Academic Freedom and the Academic President

Abstract

This article is an attempt to describe how college and university presidents who are true believers feel about academic freedom and the measures they take to sustain it. I have no word for those who do not believe in the principle although I concede the right of an institution, such as a church-related college, to define for itself what it considers to be disqualifying heresy, provided it makes its position clear when a faculty member is first engaged. It is only fair to say that my lines have fallen in relatively pleasant places. My life as a university president was spent in an environment favorable to academic freedom. Not that occasions did not arise calling for its defense before individual trustees and the public, including alumni. But I owe it to my board to say that at no time did it act to infringe on the professional or personal freedom of the faculty. Not all presidents, I realize, are so easily situated and my respect goes out to those true believers in difficult situations who are encountering obstacles of which the faculty are probably but dimly aware. To convince skeptical trustees that the faculty deserves such a special kind of freedom, especially in the less-favored institutions where the tradition is still weak, calls for courage of a high order and provides a stern test of presidential leadership. I know no college or university president for whom academic freedom is not a recurring source of concern. As chief executive of his institution he bears the brunt of criticisms and attacks by individuals and organizations, often inflamed by superpatriotism or anti-intellectual prejudices and fixations. From time to time all administrations have to defend the library against assaults of self-appointed censors and support the freedom of faculty members and students to espouse unpopular causes. In line of duty a president repeatedly defends the right of the faculty to express opinions and take action in areas over which he exercises no control, although he may feel that his peace of mind would be greater if he could. All presidents and most deans receive letters attacking individual members of the faculty but the true believer answers them without the knowledge of the man complained of. The administrator expects to take the rap, to shelter those under attack, for he knows that academic freedom is diminished and distorted if intimidation, either overt or covert, prevails. Before discussing how to sustain academic freedom, let us be realistic about what it is. A new president soon learns, if he did not know it when he entered office, that it is a peculiar kind of freedom, of a sort which the honest layman does not encounter in his own business or professional experience. Indeed, on the surface it