Statement on Campus Reopenings and Challenges to Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Shared Governance
The following statement was drafted by the MLA Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities. The Executive Council approved it as an MLA statement in November 2021.
Last year, the MLA in its “Statement on Administrative Overreach, Shared Governance, and Faculty Rights in the Time of COVID-19” (2021) detailed its concerns about emergency measures taken by many colleges and universities, measures that exceeded the traditional parameters of academic freedom and shared governance. As campuses have begun to reopen and proclaim a “new normalcy,” it is also time to recommit unreservedly to those values that have historically ensured standards of excellence in American colleges and universities. We call on all institutions of higher education to recommit to:
Academic freedom, which ensures open inquiry and nourishes teaching and research on college and university campuses. We condemn efforts by state legislatures and interest groups to limit academic freedom by heavy-handed censorship and by attempts to curtail teaching and research on topics such as race, racism, gender studies, and critical race theory. Recent attempts to manipulate the content and process of curriculum development and implementation in secondary and tertiary education in states such as Connecticut, Florida, and Texas, for example, advocate particular ideological stances, while claiming to support open inquiry. Such attempts thus become part of partisan political agendas that would influence the work of district boards of education and state legislatures.
Tenure as guarantor of both academic freedom and free speech. The tenure system ensures that faculty can chart lines of inquiry that, in the estimation of peer experts, increase knowledge and develop meaningful research, rather than simply appease administrators, boards, and state legislatures. We condemn any revision of post-tenure review that no longer requires faculty participation and allows for revocation of tenure and dismissal on arbitrary grounds, such as that established by the Board of Regents of the Georgia University System. We also condemn attempts to discourage faculty members from providing expert testimony, such as those made by the University of Florida for the recent voting rights case challenging Florida Senate Bill 90.
Shared governance, which, according to AAUP guidelines, requires faculty participation in campus discussions related to financial exigency and safety regulations, particularly in our current COVID environment. We condemn unilateral actions by governing boards—such as those at Canisius College, Keuka College, Marian University, Medaille College, National University, and Wittenberg University—to suspend bylaws and faculty handbooks, terminate faculty appointments, close departmental programs without notice, and disregard contractual obligations and institutional policy. We condemn as well the actions of institutions that have skirted discussions with faculty and staff about reopening in a way that ensures the safety of all constituencies.
These challenges should reinvigorate our commitment to the values of shared governance and academic freedom, which will ensure the continued vital contributions of colleges and universities to the public good through teaching, research, and service.