Academic Freedom
Dear Faculty Relations: My colleagues keep talking about academic freedom, and many of them seem worried. I think I know what academic freedom is, but could you give me a primer? –Making Sure I Know My Rights
Dear Making Sure: While everyone in the United States is entitled to freedom of speech and expression, academic freedom is a role-related special right. Academic freedom is defined in University of Colorado policy as the “freedom to study, learn, and conduct scholarship and creative work within their discipline, and to communicate the results of these pursuits to others, bound only by the control and authority of the rational methods by which knowledge is established in the field" (5.B.1.A). This right includes any employee – not just faculty – who teaches or engages in research and creative work.
The idea of academic freedom was originally defined by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). It exists because faculty are at the heart of the university's mission of producing knowledge and educating students. Academic freedom has three central tenets:
- “Teachers are entitled to ... freedom in research and creative activities and in the publication and display of results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties.
- “Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject ... but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter that has no relation to their subject.
- “College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and employees of an educational institution... they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution" (AAUP, 1940).
We are fortunate that CU has stated commitments to academic freedom. Regent Law and Policy codify the right to academic freedom and ensure that our faculty (and students) have a solid foundation for their academic rights, particularly in the face of external pressures. These policies also provide the institutional warrant for campus leaders to advocate for faculty members to share scholarly knowledge and artistic expression related to their expertise --regardless of whether the leaders agree with these perspectives.