Academic Freedom in a Time of Silencing

Ashley Thorne

On the hundredth anniversary of its founding, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has released a “Centennial Declaration,” a statement of 10 principles of academic freedom. It is collecting signatures on this declaration at a time when the concept of academic freedom is increasingly being superseded by its competitor, “academic justice.”

Academic justice, a term coined by Harvard senior Sandra Korn in a 2014 Harvard Crimson editorial, is the doctrine that some ideas are simply not entitled to academic freedom. In other words, those in higher education who style themselves as owning the moral high ground may take it as their right to determine what subjects may be part of an academic discussion—and which ones can rightfully be shut out. This appears to have been the case recently at Marquette University, in a situation we are tracking where a student was told by a graduate instructor that some opinions, such as the student’s opinion on homosexuality, “are not appropriate” for the classroom.

In a timely op-ed in the New York Times yesterday, Ross Douthat observed that such political correctness used as a censor teaches rising generations of Americans exactly the wrong lesson: “The common thread in all these cases […] is a belief that the most important power is the power to silence, and that the perfect community is one in which nothing uncongenial to your own worldview is ever tweeted, stated, supported or screened.”

  • Share

Most Commented

October 29, 2024

1.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

November 19, 2024

2.

Lee Zeldin Should Reform EPA Science Policy

NAS welcomes the nomination of Congressmen Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency....

November 20, 2024

3.

NAS Welcomes Administrator McMahon's Nomination to Serve as Education Secretary

With McMahon, the new administration has a chance to drastically slim down and depoliticize the Education Department....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....