\n<\/p>\n
The UNC system Board of Governors has now defined academic freedom in its policies.<\/p>\n
Ryan Herron\/iStock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted Thursday to approve a lengthy definition of what academic freedom does and doesn\u2019t protect throughout the state university system. It says academic freedom includes the right to teach and research \u201ccontroversial or unpopular ideas related to the discipline or subject matter,\u201d but also says \u201cacademic freedom is not absolute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move came despite opposition from the American Association of University Professors, which, alongside the American Association\u00a0of\u00a0Colleges and Universities, wrote the seminal 1940 definition of the concept. In a statement, AAUP said UNC\u2019s definition \u201cwill chill speech on campus and lead to more retaliation against faculty teaching or discussing politically contentious topics. The imprecise language in this policy will open the UNC System to lawsuits when faculty are retaliated against or fired.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feelings of the statewide, elected UNC Faculty Assembly appear more complicated. Assembly chair Wade Maki, along with the UNC system, started the push to write the definition. His body approved sending a definition to the system in October, but the system added extensive language to that, including that \u201cacademic freedom is not absolute\u201d and definitions of what academic freedom isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
After the board put out the latest iteration for public comment last month, it heard feedback both for and against. In response, the system incorporated more edits \u201cmostly proposed by leadership of the Faculty Assembly,\u201d said Andrew Tripp, the system\u2019s senior vice president for legal affairs and general counsel. Among the changes was editing a line that said teaching \u201cclearly unrelated to the course description\u201d wouldn\u2019t be protected to instead say teaching that \u201clacks pedagogical connection to the course, discipline, or subject matter\u201d wouldn\u2019t be protected.<\/p>\n
Maki told the board Thursday that, \u201cwhile there was a faculty consensus in our work defining what academic freedom is, there is not faculty consensus on the additions describing what academic freedom is not.\u201d But, he still said, \u201cThis has been a bold project, challenging and worthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will serve as a model for other states,\u201d Maki said.<\/p>\n
The board approved the definition in a voice vote, with no dissent heard.<\/p>\n
Peter Hans, the system\u2019s president, said this is the first time the UNC System has adopted \u201can actual definition of academic freedom.\u201d The system had a two-paragraph \u201cAcademic Freedom and Responsibility of Faculty\u201d policy, which the new definition significantly expands. <\/p>\n
Hans said having a definition \u201cas opposed to simply referring to a vague concept\u201d will help to guide the system, which includes 16 public universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommonly held definitions help us all share the same reality,\u201d he added. \u201cBy strengthening the UNC System Code to include more detail about the purpose and the parameters of academic freedom, we hope to make it easier for everyone to appreciate the privileges and the obligations that come with serving our public universities.\u201d <\/p>\n
The new UNC policy promises many of the same protections found in other descriptions of academic freedom, in addition to the caveat about how \u201cacademic freedom is not absolute.\u201d It lists three elements that academic freedom doesn\u2019t include: <\/p>\n
The policy also stresses that administrators also share in implementing the university\u2019s mission, including, at times, regulating faculty. It says administrators have the responsibility to ensure \u201cfaculty activities align with the university\u2019s mission as established under UNC policy and meet accreditation standards\u201d and to \u201cintervene when faculty conduct violates professional norms, creates a hostile learning environment as defined by policy and law, or undermines the institution\u2019s educational objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, it says, \u201cManagement is responsible for resource allocation and program viability,\u201d including approving and eliminating programs and setting \u201cbroad curricular frameworks.\u201d It also contains a section on student academic freedom, which says that \u201cstudents are responsible for learning assigned course content\u201d but are also \u201cfree to take reasoned exception to concepts and theories presented in their classes.\u201d <\/p>\n
Maki, who is set to leave his Faculty Assembly chair position after four years, defended his tenure in his presentation to the board, which was complete with references to Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli\u2019s The Prince<\/em>, his Havanese dogs and the musical artist Prince. (Some faculty have criticized Maki as too deferential to authority.) <\/p>\n \u201cRepresenting faculty, the temptation exists to come in and tell the system board and chancellors how it ought to be or what you need to do,\u201d Maki said. \u201cThat would\u2019ve been a strategic mistake. The point is that too many of us are focused on the ideal of what ought to be done that we neglect the realities of how things actually work and what is possible.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhile some faculty might prefer to have a fight than win one, I believe we have shown how to get a win without a fight,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n And he wasn\u2019t done suggesting that the UNC board define long-contentious faculty-related topics in its code. He suggested they take up a new quest: defining shared governance. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t clearly define shared governance,\u201d he said, \u201coutsiders will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UNC system Board of Governors has now defined academic freedom in its policies. Ryan Herron\/iStock\/Getty Images The University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted Thursday to approve a lengthy definition of what academic freedom does and doesn\u2019t protect throughout the state university system. It says academic freedom includes the right to teach and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[4106,1286,6138,5874,23379,257,23378,6149],"class_list":{"0":"post-45371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-academic","9":"tag-board","10":"tag-definition","11":"tag-freedom","12":"tag-isand","13":"tag-isnt","14":"tag-oks","15":"tag-unc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}