Robert M. O’Neil examines actions that might be taken to safeguard academic freedom. Among his more judicious recommendations:

Accrediting associations should focus more sharply and critically on violations of academic freedom.Administrators should be more willing to impose sanctions, including dismissal, on faculty members who abuse the special privileges and responsibilities of the professoriate.Renewed faculty commitment to professional ethics and responsibility could help increase public acceptance of the concept of academic freedom.The academic left should be more willing to come together with colleagues on the academic right who share academic-freedom concerns.