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AAUP Files Brief in Free-Speech Case
The national AAUP and the AAUP chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have filed an amicus brief supporting University of Illinois faculty who want to share their critique of the institution's Chief Illiniwek mascot with prospective student athletes.
The institution's administration banned faculty and students from making such contact without first getting approval from the athletics department. The faculty and students sued, saying that their First Amendment rights to free speech were violated by the ban. A lower court in the case, Crue v. Aiken, agreed and prohibited the university from enforcing its ban. The university administration is now appealing that ruling.
The amicus brief argues that the university's own regulations, the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and the First Amendment protect the right of faculty to speak out as citizens. "Academic freedom means not only freedom to teach and to publish the results of one's research, but also the freedom to criticize the policies and actions of the employing institution," says law professor Matthew Finkin, the author of the brief and the former president of the Urbana-Champaign AAUP chapter.
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