Searching for a Solution at the Academic Freedom Conference

Several professors from across the nation came together at the first conference on academic freedom, held in our nation’s capital last week.

Not all the professors on the panel discussing “Faculty Issues” supported the Academic Bill of Rights, David Horowitz’ legislation to promote academic freedom. Yet, they all agree on one thing, it is time for a change on college campuses.

“If you’re a multi-university,” started the moderator, Steve Balch, President of the National Association of Scholars, “than you should have many personalities.” He then elaborated that the biggest problem facing universities is, “the inability of the timid to stand up to the zealous.”

Dr. Don Downs from the University of Wisconsin had a different perspective. He said that the most suitable way to solve issues related to academic freedom is to put them in the “intellectual free market.” Speaking from personal experience, he discussed his university’s school newspaper printing the controversial Muhammad cartoons and then holding a town hall discussion. He noted, “The school president believed this was the right way to handle it.” Downs also suggested “reforming schools from within” and that secretly taping a professor or teacher, like 10th-grader Sean Allen, causes the balance of trust in the classroom to shift. “Besides,” he said, “standing up against other ideas is fun!”

History professor Dr. Alan Levy advises students to take three steps to fight bias in the classroom: publicize the incidents, call for legislative action, and then file lawsuits. “That’s what the bureaucracy can’t control, and they like to be in control,” he said of filing lawsuits, “you have to turn that around.”

Dr. Ian Maitland was unsure of taking legislative action to improve the state of academic freedom, “…with the Academic Bill of Rights, I am ambivalent,” he added, “but I think it can provide leverage…but it is up to the faculty to clean house.”

Harvard history professor Dr. Stephan Thernstrom compared today to when he was in college, noting, “we are certainly looking at a different world.” Attesting to the poor state of academic freedom at his own institution he stated, “The personal is the political,” continuing, “Assuming most students agree with you, you are able to intimidate the rest into silence.” He suggested working for an ideological balance, “if you can’t take the politics out, then balance the faculty.”

Thernstrom also compared the culture of the Harvard faculty to that of a strict church. When asked about Larry Summers, the former President of Harvard, he said, “If you don’t follow the doctrine of the church, you can be expelled, which is exactly what happened to Larry Summers.”

Rosemarie Capozzi is an intern at Accuracy in Academia.