Our academic freedom is at stake
Allison Santa-Cruz | 05 December 2023 | The Daily Pennsylvanian
Free speech and academic freedom are at the core of a healthy university and, more broadly, a healthy democracy. It is increasingly apparent that one of the greatest perils of today is these rights, coupled with strong demand for political engagement, being curtailed by various forces. We have most recently seen this phenomenon with the demands that Liz Magill resign over her delayed and inadequate response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel and antisemitism on campus.
I am not going to belabor the details of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, Liz Magill’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict, or the demands of billionaire donors for Magill to resign from her post. Even more harshly, one previous alumna claims to charge Magill with complicity in genocide, a claim that I find unfounded and obscene. I do, however, want to explore how this situation relates more broadly to shared faculty governance, why we should protect it, and ultimately why Liz Magill should not resign.
Shared faculty governance is the “joint responsibility of faculty, administrators, and governing boards to govern colleges and universities … to have primary responsibility for such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, [and] faculty status.” In short, it’s the idea that faculty and administrators share the responsibility and power to make decisions about how to run the school, and ultimately, who runs the school.