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AAUP Watch
A press release describes how ACTA has issued a challenge to the AAUP to live up to its own statements about academic freedom:
PROFESSORS ABUSE ACADEMIC FREEDOM
ACTA Challenges AAUP to Uphold Professional Standards
MISSOULA, MT (December 18, 2006)--In a new essay, American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) president Anne D. Neal criticizes the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) for failing to uphold academic standards. The AAUP is a mouthpiece for professors across the country.
"If we are to have a meaningful dialogue about academic freedom today--and if we are to protect academic freedom for the future," Neal argues, "we must first recognize that the AAUP should be regarded neither as the main arbiter of academic freedom nor as its most trustworthy protector."
In her article, Neal argues that "following the AAUP's lead, numerous academics are abusing the concept of academic freedom, interpreting it to make it mean whatever they want it to mean." Some noteworthy examples include:
--University of Wisconsin lecturer Kevin Barrett, who has invoked academic freedom to teach bizarre conspiracy theories about 9/11 in a course about Islam;--Faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who have attempted to use academic freedom as a reason to avoid assigning graded work prior to the midpoint of the semester;
--AAUP general secretary Roger Bowen's own statement that because of academic freedom, campuses should have a right to deny students equal access to military recruiters until "such time as the U.S. military changes its...policies to accord with the more enlightened of the academy";
--The University of California, which has eliminated from its academic freedom statement a prohibition against using the classroom as a "platform for propaganda" on the grounds that there is no longer a difference between the "interested" and "disinterested" scholarship; and
--The recent statements of Bowen and AAUP president Cary Nelson that the AAUP's founding document, the 1915 "Declaration of Principles," is outdated. The Declaration states that "The university teacher...should cause his students to become familiar with the best published expressions of the great historic types of doctrine..and should, above all, remember that his business is not to provide his students with ready-made conclusions, but to train them to think for themselves."
Neal's essay, "Freedom from Accountability?," was published in the fall issue of the academic journal The Montana Professor. It expands upon an address she made last March at the Burton K. Wheeler Center at Montana State University, where a conference was held on academic freedom in the twenty-first century.
The editors of The Montana Professor asked participants at the conference and other education leaders to address the topic of academic responsibility. The new edition includes articles by Neal, the late Kermit Hall (formerly president of the State University of New York at Albany), and the AAUP's Bowen, among others.
Neal calls for accountability on the part of the AAUP and the academics it supports. "We must recognize that the debate surrounding academic freedom is riddled with confusion on the part of academics and non-academics alike, and that some of the foremost self-styled defenders of academic freedom are defending it in bad faith," she writes.
She continues:"And we must also recognize that under such circumstances, outside input is an essential and salutary thing. When universities fail to abide by professional standards; when faculty members put personal, social, and political agendas ahead of a fundamental commitment to truth; when even the AAUP loses touch with its guiding principles, outside input becomes a necessary means of reminding colleges and universities of their professional obligations and of protecting the academic freedom that allows them to govern themselves as they see fit."
As a follow-up, the University of Montana will sponsor an informal debate between Neal and Bowen on February 14 in Missoula.
The debate promises to mark the beginning of a long overdue discussion about what academic freedom is, and, perhaps, what it must become.
Posted by acta online at December 21, 2006 01:59 PM
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Comments
Hamilton alumni have been mostly silent on this whole matter pending its final resolution out of respect for the donor, the Founders, and what we perceive to be in the best interests of the College. The handling of this venture has been inept and has escalated to catastrophic impact.
We believe such ex post facto intervention by trustees in respect to a specific programmatic, non-curricular venture previously approved by the President and the Dean of Faculty is without precedent at Hamilton and largely without precedent in broader academia. Perhaps our better informed readers could enlighten us.
As a matter of governance and process is it now an acceptable course of dealing at Hamilton College to
*Negotiate the terms of the Center
*Agree to terms
*Announce the formation of the Center
*Publish the Charter listing Profs. Paquette, Prof. Ambrose, Prof. Bradfield, the President, and Dean of Faculty as Founders
*Accept major gifts,
*Publicize all of the above,
and then disclaim publicly the entire process?
Children call this kind of buffoonery a "do-over". Institutions and adults call it bad faith. It is the stuff of incompetence and failed credibility. Over recent years we have had many conversations with alumni and a common theme evolves. Imagine the process that leads us to the point where Hamilton no longer presents acceptable performance risk to its own alumni.
This shameful display evidences is why we've heard so many times over the last year:
"I'll support the Alexander Hamilton Center, but I won't support Hamilton."
If the trustees had accorded the sponsoring principals... the President, the Dean of Faculty, 3 respected senior tenured faculty, and the sponsoring donor, a former Charter trustee of some 16 years and a current Emeritus Trustee... the modest presumptions of good faith & competence, the Alexander Hamilton Center would be today the toast of the scholarly/academic world, a huge success, and an unprecedented endeavor for a school of Hamilton's size. The agitated alumni would have been calmed in face of this wonderful & curative initiative, but it is not to be.
The regretable and plain fact is that the Alexander Hamilton Center was killed in the cradle because the preponderance of trustees and faculty wanted it so.
Hunter Brown, Hamilton College, '76
Posted by: hb at December 27, 2006 10:53 PM