Advise and Consent

Many assume that the battle over academia is really just students versus professors. The assumption is incorrect. Look no further than philosophy professor Stephan Kershnar of the State University of New York at Fredonia. Professor Kershnar was denied a promotion earlier this year, because of his outside-the-classroom writings on the school’s policies.

The topics of his writings covered a school policy that Professor Kershnar said would “turn the student population into a group of snitches,” and how money allocated for the university’s diversity program should be spent getting better professors and students, as well as many other critiques of the university’s policies.

Professor Kershnar offered to submit his writings to a “prior consent committee” for an entire year.

“It was clear that I was not going to be promoted unless I agreed to limit my speech. I put forth the idea of the prior-consent committee in response to the President’s demand that I not discuss campus policy or practice in a negative light without specific quantitative evidence in support of my position. I agreed to the committee in order to avoid future disagreement over whether this demand had been satisfied,” Kershnar told me.

“I found the idea of a prior-consent committee to be demeaning and offensive, but decided to go with it as a way of getting the promotion. In hindsight, I should not have done so. I named the committee in order to make clear the parallel to the prior-restraint doctrine in Constitutional law. As a libertarian/conservative in academia, I knew that many of my colleagues and the administration would not agree with my columns, but I didn’t think that this would affect my promotion.”

Professor Kershnar did inform me that while the administration might not support his beliefs, he is far from alone in this battle. “I have received a number of warm and supportive emails and statements of support from family, friends, professors, and community members. I very much appreciate this show of support.”

University president Dennis Hefner declined this offer. Instead, Hefner called for Kershnar to submit all of his writings to a committee before they are published indefinitely. Many have argued that Hefner’s proposed resolution is unconstitutional to Kershnar’s first amendment rights.

When asked about whether or not he planned to take his case to court, Professor Kershnar responded, “No comment.”

Matthew Murphy is an intern at Accuracy in Academia.