The
State of Academic Freedom, 2001-2002: A Report
By
John K. Wilson
The attacks of September 11 shocked America, and the world. College campuses reacted to terrorist acts with rallies, vigils, discussions, and a wide range of debates about the causes and cures for terrorism. And sometimes the reactions of individuals included threats and hatred toward Arabs and Muslims, as well as censorship of those who opposed war. At other times, censorship on college campuses was aimed at enthusiastic supporters of war.
Yet the story told about academia in the media was often quite different. Conservatives claimed that the reaction to Sept. 11 in academia was yet another tale of “political correctness” run amuck. Jonathan Yardley wrote in the Washington Post, “While most of the nation has been roused to a revival of patriotism and stiffened resolve by the terrorist attacks and their aftermath, the thought police have launched a new onslaught on free speech and revived the anti-Americanism that was pandemic on the campuses in the age of political correctness. Now as in the not-so-distant past, speech on campus is free mainly for those with whom the thought police agree.”(Nov. 12, 2001) Yardley noted the “violations of free-speech rights that have been committed on the campuses since Sept. 11, mostly against faculty and students who have had the effrontery to speak out against terrorism and in favor of the military action in Afghanistan.”(Nov. 26, 2001)
From a purely factual perspective, Yardley is clearly wrong. All of the reported incidents of censorship indicate violations of free speech rights have happened to people holding a wide variety of views, but more often those who opposed war. Given the fact that conservatives on college campuses have a much more extensive network for reporting incidents of censorship (including organizations such as FIRE, Young Americans for Freedom, Accuracy in Academia, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the National Association of Scholars, and others), it is likely that these reports represent (or even overrepresent) the cases of pro-war or conservative speech being repressed. Considering that most Americans, including those on college campuses, have expressed support for the war in Afghanistan, the fact that they were less often censored also indicates a much stronger regime of censorship against anti-war views in academia.
Liberal academics have been blamed for destroying free speech on college campuses. "Universities have thrown away free speech for the last 15 years, and now one stares into the abyss of what they've created," declared Alan Charles Kors, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-founder of FIRE . "We've been in this mad cycle where university administrators have felt obliged to selectively criticize or denounce the viewpoints of others. It's not unreasonable now for students to turn to these authorities for the repression of views."(Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/5/01) Stanley Kurtz wrote in the Oct. 26, 2001, Chronicle of Higher Education, “In large measure, responsibility for the tattered condition of our campus culture of free speech must be assigned to the very professoriate that now seeks the shelter of that tradition's tolerance.” Kurtz contended, “The calls for campus free speech continue to ignore the fact that our intellectually and politically one-sided campus climate has contributed to the problem.”
In fact, academic censorship during wartime is a long-standing American tradition. While a greater respect for academic freedom might help avoid overreactions that led to censorship, the degree of repression on campuses today should not be exaggerated. But San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders declared, “Kors noted that for every professor in trouble for criticizing U.S. policy from the left, there were five or 10 students in hot water for supporting the war on terrorism.”(8/13/02) There is no factual basis for this claim that supporters of war faced more suppression on college campuses. To the contrary, despite the fact that surveys showed an overwhelming majority of students supported the war on terrorism, more threats to academic freedom were reported by the opponents of the war on terrorism.
Michael Barone of U.S. News and World Report claimed, “When I talk of suppression of speech on campus, most people of my acquaintance, of whatever political persuasion, say this simply can't be true, or it can't be this bad. The response to September 11 shows that it is true and it is this bad.” Harry Silverglate of FIRE claimed, "it seems now the place where you see the most obvious censorship is on college campuses--the precise place where you would expect to see the least." Far from being the center of repression, college campuses were often the only places in America where the US response to terrorism was analyzed and debated. While some academics were quoted as saying some silly things, they were minor in comparison to the bad history, poor logic, and occasional xenophobia of the pundits in America. Indeed, conservatives attacked academia because at a time of flag-waving and national unity, colleges were often the one place in America society where a debate about public policy occurred and dissent from the Bush Administration’s foreign policy was permitted. Examples of censorship on college campuses were noteworthy only because higher education is one of the few places where such dissent is typically allowed at all.
Many conservative campus groups denounced academic freedom after Sept. 11. Young Americans for Freedom declared, “Professors are leading radical left-wing students in a campaign to attack America's sacred institutions of capitalism and civic duty, and student columnists are serving as daily catalysts for anti-American sentiment.”(10/3/01) Winfield Myers of the right-wing Intercollegiate Studies Institute declared, "Uttering irresponsible phrases may not raise an eyebrow in the perpetually adolescent land inhabited by too many academics, but in the world where most people live, such language is unwise at best, traitorous at worst."(Andrea Billups, “Campus hawks and doves find speech is not so free,” Washington Times, 10/1/01) In one infamous case, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) presented a list of statements made by scholars deemed unpatriotic. While not censorship in itself, the list raised alarms because ACTA made no attempt to refute any of these statements (suggesting that they ought to be beyond the scope of any debate) and because ACTA helps to influence and train trustees who might attempt to censor these academics or others. "No one should have the license to hunt unpatriotic speech," said George Borts, an economics professor at Brown University whose positive comment about the CIA was misinterpreted by ACTA and later excised from the report. Perhaps not coincidentally, the trustees at the University of South Florida who sought to fire tenured professor Sami Al-Arian had undergone training by ACTA just a few months earlier.
The threat to academic freedom should not be exaggerated. Compared to earlier “wartime” situations, academic freedom is far more protected today than at any time in the past. However, the danger posed to academic freedom cannot be ignored. Efforts to silence faculty and students, even when they fail, can make others around the country more reluctant to speak openly. After Sept. 11, academic freedom in America encountered some of the most serious threats in a generation. It is only by denouncing these efforts at censorship, and vigorously defending the right of freedom on college campuses, that we can continue to protect academic freedom.
Ten
Threats to Academic Freedom in America, 2001-2002
1.
The Firing of Sami Al-Arian
2.
Censorship of Anti-War Views
3.
Censorship of Pro-War Views
4.
Political Interference in
Academia
5.
Censorship of College Student
Newspapers
6.
Campus Disciplinary Systems