Annual Meeting Addresses Liberal Education

Keynote speaker David Bollier, senior fellow at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication, warned against the tendency of the academy to succumb to the seductive power of the market economy. He argued that the values of the "academic commons"—collaboration, openness, and sharing—conflict with the values of the market, and he explored ways in which the drive toward the "propertization" of knowledge in American society poses a serious threat to the future vitality of the commons. Bollier cited the privatization of publicly funded knowledge, specifically scientific research, noting that many institutions have opened special technology-licensing offices to patent and collect royalties for university research. Bollier cautioned that viewing research as property gives researchers and institutions an incentive to limit inquiry to potentially lucrative areas, a practice that impedes the acquisition of knowledge.

Bollier also discussed conflicts of interest between universities and private industry, referring to cases in which corporate sponsors of research have prevented university investigators from publicizing findings unfavorable to the firm's products. Bollier said that the academy must interact with the market, but he urged that institutions of higher education resist the overwhelming drive toward commercialization.

Plenary speaker Marlene Springer, president of the College of Staten Island, part of the City University of New York, talked about the strong ties between colleges and local communities. She argued that maintaining community support is increasingly important now that public funding for higher education is shrinking. She said her community benefits from college programs that permit faculty to apply their research to local problems as well as from the broad liberal education the college's students receive. Springer detailed current pressures on higher education resulting from federal tax policy, rising tuition, homeland security requirements, and the need to educate a diverse student population. "We need to get the word out to the community," she said, "because it controls our fate."

The annual meeting included updates on topics of interest to the membership. David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, spoke about Campus Cares, an initiative launched by a coalition of higher education associations, including the AAUP, in 2002. Campus Cares, of which Warren is co-chair, promotes and studies the civic engagement and participation in community service of students, faculty, administrators, and college and university staff. Warren said that research shows that, contrary to popular belief, today's college students are engaged with their communities in ways ranging from doing volunteer work to contributing money to charity to voting in presidential elections. He also noted that faculty tend to be similarly involved in their communities, and urged those present to find ways to make this fact more widely known.

Carol Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) spoke about the long-standing relationship between that organization and the AAUP. When it was known as the Association of American Colleges, the AAC&U worked with the AAUP to draft the landmark 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, which has subsequently been endorsed by more than 180 higher education associations and disciplinary societies. More recently, the AAUP and the AAC&U have joined together in affirming the importance of providing a liberal education for all students, not just an elite few. The increasing stratification of access to liberal education is a social injustice, Schneider said, and more needs to be done to combat the perception that liberal education is incompatible with practical, career-oriented education. Liberal education is not a set of disciplines, Schneider said, but an approach to any discipline.

Capitol Hill Day

Conference attendees participated in Capitol Hill Day on June 12. After an orientation session organized by the AAUP's government relations department, groups of AAUP members from different states visited their senators and representatives to discuss the importance of federal funding for higher education, including student aid and research funding; the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act; and governmental threats to academic freedom and freedom of expression. The day ended with a reception in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill and the presentation of the Henry T. Yost Award to U.S. Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York. The award recognized Boehlert's leadership on higher education issues, especially on matters pertaining to research. Under his leadership, the House Science Committee has held a series of hearings on the impact of the war on terrorism on college and university research. These hearings have illuminated problems faced by foreign students and scholars, as well as potential pitfalls in balancing the need to protect security with the need to protect open scientific inquiry.

Honors and Awards

The Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Academic Freedom was presented to Molly Corbett Broad, president of the University of North Carolina. The award is given to an American college or university administrator or trustee, or to a board of trustees as a group, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to academic freedom. The Faculty Assembly of the University of North Carolina nominated Broad because of her resistance to demands to cancel the assigned reading of a book on the Koran for incoming students at the Chapel Hill campus. The full text of Broad's acceptance speech will be published in the September-October issue of Academe.

The Georgina Smith Award, given to a person who has provided exceptional leadership in improving the status of women or advancing collective bargaining, was presented to Eileen Burchell, professor of French at Marymount College of Fordham University, for her outstanding leadership as president of the Marymount College AAUP chapter over the past four years, a period during which Marymount College was consolidated with Fordham University.

At the meeting to collect a certificate of appreciation were three fifty-year members of the AAUP: William Eagan of the University of Notre Dame, Melvin Hausner of New York University, and E. Gerald Meyer of the University of Wyoming. See page 21 for a list of all the fifty-year members recognized at the annual meeting.

Seth Rosenfeld of the San Francisco Chronicle attended the meeting to receive the Iris Molotsky Award for Excellence in Coverage of Higher Education for his article, "The Campus Files: Reagan, Hoover, and the UC Red Scare," which appeared in June 2002. The article reveals how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under the guise of national security, engaged in unlawful intelligence activities at the University of California, Berkeley, during the Cold War. In the article, Rosenfeld recounts both the FBI's intelligence activity and his own twenty-year legal battle with the agency to obtain the records documenting the activity.

State Conferences

Thomas Guild of the University of Central Oklahoma was elected chair of the Assembly of State Conferences (ASC). Flo Hatcher of Connecticut State University was elected vice-chair, and Gregory Scholtz of Wartburg University was re-elected liaison to Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

The ASC gives awards each year to recognize exceptional service to the AAUP and the profession and to help AAUP members travel to the annual meeting. Wells Keddie of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, won the Al Sumberg Award, which is presented to a person or organization that has been particularly effective in lobbying on issues furthering the interests of higher education. Jennifer Bruce of Randolph-Macon College and Michael Forster of the University of Southern Mississippi received John Hopper Scholarships, which are awarded to individuals attending their first annual meeting. Konheim Travel Awards are granted to AAUP chapters engaged in activities that advance the Association's objectives in academic freedom, student rights and freedoms, the status of academic women, the elimination of discrimination against minorities, or the establishment of equal opportunity for members of college and university faculties. This year, Konheim Travel Awards were granted to AAUP chapters at the University of Dallas, Jackson State University, and the University of Rhode Island to help them send delegates to the annual meeting.

The University of Central Oklahoma AAUP chapter won the ASC Award for the Outstanding Chapter Newsletter; the New York conference won the ASC Award for the Outstanding Tabloid-Style Conference Newsletter; and the Oklahoma conference won both the ASC Award for the Outstanding Conventional-Style Conference Newsletter and the ASC Award for Outstanding Conference Web Page.

Collective Bargaining

Ariel Anderson of Western Michigan University was re-elected chair of the Collective Bargaining Congress (CBC). Jeffrey Halpern of Rider University was elected vice-chair. Rudy Fichtenbaum of Wright State University was elected as an at-large member of the CBC Executive Committee, and Jeffrey Lustig of California State University-Sacramento and Cecelia McCall of Baruch College of the City University of New York were re-elected to at-large positions.

Janet West, professor of economics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, received the Marilyn Sternberg Award, which is given annually to the AAUP member who best demonstrates a concern for human rights, courage, political foresight, and collective bargaining skills.

Censure Actions

The AAUP annual meeting delegates voted on June 14 to remove four institutions from thelist of censured administrations. Censure informs the academic community that the administration of an institution has not adhered to the generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure. This is the first year since 1967 that the AAUP has removed administrations from its censure list without adding new ones. There are now forty-nine institutions on the censure list.

The Virginia Community College System was removed after twenty-eight years on the censure list, Southwestern Adventist University after eighteen years, New York University after thirteen years, and the University of Central Arkansas after three years. For further information on these institutions, see the investigating committee report on the Virginia Community College System in the April 1975 issue of the AAUP Bulletin, the report on Southwestern Adventist University in the January-February 1985 issue of Academe, the report on New York University in the May-June 1990 issue, and the report on the University of Central Arkansas in the March-April 2000 issue.

The annual meeting accepted statements from Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure calling for no action on cases at East Texas Baptist University and the University of Virginia. For further information, see the investigating committee report on East Texas Baptist University in the May-June 2003 issue of Academe, the report on the University of Virginia in the November-December 2001 issue, and "Developments Relating to Censure by the Association" in the May-June 2003 issue.

The annual meeting voted to refer back to Committee A for reconsideration its statement not recommending action at this time on a case at the University of South Florida. Noting the severe violations of academic freedom and due process in that case, the annual meeting then voted to condemn the actions of the administration of the University of South Florida "for grave departures from Association-supported standards" that resulted in "serious professional injury" to computer engineering professor Sami Al-Arian. For more information about the University of South Florida investigation, see the investigating committee's report in the May-June 2003 issue of Academe. The full text of the condemnatory resolution reads as follows:

WHEREAS the president of the University of South Florida suspended Sami A. Al-Arian, a tenured associate professor of computer engineering, in September 2001 supposedly in response to threats to his safety and that of the university, and continued him on suspension until February 2003, well past any real threat to his safety;

WHEREAS the president of the University of South Florida then notified the professor in December 2001 of her intent to dismiss him because of the disruptive activities of others who were hostile to his public remarks, thus violating the professor's right to a pretermination hearing, depriving him of academic due process, and threatening him with dismissal on grounds violative of his right to extramural expression under the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure;

WHEREAS these actions by the University of South Florida against the professor were based on political issues entirely apart from any legitimate academic concerns;

WHEREAS the administration of the University of South Florida brought suit in state court in August 2002 against the professor, seeking a declaratory judgment that the now-different grounds on which it sought to dismiss him would be legally permissible;

WHEREAS the president of the University of South Florida dismissed the professor on February 26, 2003, six days after the professor's indictment and arrest, thereby violating the cardinal American principle of "innocent until proven guilty";

BE IT RESOLVED that the Eighty-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors condemns the administration of the University of South Florida for its grave departures from Association-supported standards that resulted in serious professional injury to the professor.

Other Resolutions

Members approved an additional three resolutions during the annual meeting. They are printed below.

Political Pressures on Publicly Funded Programs in Science and Public Health

The Eighty-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors expresses concern about increasing dangers to the objectivity of government advisory committees and of research relating to science and public health. Political and ideological interests of White House officials and of cabinet secretaries and their staffs have been allowed to exert excessive influence over public policies in these areas, to the detriment of independent peer review and freedom of academic research. This past year has witnessed numerous instances of undue pressure on scientists and public health professionals to adhere to political agendas. For instance, the national advisory committees on human research protection and on genetic testing have been reconstituted to fit current political purposes, as has the group that evaluates grants for the study of workplace injury; nominees for national scientific committees have been questioned about their views on controversial administration policies unrelated to the work of the committees; and federally funded research on such politically sensitive topics as HIV infection among prostitutes has been singled out for special scrutiny.

The quality and integrity of federally sponsored work in science and public health, much of it done through research at colleges and universities, are jeopardized when they are subjected to political and ideological litmus tests. The meeting affirms that protecting academic research from political interference is essential to the advancement of knowledge and society's well-being. It calls on public officials to refrain from political interference with this work.

The Looting and Destruction of Cultural Artifacts in Iraq.

This spring's looting and destruction of art, antiquities, manuscripts, and other cultural artifacts in Iraq's museums, libraries, and historical and archeological sites are of the gravest concern to the American Association of University Professors. The final accounting of the treasures lost to future generations remains to be completed, but the damage to scholarship and teaching, indeed to the shared heritage of recorded history, is plainly serious. This annual meeting commends the worldwide efforts under way to locate the artifacts that were stolen and return them to their proper repositories in Iraq. We join with other groups and persons in urging the government of the United States and its coalition allies in Iraq to continue to work with the United Nations and with Iraqi professionals and officials in protecting and preserving Iraq's remaining cultural artifacts and in restoring those lost.

Liberal Learning

 The Eighty-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors, recognizing the wide diversity of curricular interests in our colleges and universities, but concerned with the decline in programs devoted to liberal education, urges that liberal learning be ensured a key role in undergraduate education. Specifically, the annual meeting believes it important to state the values of a liberal education for all students and for society at large. Liberal learning provides an education in the humanities, the fine and performing arts, the social sciences, and the sciences. It serves to educate the whole person, fostering personal fulfillment and providing the broad base of knowledge, understanding, and skills fundamental to exercising leadership roles and permitting the professional flexibility required by modern life. A liberal education prepares responsible citizens who inform themselves about local, national, and global issues and participate actively in civic life.

The critical thinking and habits of careful inquiry developed through a liberal education are vital to these tasks. The linguistic skills and social perspectives provided by a liberal education enhance our understanding of the complex, multicultural world in which we live. Liberal learning enables students to learn about the past, to weigh evidence, and to make informed judgments about the present and the future. Exposure to methods of scientific inquiry and patterns of scientific reasoning lays a foundation for understanding and making sound judgments about our physical world and for coping with the technological complexities that surround us. The cultural awareness and receptivity to the arts provided by a liberal education promote and enrich the enjoyment and understanding of life. The skills of clear writing and proficiency in public speaking and performance acquired through a liberal education enhance the ability to interact with others.

The Eighty-ninth Annual Meeting believes that liberal learning is vitally important for an educated citizenry, that learning to learn remains one of the highest aspirations of intellectual life, and that such learning should be an integral and indispensable part of undergraduate education. The AAUP urges institutions of higher education to reexamine their academic programs and ensure that they give ample opportunities to students to acquire a liberal education.

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