PROMOTING ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN THE 21ST CENTURY COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY

WHEREAS, academic freedom at colleges and universities around the country has played a major role in making the United States higher education system the envy of the world; and

WHEREAS, the First Global Colloquium of University Presidents defined academic freedom as “the freedom to conduct research, teach, speak, and publish, subject to the norms and standards of scholarly inquiry, without interference or penalty, where the search for truth and understanding may lead”; and

WHEREAS, the processes by which college faculty are hired and trained, and the standards under which they operate—including tenure, peer evaluation and shared governance—are designed to make academic freedom a reality and to ensure that students are taught by faculty for whom educational integrity is paramount; and

WHEREAS, today the exercise of academic freedom is being seriously constricted by:

• the increasingly vocational focus of higher education;
• corporate-style management practices;
• loss of state and federal financial support for colleges and universities;
• the erosion of academic staffing through the loss of full-time tenured positions;
• the financial and professional mistreatment of contingent faculty members;
• a concerted political attack on the professional autonomy of college faculty and instructors to teach and conduct research, epitomized by the national effort to enact state legislation restricting academic freedom under the bogus label of the"Academic Bill of Rights" or "intellectual diversity":

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers affirm that academic freedom is a fundamental principle of excellence in higher education and that it will be a priority of the union to preserve academic freedom and extend it to cover all faculty and staff, including contingent faculty and other contingent instructional staff at our colleges and universities; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers urge each level of the union to advocate for the principles embodied in the AFT Statement on Academic Freedom, Academic Freedom in the 21st-Century College and University:  Academic Freedom for All Faculty and Instructional Staff, which puts forward the following standards:

Teaching
The body of faculty and instructional staff at an institution of higher education must have primacy in designing and approving the curriculum, as well as the methods of instruction, in accordance with accepted professional standards.

Individual faculty and instructional staff members must have primary responsibility for selecting instructional materials, defining course content and determining the methods of evaluating student performance in their classes—working in concert with their colleagues to ensure coherence of the curriculum and consistency in applying it, and subject to academic standards accepted within the community of scholars.

Within the classroom, all faculty and instructional staff are entitled to full freedom to discuss the subject matter of the course, in accordance with prevailing academic standards established within and among the academic community.

Faculty and instructional staff are entitled to exercise their professional judgment in presenting and discussing, frankly and forthrightly, controversial material relevant to their teaching subjects and methods.

Faculty and instructional staff are entitled to evaluate students in their classes based solely on their assessment of the academic merit of the student’s work in that class.  Students need to be confronted with arguments and encouraged to think critically, evaluate unfamiliar points of view, examine the intertwining of ideas across academic disciplines and the relationship of one subject area to others, and be engaged in thinking about the world we all live in.

All faculty and instructional staff are entitled to full intellectual property rights in developing and delivering their teaching materials.

Research and Publication
All faculty, instructional staff and other professionals performing research at the institution are entitled to full freedom in choosing research subjects and methods, subject only to professional and peer-driven standards, and full freedom in the publication of their results.

Academic integrity in research, however, requires discoveries to be shared and knowledge to be considered primarily as a public good instead of a private possession.

Institutional Governance
All faculty and instructional staff are entitled to freedom in their institution to participate in governance, whether they are tenured or nontenured, without fear of intimidation or retaliation.

Institutions have an obligation to provide appropriate mechanisms of shared governance, time for individuals to participate in them and, in case of contingent faculty and instructional staff members, appropriate compensation for taking part.

All faculty and instructional staff are entitled to participate in decisions affecting educational policy, including the development of curricula and academic programs, the establishment of accountability and outcomes assessment methods and measures, budget development and allocation of resources, and academic and administrative staffing.

All faculty and instructional staff are entitled to participation in the accreditation process internal to institutions, within accrediting associations and on accreditation visiting teams.

Public Life
Members of the academic community—including all faculty, instructional staff and indeed all workers at the institution—are free to join or form associations and organizations; to organize and work with unions; and to state their views on any topic, subject only to the understanding that they do not speak on behalf of their institutions.

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers promote the development of open forums on college and university campuses to encourage dialogue between full-time tenured faculty members and their colleagues in the contingent ranks, and between faculty/instructional staff and administrators, about strengthening academic freedom and safeguarding professional rights; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers educate legislators and the general public about the importance of academic freedom by:

• urging faculty members and instructors to undertake frequent planned and coordinated visits with legislators and to invite legislators to campus;
• encouraging faculty members and instructors to seek chances to appear in community settings to explain what they do;
• assisting faculty organizations in undertaking similar activities, including media outreach and advertising.

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers seek to enforce academic freedom protections—including tenure, peer evaluation and shared governance—by supporting the organization of academic workers into labor unions and by promoting the development of legally binding collective bargaining agreements upholding the principles of academic freedom; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers undertake political and legislative activity to promote academic freedom, including activities conducted under the Faculty and College Excellence (FACE) campaign and the Free Exchange on Campus coalition.