The following statement was approved for publication by the Association's Committee on Government Relations on June 8, 2005, to express the committee's concern over the increased politicization of science policy making in recent years. Comments are welcome and should be addressed to the AAUP's Washington office.
The Committee on Government Relations is alarmed at the increasing disregard for science, scientists, and scientific method in the development of national policy on a wide range of topics. These include policies on HIV/AIDS, global warming, human sexuality, environmental protection, energy, natural resource utilization, space exploration, and general science education. Lack of adequate funding of many federal science agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Energy as well as the defunding of many long-standing postdoctoral grants and fellowships over the last four years is having a chilling effect on the nation's research and scholarship in the physical sciences and many of the social sciences that gather and analyze data over periods of time to predict trends, identify issues, and address problems by assessment and accountability. A persistent substitution of politically and ideologically driven criteria for scientists and scientific credentials in the selection and organization of boards, panels, and commissions does a disservice to the public and the process for informing public policy.
We concur with the clear warnings of the Union of Concerned Scientists that the focus and effect of the loss of funding for scientific research will be not just on the academicians who have devoted their life's work to scientific endeavor, but also on the needs of the nation both now and for generations to come. Our national security in a world of heightened threat, and our general preparedness in a global economy are in great part dependent upon being at the forefront of research in a host of scientific and scholarly endeavors, many of which are international in scope.
Examples of concern include
a. Failing to appropriate authorized levels of funding for scientific and medical projects.
b. Abandoning, without discussion, longitudinal data gathering on gender and ethnicity in education.
c. Privatizing Government Printing Office publications, including the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), and the commensurate reduction of information.
d. Reducing opportunities for Environmental Protection Agency postdoctoral fellowships for environmental and natural resource study.
e. Replacing scientifically based information on government Web sites with information based more on religious or personal beliefs.
f. Misusing scientific data to oppose the funding of research such as that on stem cells.
The drastic withdrawal of fiscal and governmental support from intellectual inquiry is antithetical to the principles of the Republic and to a democracy predicated on an informed and educated electorate. Suppressing research and discourse is dangerous to the long-term security of the country.
The AAUP Committee on Government Relations deplores the myriad federal actions which have chilled scientific inquiry, and it implores the government and the academic community to support independent research and the continued development of scientific and factually based information for the American people and the international community. We further urge reinstatement of the many worthy programs that have been dropped, defunded, or disbanded through partisan political interference. Objective nonpartisan research is essential to the knowledge base for which the United States has been known. In our striving always to provide the best education system possible, this nation should be nothing less than the leader in scientific research as well.
The AAUP stands with many other organizations and associations of scholars and researchers whose primary interest is in gathering and testing data for accuracy, replicability, and objectivity. Historically, the U.S. government, through its many agencies and funding mechanisms, has provided leadership in all areas of academic endeavor, particularly in the physical and health sciences, pharmaceuticals, information technology, and the social and behavioral sciences. We must not let that reputation or contribution evaporate because of political bias and pressure.
The AAUP has long been viewed as the authoritative voice of the academic profession. The Committee on Government Relations draws on the academic freedom principles of the AAUP to advocate positions beneficial to the higher education community.
(posted 06/05)