Academic Freedom For Colleges and Universities
A prominent feature of the English university concept is the freedom to appoint faculty, set standards and admit students. This ideal may be better described as institutional autonomy and is distinct from whatever freedom is granted to students and faculty by the institution.
The Supreme Court of the United States said that academic freedom means a university can "determine for itself on academic grounds:
- who may teach,
- what may be taught,
- how it should be taught, and
- who may be admitted to study."
In a 2008 case, a Federal court in Virginia ruled that professors have no academic freedom; all academic freedom resides with the university or college. In that case, Stronach v. Virginia State University, a district court judge held "that no constitutional right to academic freedom exists that would prohibit senior (university) officials from changing a grade given by (a professor) to one of his students." The court relied on mandatory precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court case of Sweezy v. New Hampshire and a case from the fourth circuit court of appeals. The Stronach court also relied on persuasive cases from several circuits of the courts of appeals, including the first, third, and seventh circuits. That court distinguished the situation when a university attempts to coerce a professor into changing a grade, which is clearly in violation of the First Amendment, from when university officials may, in their discretionary authority, change the grade upon appeal by a student. The Stronach case has gotten significant attention in the academic community as an important precedent.
Read more about this topic: Academic Freedom
Famous quotes containing the words academic, freedom, colleges and/or universities:
“I was so grateful to be independent of the academic establishment. I thought, how awful it would be to have my future hinge on such people and such decisions.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.”
—Albert Camus (19131960)
“The present century has not dealt kindly with the farmer. His legends are all but obsolete, and his beliefs have been pared away by the professors at colleges of agriculture. Even the farm- bred bards who twang guitars before radio microphones prefer Im Headin for the Last Roundup to Turkey in the Straw or Father Put the Cows Away.”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“In universities and intellectual circles, academics can guarantee themselves popularityor, which is just as satisfying, unpopularityby being opinionated rather than by being learned.”
—A.N. (Andrew Norman)