Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Due Process

Statement arguing that because the scope and character of library resources should be taken into account in such important academic decisions as curricular planning and faculty appointments, librarians should have a voice in the development of the institution’s educational policy

An overview of the history and current state of engagement between industry and the academy regarding sponsored research and makes recommendations regarding the principles that colleges and universities should adopt.  Public comment is invited.

Report and recommendations concerning politically controversial cases involving college and university teachers.

Report examining the potential impact on academic governance of the Supreme Court Garcetti v. Ceballos decision. It recommends actions to be taken in both public and private colleges and universities to preserve academic freedom in governance even in the face of judicial hostility or indifference.

Statement issued jointly by the American Association of University Professors and the Canadian Association of University Teachers.  It discusses the overseas expansion of U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities and makes recommendations regarding the working conditions of faculty and staff at overseas campuses.

Statement examining the right of students and faculty to hear outside speakers. 

2006 report addressing aspects of the federal government’s regulations for research on human subjects that constitute a threat to academic freedom.

Report concerning the growing collaboration between industry and research universities. This relationship has been the most productive for both parties when scholars are free to pursue and transmit basic knowledge through research and teaching. The relationship, however, has never been free of concerns that the financial ties of researchers or their institutions to industry may exert improper pressure on the design and outcome of research.

Report setting forth standards that should guide academic institutions in performing background checks of prospective faculty members.

Report examing the costs to academic freedom incurred by the current trend toward overreliance on part and full-time non-tenure-track faculty.  The report recommends that for the good of institutions, of the educational experiences of students, and of the quality of education, the proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty should be increased.

Report concerning rights and protections for academic professionals

Report addressing the increasing tendency to add the criterion of “collegiality” to faculty evaluations and enumerates why this practice should be discouraged.

Policy discussing what post-tenure review should be and not be and its impact on academic freedom.

A  brief overview of the principles and the law shaping faculty and student claims to academic freedom and free speech in the college and university classroom and a consideration of issues of so-called “political discrimination” in the judicial and legislative fora, such as those asserted in the Academic Bill of Rights. Originally delivered as a conference presentation.

Report concerning the right of an instructor to assign grades and the procedures for student appeals.

Statement addressing campus speech codes and advises consideration of means more compatible with the mission of an academic institution by which to deal with incivility, intolerance, offensive speech, and harassing behavior.

Report discussing access by faculty members to their own personnel files and to the files of colleagues.

Statement addressing procedures bearing on the renewal or nonrenewal of probationary appointments.

Report reviewing and analyzing  the growing use of non-tenured positions and its implications.

Statement offering new propositions, consistent with Association principles, to address some of the continuing problems concerning part-time faculty members.

Report discussing why tenure quotas are generally unwise.

Statement clarifing those sections of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure relating to the faculty member’s exercise of freedom of speech as a citizen.

Joint statement supplementing the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure by providing a formulation of the “academic due process” that should be observed in dismissal proceedings.

Statement promoting public understanding and support of academic freedom and tenure and agreement upon procedures to ensure them in colleges and universities. Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.