Academic Freedom, Affirmative Action, and the Advance of Knowledge

Abstract

It’s a great irony that political correctness ‐ an expression coined by feminists to poke gentle fun at themselves ‐ has become a term of abuse. Speech codes, for example, are often ridiculed as the product of political correctness and dismissed on that very ground. Affirmative action policies are also everywhere under attack, and similarly rejected for the f limsiest reasons. When arguments are given at all, they usually appeal to academic freedom or excellence, notions which are taken to be as obviously virtuous and unproble matic as political correctness is taken to be obviously silly or pernicious. But just what are they? It may turn out that on close inspection, academic freedom and excellence require something like speech codes and hiring quotas. There are several senses of academic freedom. The one which is perhaps primary (because it gives rise to the rest) has to do with the autonomy of the university ‐ we govern ourselves. Of course, we cannot overturn our teaching and research mandate (say, in favour of running a giant casino), but it is our decision how to best carry our mandate out. At least, it ought to be our decision, though our autonomy has become increasingly undermined by corporate funding, by calls to make education “relevant to the market,” and by so-called “targeted research.” Of course, this is nothing new; it is a constant struggle to keep these forces at bay. In so far as the struggle has been su ccessful, we (the university community) do indeed govern ourselves. And in exercising our power we grant certain rights to ourselves. For instance, we choose to spend some of our money on a library and we grant the right to borrow books to the professors and the students. Is this some sort of absolute right? Obviously not. Rather, it is a case of the university’s goals ‐ the acquisition and transmission of knowledge ‐ being best promoted by conventionally bestowing library rights on certain individuals.