CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A persistent assault by the political right threatens to erode nearly century-old principles of academic freedom that have made U.S. universities a model for the world, a new book co-written by a University of Illinois legal expert warns.
Law professor Matthew W. Finkin says society would ultimately be the loser if the right wing wins a culture war that has simmered for a decade, sparked by complaints that liberal bias is out of control in college classrooms and needs conservative balance.
“Students from all over the world come to study at our universities, and not just because the institutions are technically capable,” Finkin said. “It’s because they allow the freest exploration of ideas and are not subject to political control or social sanction. Once a society restricts universities, it loses the capacity for self-criticism and that is disaster.”
Finkin says the book – “For the Common Good: Principles of American Academic Freedom,” co-written by Yale University law professor Robert C. Post – provides a historical perspective that he hopes will help guide lawmakers, university trustees and others with the power to alter teaching standards.
“This book is meant in the most profound sense to be educational,” Finkin said. “It goes back to the basics, explaining what academic freedom is, where it came from and why we need it. Once people understand, I don’t think they’ll tinker with it.”
Finkin says the latest assaults are led by conservative groups that maintain they merely want to balance left-wing ideology they contend is permeating classrooms, not chip away professors’ rights. But he argues the move reflects the same ominous external pressures that first forged principles of academic freedom nearly a century ago.
“The right has a political agenda and wants to use the ruse of balance to tilt public opinion their way,” he said. “Universities are lost when they become appendages to the political process or to momentary shifts in public passion. It’s no longer thought -it’s indoctrination.”
The American Association of University Professors established principles of academic freedom in 1915, as U.S. universities were still taking root and facing pressure from donors and governing boards that sought to dictate curriculum.
Those standards give professors broad rein over subject matter, seeking to ensure that universities prepare students for careers and also instill critical thinking skills through exposure to a diverse range of ideas that both inform and challenge.
But the long-held principles also set boundaries for professors that safeguard against ethical and ideological abuse, such as distinctions between free speech and academic freedom, according to the book, published last month by Yale University Press.
“Academic freedom is not free speech,” Finkin said. “If someone says the sun revolves around Earth, that’s free speech. But if a professor of astronomy said that in the classroom, he would be fired. And should be fired.”
Professors also are bound to tailor lessons to accepted standards of the profession they teach, another key protection against bias and opinion, he said.
“There are certain matters within every discipline that are not disputed,” he said. “Two and two make four. You would be guilty of incompetence to omit them.”
Finkin says standards of academic freedom aren’t perfect. For example, he says professional standards are less clear-cut in the humanities as the sciences, giving professors more room for interpretation. And faculty sometimes abuse their classroom rights, though he says those cases are rare exceptions not the rule.
But even with its shortcomings, he says academic freedom shields education from the potentially dangerous influence of politics, donors and shifting public sentiment.
“The public has to understand that they have to permit ideas that they find loathsome to be tested, to be explored, to be packed, unpacked and criticized,” Finkin said. “That’s the foundation of universities. You can’t trim your sails according to prevailing pieties.”
