College and university faulty members need a considerable measure of academic freedom to teach, and those employed at public institutions are covered by the First Amendment. That doesn’t mean, however, that there can be no limits on what they say or write.
In today’s Martin Center article, Jay Schalin ponders the problem of drawing the line.
Schalin writes, “In the literature of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the largest and most established faculty professional association, the only line faculty cannot cross if they wish to maintain their academic freedom protection is to demonstrate a lack of ‘fitness’ to be a professor: ‘The controlling principle is that a faculty member’s expression of opinion as a citizen cannot constitute grounds for dismissal unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty member’s unfitness for his or her position.’”
But, he observes, “fitness” is a rather vague notion. In the hotly debated case several years ago, a professor who had been offered a position at the University of Illinois was rejected before the contract was finalized on the grounds that his tweets regarding Israel were too inflammatory for the school. Was it wrong for Illinois to have turned him down?
Or what about the case of Allyn Walker, the Old Dominion sociology professor who last year wrote in favor of “destigmatizing” pedophilia. She was forced to resign as a result of her comments. Should she have been?