Faculty Statement on Academic Freedom at NEOMED
Endorsed by University Faculty Council in August 2022
In accordance with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) 1940 “Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure,” subsequently reinterpreted and endorsed by the Council on the American Association of Professors in 1970, we support the view that institutions of higher education are established and operated for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good is reliant upon the free search for truth and its free exposition, thus academic freedom is essential to the foundations of teaching and research. Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Freedom in teaching is fundamental to protect the rights of teachers and students in the dissemination of truths. In addition, when faculty members speak or write as citizens within the protections provided by the First Amendment, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, acknowledging that their special position in the community imposes special obligations.
We, the faculty of Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), believe the University must be an institution whose members may express themselves while protecting and respecting the rights of others to learn, perform scholarly activity, and carry out the essential functions of the University free from interference or obstruction. We thereby call for the development, by the faculty, of a formal bylaw to establish the rights and responsibilities of academic freedom within the realms of teaching, research, University governance and service roles, as well as when faculty communicate as private citizens. Such a bylaw will identify the University’s obligations to protect its faculty when they are exercising such freedoms, and shall apply to all individuals holding a NEOMED faculty appointment.
We believe that an academic freedom policy should be grounded within the widely accepted precepts of the above-mentioned AAUP statement, and should speak to faculty’s rights of full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, freedom in the classroom in discussing their designated subjects, and freedom from institutional censorship or discipline when they speak or write as citizens.
Thus conceived, academic freedom is central to the academic enterprise, and embodies the conditions necessary for the University to fulfill its mission of creating new knowledge and of effectively imparting both new and established knowledge to colleagues, to students, and to the community at large. Beyond the AAUP statement, we also endorse the inclusion of faculty governance roles within the university’s bylaw on academic freedom. Faculty must be able to ask difficult questions, explore unpopular opinions, say controversial things, start difficult conversations, foster intellectual debate, and speak truth to power in their roles as scholars committed to the pursuit of knowledge, educators committed to truth, and University citizens committed to the NEOMED’s mission, vision, and values. The exercise of academic freedom therefore carries with it a high degree of academic responsibility: the duty and obligation of all faculty to pursue their academic endeavors with honesty, integrity, respect, and rigor, recognizing that all members of the University community have the right to express their own views and to hear the views of others expressed.
To protect and uphold the values of academic freedom and academic responsibility, the University Faculty Council of NEOMED endorses the development, with broad faculty input, of an academic freedom bylaw that includes descriptions of the following:
- Rights and Responsibilities of Faculty While Engaged in Instructional Roles
- Rights and Responsibilities of Faculty While Engaged in Research and Scholarly Activity
- Rights and Responsibilities of Faculty While Engaged in Governance-related Activities
- Rights and Responsibilities of Faculty As Private Citizens
- University Responsibility to Protect the Academic Freedom
- University Process for Safeguarding Academic Freedom
RELATED
