More than 1,000 professors sign on to ‘Stanford Academic Freedom Declaration’
More 1,300 professors have already signed the Stanford Academic Freedom Declaration, which calls for universities’ commitment to free speech, institutional neutrality and merit-based evaluation for hiring/promotion. “The open letter calls on universities and professors to adopt and implement the “Chicago Trifecta” — the Chicago Principles on unilateral free speech, the Kalven report that requires institutional neutrality on political and social topics, and the Shils report, making “academic contribution the sole basis for hiring and promotion.”
As for FAIR? “We also call for faculty to create (or join existing) non-partisan associations, aimed at defending these values on campus, and at a national level such as FIRE, the Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, FAIR and ACTA.”
— We encourage all professors who agree with the letter to sign and share with your peers —
“Historically, censorship has supported monstrous regimes and their ideologies,” the letter warns. “Bad ideas are defeated only by argument and persuasion, not by suppression. True justice and freedom cannot exist without each other.”
Who is to blame? The entire apparatus, from university presidents and administrators to university board and alumni— “The loss of academic freedom results in part from a leadership crisis,” the letter states. “While many university leaders issue statements that support open debate, they nonetheless oversee and expand politicized bureaucracies that harass, intimidate, and punish those who express views deemed to be incorrect and enforce ideological conformity in hiring and promotions… Boards of trustees, alumni organizations, donors, government granting agencies, and other institutional stakeholders likewise fail to uphold the principles of academic freedom.”
Read the Article (College Fix)
Related: Stanford Academic Freedom Conference
