{"id":688,"date":"2007-11-01T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2007\/11\/01\/academic-freedom\/"},"modified":"2007-11-01T08:00:23","modified_gmt":"2007-11-01T12:00:23","slug":"academic-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2007\/11\/01\/academic-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 12, the University of Chicago held a symposium on academic freedom. Its purpose was state: \u201cThere is where we stand, and this is what are going to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conclusions provided by this blogger<\/a> are revealing. Take a look-see.<\/p>\n

“It is absurd to think that it requires a special form of heroism for administrators to stand up for academic freedom. . . . The simple fact that Columbia for years had a central administration that saw it as their routine duties to dismiss such complaints [against faculty members].\u201d Provost Jonathan Cole would \u201ctell them that a university has a duty to protect the right of the faculty to speak. . . . these were his duties, and he was just being dutiful.\u201d He noted about administrators: \u201cthey can support first-rate scholars\u201d (such as Finkelstein, Mossad) \u201cor they can capitulate to third rate thinkers from the outside.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Akeel Bilgrami, Philosophy Professor, Columbia<\/p>\n

“[Academic freedom is] more important today than it used to be.\u201d The reason? For the past century there was in print media \u201cthe world of public intellectual debate and written dissent\u201d and \u201cmost of the writers and polemicists were not academics, they were not professors. . . . We are moving out of that era. There are very few public intellectuals today who have a private income that can let them say what they want and be damned.\u201d As a result, \u201cthe university becomes a much more important space as a place where you can say dissenting things.\u201d This is why he is so alarmed by \u201cthe nature of university cowardice in our time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe famous demand for balance . . . How ridiculous can this\u00a0get?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tony Judd, NYU<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are certain strategies more likely to achieve their goals in the US?\u201d The answer: \u201cThe university no longer conceives itself as an institution whose primary goal is to reveal truth. Rather, the university conceives itself as an institution that sells product\u201d and \u201cFaculty members themselves are conceived as producers and as products.\u201d Gordon concluded, \u201cFinkelstein was considered a product, one that became a liability rather than an asset.\u201d By contrast, in Israel there is \u201cunionization and standardized salaries.\u201d As a result, \u201cThose at the helm of\u00a0American universities\u00a0are more accountable to\u201d trustees and donors and parents \u201crather than the true university constituency, the faculty and students.\u201d Administrators \u201cbehave more and more like corporate executives\u201d and \u201cthey are also not invested in democratic processes.\u201d Most American universities are \u201cruled without basic checks and balances.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be external influences on universities. There\u2019s always going to be faculty and admininstrators who are complicit with these influences. The question is, what can we do within the university to…take the universities back into our own hands, and make sure administrators are accountable to us.\u201d Gordon noted, \u201cOnly then will we be able to stop the external influences.\u201d Gordon concluded, \u201cWe have failed them….We have watched them make the university into a corporation, and we have not stood up and said, \u2018enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Neve Gordon, Ben-Gurion University, Israel<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, most of this talk about civility is a red herring.\u201d When universities \u201crecruit war criminals\u201d (Kissinger, Kirkpatrick, Rumsfeld) and \u201cprofessors in our best universities advocate torture and the automatic destruction of villages after a terrorist attack,\u201d civility seems beside the point. Finkelstein concluded, \u201cEmily Post\u2019s rules of etiquette, however real the question, is a meaningless sideshow, or a transparent pretext for denying a professor the right the teach on the basis of his or her political beliefs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Norman Finkelstein<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 12, the University of Chicago held a symposium on academic freedom. 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