How are States Altering Higher Education by Redefining Academic Freedom?
Sharita Forrest | 1 May 2024 | News Bureau- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Carol Symes, a professor of history at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is vice president of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Symes spoke with News Bureau education editor Sharita Forrest about a trend of state legislation that is changing U.S. higher education by redefining academic freedom and tenure for faculty members.
Indiana recently enacted a law that allows its state universities to deny tenure and promotions to faculty members who fail to foster “intellectual diversity” or if they are likely to expose students to ideologies outside their discipline. How might such a law impact teaching?
Academic freedom makes it possible for scholars to pursue research and teaching in their disciplines, wherever the evidence leads them. It does not predetermine what the outcome of that research should be. Academic freedom is protected because it extends to our students and society at large, freeing scholars to ask difficult questions which might challenge established scientific findings, historical narratives or received ideas about values and norms.
It is not the freedom for scholars to talk about anything, or do anything — those are individual freedoms, protected and limited by the laws we all follow. It is the freedom of inquiry within the confines of our expertise, allowing us to pursue the implications of our research to their logical conclusions based on evidence and our disciplinary training….