Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Sept. 2, 2003, edition 1 / Page 8
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
8 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2003 UNC Students Deserve Academic Freedom A controversy has arisen over the assignment of a socialist attack on American society as required reading for incom ing UNC freshmen. Reasonable objections have been made to the use of the university as an instrument for political indoctrination, which is contrary to its educational mission. The controversy could be easily resolved if the UNC administration were to honor the principle of intellectual diversity, which would simply mean requiring texts on more than one side of this controversial issue. The hundred-year-old tradition of academic freedom has served the American university well in the past. Unfortunately, it has fallen to the wayside in many aspects of contemporary university life, and apparently at UNC. Asa service to the UNC community, we provide this statement of the principles of academic freedom, codified in an Academic Bill of Rights. JKcahemtc JBtU af 3Rtgljts Academic freedom and intellectual diversity are values indispensable to the American university. From its first for mulation in the General Report of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors, the concept ot academic freedom has been premised on the idea that human knowledge is a never-ending pursuit of the truth, that there is no humanly accessible truth that is not in principle open to challenge, and that no party 01 intellectual faction has a monopoly on wisdom. Therefore, academic freedom is most likely to thrive in an environment of intellectual diversity that protects and fosters independence of thought and speech. Academic freedom consists in protecting the intellectual independence of professors, researchers and students in the pursuit ot knowledge and the expression of ideas from interference by legislators or authorities within the institution itself. This means that no political, ideological or religious orthodoxy will be imposed on professors and researchers through the hiring or tenure or termination process, or through any other administrative means by the academic insti tution. Nor shall legislatures impose any such orthodoxy through its control of the university budget. From the fust statement on academic freedom, it has been recognized that intellectual independence means the pro tection of students as well as faculty from the imposition of any orthodoxy of a political, religious or ideological nature. The 1915 General Report admonished faculty to avoid "taking unfair advantage of the student’s immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teacher’s own opinions before the student has had an opportunity fairly to examine other opinions upon the matters in question, and before he has sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment to be entitled to form any definitive opinion of his own." In 1967, the AAUP s Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students reinforced and amplified this injunction by affirming the inseparability of "the freedom to teach and freedom to learn." In the words of the report. "Students should be fiee to take leasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course ot study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion." Therefore, to secure the intellectual independence of faculty and students and to protect the principle of intellectual diversity, the following principles and procedures shall be observed: 1. No faculty member shall be hired or fired on the basis of their political beliefs. 2. No faculty member will be excluded from tenure, search and hiring committees on the basis of their polit ical or religious beliefs. 3. Students will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the sub jects and disciplines they study, not on the basis of their political or religious beliefs. 4. Cunicula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences will respect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge in these areas and provide students with dissenting sources and viewpoints. While teachers are and should be free to pursue their own findings and perspectives in presenting their views, they should consider and make their students aware of other viewpoints. Academic disciplines should welcome a diversity of approaches to unsettled questions. 5. Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major responsibility of faculty. Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ide ological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination. 6. Selection of speakers, allocation of funds for speakers programs and other student activities will observe the principles of academic freedom and promote intellectual pluralism. 7. An environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas being an essential component of a free university, the obstruction of invited campus speakers, destruction of campus literature or other effort to obstruct this exchange will not be tolerated. 8. Knowledge advances when individual scholars are left free to reach their own conclusions about which methods, facts, and theories have been validated by research. Academic institutions and professional societies formed to advance knowledge within an area of research, maintain the integrity of the research process, and organize the professional lives of related researchers serve as indispensable venues within which scholars cir culate research findings and debate their interpretation. To perform these functions adequately, academic insti tutions and professional societies should maintain a posture of organizational neutrality with respect to the sub stantive disagreements that divide researchers on questions within, or outside, their fields of inquiry. Paid for by www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org PAID ADVF.RTTSF.MFNT dl?r Hotly dor HM
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 2, 2003, edition 1
8
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75