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Faculty Senate passes resolution
reaffirming academic freedom
The Faculty Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution that supports academic freedom.
The resolution reaffirms the group’s “already stated commitment and responsibility to academic freedom,” and “opposes administrative or legislative measures that would deprive faculty of the authority necessary to teach, to do research, to publish in a manner that meets scholarly standards, and to advance knowledge in an open and unencumbered fashion inside and outside the classroom.”
Senator Robert Bruck, chair of the senate’s academic policy committee, said that while the resolution contains no new statements not already in the university’s code, it was important that the body reaffirm its position. “This is about as fundamental as any issue this body will ever face,” he said.
The senate rushed to pass the resolution (suspending normal senate rules) in order to go on record before an Oct. 16 conference at the McKimmon Center co-sponsored by the Pope Center for Higher Education and the John Locke Foundation. Serving as keynote speaker for the event will be nationally known author David Horowitz, who has become a champion of the “Academic Bill of Rights.”
Horowitz argues that universities are overwhelmingly dominated by a liberal ideology, that conservative students and faculty are being harmed and punished for their views, and that universities and colleges should voluntarily adopt measures to correct this imbalance. If they do not, Horowitz and others say, universities and colleges should have such measures imposed upon them – either by university boards of trustees, or by state or national legislation – through a “Bill of Rights.”
The senators argue that university and University of North Carolina system codes on academic freedom already include protections for students and faculty in them, as well as internal methods of dealing with grievances. Legislative involvement, they say, is not only unneeded, but would be harmful. “Restrictions from inside or outside the university on the freedom of teaching, research, expression, and publication can actively chill or undermine the advancement of knowledge,” the resolution reads.
Yet many fear a legislative mandate could happen if no one speaks up. Senator Catherine Warren, who wrote the resolution, said that the senate for the state of Georgia has already approved the “Academic Bill of Rights” as a non-binding resolution, that the University of Colorado system has already adopted it under the threat of a legislative mandate, and that the issue is in various stages of consideration in as many as 10 different state legislatures. Warren said she understood the Pope Center was considering such action in North Carolina.
“I am one who feels that now is not the time for complacency,” she said.
Before Warren’s comments, Senator Wayne Robarge had wondered if the rush to pass the bill sent a signal that “we are acknowledging that there is a threat and thereby giving some legitimacy to that threat.”
Bruck responded by saying, “is this something that we feel is threatening?
The answer is yes. It is. This is not something to be taken lightly. … These
are outright challenges to the structure and functions of the university
systems. The best defense against this is a good offense.”
Posted October 7, 2004
All Rights Reserved
