Academic Freedom In Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, PA—Next Monday and Tuesday, I will be at Temple University for hearings on academic freedom. I am part of a committee that is holding hearings on the freedom of speech on college campuses. The hearings are the result of a resolution I introduced that passed last July, which happened because a constituent, Jennifer Brown in Conestoga, told me that she was singled out by two different professors for not going along with their politically correct view of the world.

These professors live a very privileged life. They only work 6-7 hours a week. Tenure gives them guaranteed job security for life. They get paid very well—usually into six figures. Furthermore, they get 3-4 months of vacation per year and the best medical and pension plans available.

In return, you would think that such a pampered class would have no problem meeting professional standards and maintaining their universities’ policies of academic freedom. This includes common sense things like teaching only their subject of expertise: educating—teaching students to think for themselves, not by using their authority position to indoctrinate or promote personal, partisan views by doing things like grading students on their political, social or religious views, rather than their mastery of the material alone.

While every university has policies requiring such behavior, there are glaring exceptions where they are not adhered to. At Temple University, for example, entire departments advocate rather than educate. If the administrations of these schools will not force their professors and department chairs to adhere to their policies, the legislature, on behalf of the taxpayers who fund these schools, must act; and so we have.

Right now our biggest obstacle is a few Democrats who have stuck their heads in the sand and contend there is no problem. They ignore testimony to the contrary and are likely influenced by education unions and other special interests that fervently oppose any accountability in academia.

David French is the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-partisan First Amendment advocacy group that specializes in free speech issues in academia. French is recognized as national leader in his field. He testified at our first hearing that 14 of 16 Pennsylvania state campuses currently violate their students’ constitutional rights to free speech. He also reminded us that Shippensburg University lost a law suit in federal court for violating its students’ constitutional right to free speech. What is shocking is that there are other public universities in this state that have the same regulations as Shippensburg did.

Our committee also heard from Stephen Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars. He talked about how Pennsylvania’s universities violate their own academic freedom guidelines. Balch showed universities that have courses and entire departments that engage in advocacy at the expense of education, which is forbidden by each university’s own guidelines. Balch even showed that some Penn State departments consider an applicant’s willingness to engage in political advocacy, not just their educational credentials. This is wrong, and merits serious inquiry, which a few of my colleagues want to avoid.

Our committee wants to find out why administrators of Pennsylvania universities are not abiding by the United States Constitution, not to mention state law and their own institutional guidelines. Any reasonable person listening to the testimony–and not intent on nullifying the very process of these hearings–would conclude that there is a problem worth looking into.

My Democrat friends need to put our basic American liberties, such as the right to free speech, above partisan politics, drop their obstructionist attempts to short-circuit these hearings, and to give the committee hearing process a chance to work. After all, the right to free speech that we are protecting is theirs too.

Gibson C. Armstrong is a state representative from the 100th legislative district of Pennsylvania.