Violations None mentioned Freedom of Teacher Yes: freedom of inquiry Role of Tenure Emphasized Not mentioned Professorial Duties None mentioned Classroom Privacy Not mentioned Freedom of Inquiry and Research Not mentioned Freedom of Extramural Utterance and Not mentioned Action Freedom of Student Yes: as “instrument of dissent and criticism” Student Immaturity Not mentioned Students Presumed to Support Free Implicit condemnation of student pressure to shut down speech that favored U.S. participation Speech in the Vietnam War Recognition of Special Circumstances Not mentioned for Invited Speakers Distinction Between Freedom of Speech Not mentioned and Academic Freedom University Duties to Public None mentioned Religious Institutions Can Regulate Free Speech Relevant to their Creedal Not mentioned Commitments University Duties to its Members Yes: institutional neutrality Yes: “Because the university is committed to free and open inquiry in all matters, it guarantees all members of the university community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, University Neutrality listen, challenge, and learn. … if it takes collective action, therefore, it does so at the price of censuring any minority who do not agree with the view adopted” Administrative Freedom and Duties Not mentioned Source http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/pdf/kalverpt.pdf 6 | Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AT YALE (WOODWARD REPORT) Woodward Committee: C. Vann Woodward, Chairman; Steven A. Benner; Elias Clark; James P. Comer; Lloyd N. Cutler; Robert A. Dahl; Marjorie B. Garber; Walter R. Rieman; Author(s) Philip J. Sirlin; Elisabeth McC. Thomas; Hillel Weinberg; Harry H. Wellington; Dissent by Kenneth J. Barnes Originating Body Yale University Year 1974 Occasion several disinvitations and student riots to prevent outside speakers from speaking at Yale influenced The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom and Campus Free Speech: A Endorsements Legislative Proposal University Purposes discover and disseminate knowledge Quotation from John Milton’s Areopagitica (1644): “And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by Pursuit of Truth as Ground for Free Speech licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.” Student protestors—not including the student signatories to the report, and the other Direction of Threats to Free Speech students whose views they represented; by implication, administrative nonfeasance Sanctions for Violators Yes: “enforced by appropriate formal sanctions” References to Notable Violations Yes: named Freedom of Teacher Not mentioned Role of Tenure Emphasized Not mentioned Professorial Duties None mentioned Classroom Privacy Not mentioned Freedom of Inquiry and Research Not mentioned Freedom of Extramural Utterance and Action Not mentioned Freedom of Student Not mentioned Student Immaturity Not mentioned No: student riots to shut down outside speakers; student newspapers indifferent as Students Presumed to Support Free Speech freedom of speech shut down Recognition of Special Circumstances for Yes Invited Speakers Yes: “We take a chance, as the First Amendment takes a chance, when we commit Distinction Between Freedom of Speech and ourselves to the idea that the results of free expression are to the general benefit in the Academic Freedom long run, however unpleasant they may appear at the time.” University Duties to Public None mentioned Religious Institutions Can Regulate Free Speech Relevant to their Creedal Not mentioned Commitments Yes: “duty of all members of the University community to defend the right to speak and University Duties to its Members refrain from disruptive interference” University Neutrality Not mentioned Administrative Freedom and Duties Not mentioned https://yalecollege.yale.edu/deans-office/reports/report-committee-freedom- Source expression-yale Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate | 7 ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY (AAC&U STATEMENT) Author(s) Jerry Gaff, et al. Originating Body Association of American Colleges & Universities Year 2006 David Horowitz’s campaign for an Academic Bill of Rights; anti-war students preventing Occasion outside speakers from speaking Endorsements Ithaca College University Purposes education for democracy and diversity Pursuit of Truth as Ground for Free Not mentioned Speech Direction of Threats to Free Speech conservative activists; students Sanctions for Violators None mentioned References to Notable Violations None mentioned Freedom of Teacher Yes: via “diversity” Role of Tenure Emphasized Not mentioned Yes: “establishing goals for student learning, for designing and implementing programs of Professorial Duties general education and specialized study that intentionally cultivate the intended learning, and for assessing students’ achievement.” Classroom Privacy Not mentioned Yes: “Academic responsibility requires professors to submit their knowledge and claims Freedom of Inquiry and Research to rigorous and public review by peers who are experts in the subject matter under consideration” Freedom of Extramural Utterance and Not mentioned Action Yes: “To develop their own critical judgment, students also need the freedom to express Freedom of Student their ideas publicly as well as repeated opportunities to explore a wide range of insights and perspectives.” Yes: intellectual diversity can be confusing and overwhelming; “Expressing one’s ideas and Student Immaturity entertaining divergent perspectives—about race, gender, religion, or cultural values, for example—can be frightening for students”; safe environment needed Students Presumed to Support Free Not mentioned Speech Recognition of Special Circumstances for Yes Invited Speakers Yes: “Students do have a right to hear and examine diverse opinions, but within the Distinction Between Freedom of Speech frameworks that knowledgeable scholars—themselves subject to rigorous standards of and Academic Freedom peer review—have determined to be reliable and accurate.” University Duties to Public None mentioned Religious Institutions Can Regulate Free Speech Relevant to their Creedal Not mentioned Commitments Yes: to support professors, “who drive the production of knowledge and the process of University Duties to its Members education “ University Neutrality Not mentioned Administrative Freedom and Duties Not mentioned Source https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/about/academicFreedom.pdf 8 | Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (STONE REPORT) Stone Committee: Geoffrey R. Stone, Chairman; Marianne Bertrand; Angela Olinto; Mark Author(s) Siegler; David A. Strauss; Kenneth W. Warren; Amanda Woodward Originating Body University of Chicago Year 2015 “recent events nationwide that have tested institutional commitments to free and open Occasion discourse” Endorsements Foundation for Individual Rights in Education University Purposes free and open inquiry in all matters Pursuit of Truth as Ground for Free Speech Not mentioned Direction of Threats to Free Speech Not mentioned None mentioned; but the follow-up Report of the Committee on University Discipline for Sanctions for Violators Disruptive Conduct (Picker Committee, 2017) recommends more effective discipline to defend academic freedom from violent disruption References to Notable Violations None mentioned Freedom of Teacher Not mentioned Role of Tenure Emphasized Not mentioned Professorial Duties None mentioned Classroom Privacy Not mentioned Freedom of Inquiry and Research Not mentioned Freedom of Extramural Utterance and Action Not mentioned Freedom of Student Not mentioned Student Immaturity Not mentioned Students Presumed to Support Free Speech Not mentioned Recognition of Special Circumstances for Yes Invited Speakers Distinction Between Freedom of Speech and Not mentioned Academic Freedom University Duties to Public None mentioned Religious Institutions Can Regulate Free Speech Relevant to their Creedal Not mentioned Commitments Yes: “the University has a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless University Duties to its Members freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.” University Neutrality Not mentioned Administrative Freedom and Duties Not mentioned https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/reports/ Source FOECommitteeReport.pdf Charting Academic Freedom: 103 Years of Debate | 9