Like many conservatives, the anonymous blogger who goers by the name of his high school, likes to limit individual rights. Regarding the Virginia Attorney General’s chilling harassment of a reputable climatologist, Mr. High School writes:
“There has never been a right to academic freedom. There is no right to academic freedom. And, God Bless, there will never be a right to academic freedom. So, any criticism of Ken Cuccinelli’s Civil Investigative Demand against Michael Mann as violating the right of academic freedom is null and void.”
He provides absolutely no explanation for this bold and bizarre statement. But since a commenter asked “what is academic freedom” I volunteer to take one for the team.
Back in 1940, “academic freedom,” defined as the RIGHT of professors and students to pursue academic inquiries without interference from external and political groups or authorities, was first put forward by the then Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors. They stated that teachers have a right to freedom discuss their subjects in a classroom although some institutions can restrict those rights if they are religious institutions.
Note the date of the statement — 1940. At that time Nazi Germany had invaded much of Europe and had been on a rampage over the previous decade ridding German universities of Jewish professors and other “undesirables,” revamping curricula so it would reflect the views of national socialism, burning books (see photo) and generally terrorizing academia.
In the U.S., the “right” to academic freedom stems from the Constitutional right to freedom of speech. America’s universities have taken academic freedom very seriously over the past 70 years. It is part of a college’s accreditation consideration. AAUP keeps a list of colleges that fail on academic freedom.
So, you have a right based directly on agreement among universities and professors and, indirectly, from the U.S. Constitution. Other countries’ constitutions do make academic freedom an explicit right, such as France, Germany, South Africa and others.
Granted, the U.S. concept of academic freedom has been tested quite a bit since 1940. It comes from all sides. University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill wrote that the 9/11 attacks were justified because of U.S. foreign policy. The school withstood calls for his removal. Obama adviser Larry Summers got into hot water when he stated that women’s genetic makeup may make them less likely to do well in math.
And on it goes.
My personal experience with academic freedom, albeit indirect, happened when I was an undergraduate at Tufts University. Just down the street from my dorm, Tufts has a graduate school with Harvard known as the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Although I have no association with Fletcher, I used their library and became friendly with some of their professors
Its dean at the time was a former Foreign Service officer named Edmund Gullion who had experience as a diplomat in South Vietnam. This was during the highpoint of the Vietnam War and left wing radicals at school lambasted Fletcher for having as students military, CIA and foreign service officers. One night someone launched a bomb into Gullion’s office and the explosion caused extensive damage. It knocked me out of bed.
Now that is a violation of academic freedom. So is Cuccinelli’s witch hunt.
Peter Galuszka