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The ins and outs of intellectual diversity
In featuring ten exemplary practices to promote intellectual diversity, our latest report, Protecting the Free Exchange of Ideas, showcases the actions of 40 institutions across the country and aims to encourage other colleges and universities to follow suit, in line with their individual missions.
Measures highlighted vary, ranging from climate surveys and institutional statements to strategic plans and administrative support. For example, the faculty senate at Old Dominion University passed a "Resolution Supporting Intellectual Diversity" which affirmed that the university is and must remain "an open marketplace of ideas where free expression is exercised and where diverse views are expressed and debate of those ideas is encouraged." Similarly, the University of Maryland's 2008 strategic plan includes a commitment to maintaining UM "as a bastion of free speech, open debate, academic freedom."
On other campuses, new programs enhance intellectual diversity. For example, we praise the Tocqueville Forum at Georgetown University which "seeks to promote a true diversity of viewpoints about the sources of and prospects for American constitutional democracy," as well as the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy at the University of Virginia. As it turns out, alumni and donors interested in such programs are not alone. The Higher Education Opportunity Act, signed into law last summer after nearly unanimous bipartisan Congressional support, authorizes funding for "academic programs or centers" devoted to "traditional American history, free institutions or Western civilization."
Posted by David Azerrad on June 23, 2009 at June 23, 2009 03:37 PM
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