Abstract:
Rights, liberties, and freedoms are never secure when they lie dormant or unused. A false sense of security in presumably safe freedoms exists partly because institutional policies give such freedoms cursory mention, and a historical protection of such freedoms can breed a misplaced confidence in continued protection. The temperature of the illiberal threat to academic freedom is heating in the modern sociopolitical climate, and the risk of complacency is grave. For academic freedom to be properly understood and secured, a renewed commitment to its active practice is crucial and urgent. A sustained culture of robust and visible practice of a particular freedom highlights any attempt to restrain it, while we might barely notice the erosion or repeal of a freedom that we do not exercise.
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