Academic Bill of Rights

I. The Mission of the University.
The central purposes of a University are the pursuit of truth, the discovery of new knowledge through scholarship and research, the study and reasoned criticism of intellectual and cultural traditions, the teaching and general development of students to help them become creative individuals and productive citizens of a pluralistic democracy, and the transmission of knowledge and learning to a society at large. Free inquiry and free speech within the academic community are indispensable to the achievement of these goals. The freedom to teach and to learn depend upon the creation of appropriate conditions and opportunities on the campus as a whole as well as in the classrooms and lecture halls. These purposes reflect the values -- pluralism, diversity, opportunity, critical intelligence, openness and fairness -- that are the cornerstones of American society.



II. Academic Freedom

1. The Concept . Academic freedom and intellectual diversity are values indispensable to the American university. From its first formulation in the General Report of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors, the concept of academic freedom has been premised on the idea that human knowledge is a never-ending pursuit of the truth, that there is no humanly accessible truth that is not in principle open to challenge, and that no party or intellectual faction has a monopoly on wisdom. Therefore, academic freedom is most likely to thrive in an environment of intellectual diversity that protects and fosters independence of thought and speech. In the words of the General Report, it is vital to protect “as the first condition of progress, [a] complete and unlimited freedom to pursue inquiry and publish its results.”

Because free inquiry and its fruits are crucial to the democratic enterprise itself, academic freedom is a national value as well. In a historic 1967 decision ( Keyishian v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York ) the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a New York State loyalty provision for teachers with these words: “Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, [a] transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned.” In Sweezy v. New Hampshire, (1957) the Court observed that the “essentiality of freedom in the community of American universities [was] almost self-evident.”

2. The Practice . Academic freedom consists in protecting the intellectual independence of professors, researchers and students in the pursuit of knowledge and the expression of ideas from interference by legislators or authorities within the institution itself. This means that no political, ideological or religious orthodoxy will be imposed on professors and researchers through the hiring or tenure or termination process, or through any other administrative means by the academic institution. Nor shall legislatures impose any such orthodoxy through their control of the university budget.

This protection includes students. From the first statement on academic freedom, it has been recognized that intellectual independence means the protection of students – as well as faculty – from the imposition of any orthodoxy of a political, religious or ideological nature. The 1915 General Report admonished faculty to avoid “taking unfair advantage of the 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, and before he has sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment to be entitled to form any definitive opinion of his own.” In 1967, the AAUP’s Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students reinforced and amplified this injunction by affirming the inseparability of “the freedom to teach and freedom to learn.” In the words of the report, “Students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion.”

Therefore, to secure the intellectual independence of faculty and students and to protect the principle of intellectual diversity, the following principles and procedures shall be observed.

These principles fully apply only to public universities and to private universities that present themselves as bound by the canons of academic freedom. Private institutions choosing to restrict academic freedom on the basis of creed have an obligation to be as explicit as is possible about the scope and nature of these restrictions.


1. All faculty shall be hired, fired, promoted and granted tenure on the basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge in the field of their expertise and, in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives. No faculty shall be hired or fired or denied promotion or tenure on the basis of his or her political or religious beliefs.
2. No faculty member will be excluded from tenure, search and hiring committees on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.
3. Students will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they study, not on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.

4. Curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences should reflect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge in these areas by providing students with dissenting sources and viewpoints where appropriate. While teachers are and should be free to pursue their own findings and perspectives in presenting their views, they should consider and make their students aware of other viewpoints. Academic disciplines should welcome a diversity of approaches to unsettled questions.

5. Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major responsibility of faculty. Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination.


6. Selection of speakers, allocation of funds for speakers programs and other student activities will observe the principles of academic freedom and promote intellectual pluralism.


7. An environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas being an essential component of a free university, the obstruction of invited campus speakers, destruction of campus literature or other effort to obstruct this exchange will not be tolerated.


8. Knowledge advances when individual scholars are left free to reach their own conclusions about which methods, facts, and theories have been validated by research. Academic institutions and professional societies formed to advance knowledge within an area of research, maintain the integrity of the research process, and organize the professional lives of related researchers serve as indispensable venues within which scholars circulate research findings and debate their interpretation. To perform these functions adequately, academic institutions and professional societies should maintain a posture of organizational neutrality with respect to the substantive disagreements that divide researchers on questions within, or outside, their fields of inquiry.

Op. cit., p. 50

__________________
"When you educate a man beyond his intelligence, you create a menace to society."

Any thoughts? Does this seem like a 'radical' idea?

__________________
"When you educate a man beyond his intelligence, you create a menace to society."

i so wish this were real! my college was supposed awesome, but having worked in admin+ for them, i know things that'd cause a burning! their "diversity campaigns" have a cutoff point, so "we want more latin people, but not too many. lets give random, unqualified latinos a chance without looking at qualifications/criteria, if they drop out at least we can say we gave them a chance!". "we need a better cheerleading squad - lets give full scholarhips to cute cheerleaders, who ARE dumb as bricks (NOT a generalization, i staffed orientation for 3 years so saw who came in, their test scores (internal placement tests), and personality inventories)."Dj5 - i know what i can do, i know what i can say, the only thing i don't now, is when things'll go my way!

I don't think this has to do with gender/racial diversity but rather political religious.

__________________
"When you educate a man beyond his intelligence, you create a menace to society."

sorry, gave half a thought cos i got wrapped up in how prejudiced the school admin was.
i had teachers correct me about my own culture & religion, saying i "probably didn't understand the english/phrase" (i was a forgeign student technically, but from england, having better literary skills than most others in my class).
it was a jesuit college, but even in "eastern religions' class, it was taught biasedly.
i would get poor (B+) marks as i would tell the teacher he/she was wrong.
actually got kicked out of english class cos the racist & sexist teacher (sexist towards women, but i don't like predjudice so i stuck up for the girls) wouldn't acknowledge he was wrong.
no "free inquiry" in his class!
reading material is also garbage nowadays!
so narrow in focus, it makes me sad for further generations.

island wife - does this relate to my other posts about "well rounded people"? it's all related, and makes me sad!

great, now i need some crack to get over this gloom that is reality!

No, this really has nothing to do with your prior threads.
Although, if this were a public university you may have room to gripe, but at a private university they can hire and keep whatever whackos they want.
This Bill of Rights pertains to public universities and political/religious speech. As a conservative student in a very liberal campus, you get shouted down, harassed, threatened, passed up for anything from TA to RA, and God have mercy on your grades if your leftist teacher finds out you aren't one of his 'sheeple'.

__________________
"When you educate a man beyond his intelligence, you create a menace to society."

ah.
i was private all the was in america. public in HS in england. loved arguing with the teachers there - they liked the intellectual company, and it helped class development.
never really thought about it back in college.

question:
so in private uni's they can hire oddjobs, students canNOT complain. and they get poor grades if they do so?
that happened with a few teachers i had:-( jesuit education, yaay!

what are the major differences between public & private?
sorry if i'm slow - "down day" for me today.

No, not really. Private universities can lose their accreditation if they get outta hand, but it is the right (in my opinion) of any private religious school to select profs on whatever basis they want - atheist schools want atheist teachers and a jesuit school will want a jesuit teacher - if you don't like it, go to a different school. That's just me.
Public is easier to old accountable because they get their funding from tax dollars. the problem in the US is that public universities have a habit of ostracizing profs and students who dont conform to the pc police.
An example for you: A was an RA at UCDavis. I worked on the Bush re-election campaign. I was told by staff that I could not talk to anyone on campus about it, yet the RA for the other complex was campaigning for Kerry and she had the full support of staff - they even let her use the housing office to make campaign calls.
Other examples are conservative speakers (eminent at that) are routinely physically assaulted and harassed on public universities. I have had papers downgraded for certain political/religious content that the teacher disagreed with, and have received threats from supposedly 'tolerant' leftist students.
Diversity is only skin deep at US schools, and the Academic Bill of Rights is a movement to bring diversity of thought and ideas to the learning environment.

__________________
"When you educate a man beyond his intelligence, you create a menace to society."

u voted for Bush (the current one)? why island wife, why?

my school was pro-white, pro-rich, and conservative. they let in the darkeys cos they had to (prior post somewhere).
where can my future kids goto school?

will go mull in my head.

u never posted in the "use your brain" thread - feelings, hurtin em!
u have a good brain, island husband is a lucky guy!