ACADEMIC FREEDOM?
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James Joyner | Thursday, February 6, 2003 |
I hate the misuse of the term “academic freedom.” The latest example is in David Horowitz’s blog today. He claims that anti-Republican jokes by liberal professors and grad assistants violates “the academic freedom of college students,” namely conservative ones, because it makes them less likely to speak their minds.
No, it does not.
Academic freedom exists to protect scholars who engage in controversial research or espouse unconventional opinions. College students, certainly undergraduates, don’t have academic freedom; professors do. When instructors introduce their partisan political viewpoints in class, it has a potential chilling effect on student speech, and should therefore be avoided. Although, to be honest, I’m not even convinced of the extent of the chilling effect–most conservative pundits, Insta- or otherwise, seem to have survived our exposure to leftist professors with our viewpoints intact.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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