Academic Freedom in the United States

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Academic Freedom in the United States
The establishment of the American Association of
University Professors AAUP in 1915 is
significant both as a culmination and as a
beginning. It was the culmination of tendencies
toward professional self-consciousness that had
been operating for many decades. It was the
beginning of an era in which the principles of
academic freedom were codified, and in which
violations of academic freedom were
systematically investigated and penalized. The
Development of Academic Freedom in the United
States (1955) by Richard Hofstadter Walter P.
Metzger Part II The Age of the University by
Walter P. Metzger
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Academic Freedom in the United States
Academic freedom is not a strong beacon that
illuminates the entire university. It is rather
a wavering flame of recent historical
development. It is an idea not widely shared
outside the academic world, and often
misunderstood, unappreciated, and undefended
within academia. Academic freedom is denied in
theory and in practice by much of the world most
of the time . . . The idea of academic freedom
has been repeatedly threatened since the modern
university emerged 125 years ago. . . . Zealotry
Academic Freedom (1995) by Neil Hamilton
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Academic Freedom in the United States
Big Picture Questions
1) Where did the concept come from?
2) Who have been the major opponents defenders
of it?
3) Is it applied to institutions or individuals?
Instructors or students?
4) What is the relationship between academic
freedom First Amendment rights?
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Chronology
Sectarian Colleges (1636-1870s)
The Gilded Age Progressivism (1870s-1920s)
The Great War Jingoism (1910s-1920s)
The Great Depression Communism (1930s)
The Cold War McCarthyism (1940s-50s)
The New Left Student Activism (1960s-70s)
Culture Wars Political Correctness (late 1980s)
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Historical Context
Industrialization urbanization
Professionalization specialization
Modern Research Universities (late 19th c.)
Johns Hopkins (1876) ? Göttingen at Baltimore
Number of doctorates _at_ American institutions
Lernfreiheit Lehrfreiheit
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Organizing Expertise
Modern Language Association of America (1883)
American Historical Association (1884)
American Economic Association (1885)
Geological Society of America (1888)
American Mathematical Society (1888)
American Psychological Association (1892)
American Physical Society (1899)
American Philosophical Association (1900)
American Anthropological Association (1902)
American Political Science Association (1903)
American Sociological Association (1905)
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Academic Freedom Professors, Trustees, Public
Richard T. Ely, professor of economics,
University of Wisconsin (1910)
The American Economic Association took a stand at
its organization for entire freedom of
discussion. We were thoroughly devoted to the
ideal of the German universityLehrfreiheit and
Lernfreiheit and we have not hesitated to enter
the lists vigorously in favor of freedom when we
have considered it endangered.
D. B. Purinton, Academic Freedom from the
Trustees Point of View (1909)
In case the published doctrines of an instructor
in a state institution are plainly subversive of
the state, of society or good morals, the
trustees cannot sustain the instructor in such
doctrines.
The Philadelphia Martyr, editorial, New York
Times (October 10, 1915)
Academic freedom, that is, the inalienable right
of every college instructor to make a fool of
himself and of his college by . . . intemperate,
sensational prattle about every subject under
heaven, to his classes and to the public, and
still keep on the payroll or be reft therefrom
only by elaborate process, is cried to all the
winds by the organized dons.
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Academic Freedom 19th century Cases
(1886) Henry Carter Adams, economist, Cornell
University not reappointed after lecture
critical of industrialists following Haymarket
riots
(1894) Richard T. Ely, economist, University of
Wisconsin tried for believing in strikes
boycotts, justifying and encouraging the one
while practicing the other.
(1895) Edward W. Bemis, economist, University of
Chicago dismissed for championing anti-monopoly
views in a speech critical of the railroad
companies during the Pullman strike.
(1896) John R. Commons, economist, Indiana
University dismissed because of economic views.
(1900) Edward A. Ross, economist, Stanford
University dismissed for opinions on silver
coolie immigration
(1903) John S. Bassett, historian, Trinity
College (N.C.) threatened with dismissal for
article on the Negro problem
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AAUPs General Declaration of Principles of
Academic Freedom (1915)
AAUP Committee on Academic Freedom Academic
Tenure Edwin R.A. Seligman (Economics), Columbia
University, ChairmanCharles E. Bennett (Latin),
Cornell UniversityJames Q. Dealey (Political
Science), Brown UniversityRichard T. Ely
(Economics), University of WisconsinHenry W.
Farnam (Political Science), Yale UniversityFrank
A. Fetter (Economics), Princeton
UniversityFranklin H. Giddings (Sociology),
Columbia UniversityCharles A. Kofoid (Zoology),
University of CaliforniaArthur O. Lovejoy
(Philosophy), The Johns Hopkins
UniversityFrederick W. Padelford (English),
University of WashingtonRoscoe Pound (Law),
Harvard UniversityHoward C. Warren (Psychology),
Princeton UniversityUlysses G. Weatherly
(Sociology), Indiana University
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AAUPs General Declaration of Principles of
Academic Freedom (1915)

• Linked Academic Freedom to Three Requirements
• Needs for academic research
• Adequate instruction
• Development of experts for public service

• Major Threats to Academic Freedom
• Governmental favor
• Tyranny of Public opinion

• Limits of Academic Freedom
• Neutrality competence professional expertise
• Assumed immaturity of students

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Academic Ideals Neutrality Competence
William Rainey Harper, President of University of
Chicago (1900)
A professor abuses his privilege who takes
advantage of a classroom exercise to propagate
the partisan views of one or another of the
political parties. A professor abuses his
privilege who in any way seeks to influence his
pupils or the public by sensational methods. A
professor abuses his privilege of expression of
opinion when, although a student and perhaps an
authority in one department or group of
departments, he undertakes to speak
authoritatively on subjects which have no
relationship to the department in which he was
appointed to give instruction. A professor abuses
his privilege in many cases when, altho shut off
in large measure from the world and engaged
within a narrow field of investigation, he
undertakes to instruct his colleagues or the
public concerning matters in the world at large
in connection with which he has had little or no
experience.
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Academic Ideals Neutrality Competence
Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University
(1898)
It is not the function of the teacher to settle
philosophical and political controversies for the
pupil, or even to recommend to him any one set of
opinions as better than any other. Exposition,
not imposition, of opinions is the professors
part. The student should be made acquainted will
all sides of these controversies . . . The very
word education is a standing protest against
dogmatic teaching. The notion that education
consists in the authoritative inculcation of what
the teacher deems true may be logical and
appropriate in a convent, but it is intolerable
in universities and the public schools . . .
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Related Web Resources
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
(FIRE)
Students for Academic Freedom (SAF)
American Association of University Professors
(AAUP)
Free Speech on Public College Campuses (First
Amendment Center)
College Freedom (A website about Academic Freedom)