Ethics, Academic Freedom and Politics

1. Ethics, Academic Freedom and Politics Raphael Cohen-Almagor

2. Lecture Plan • Section 1 -- Introduction • Section 2 -- Guiding principles, especially professionalism • Section 3 -- Academic mission • Section 4 -– What might compromise academic freedom? • Section 5 –- The threat of commercialization • Section 6 – Plagiarism • Section 7 – Freedom of extramural expression • Section 8 – Academic boycott

3. Introduction • Academic freedom is a subset of freedom of expression. • It is about free speech in academic setting. • It includes freedom of inquiry, freedom of association, and freedom of publication. • The term "academic freedom" has traditionally had two applications - to the freedom of the teacher and to that of the student.

4. Questions • Can an academic teach everything? • What kinds of pressures do we face? • To what extent do current trends regarding the commercialisation of research undermine fundamental academic principles such as academic freedom, integrity in research, openness, and serving the public interest? • Are there any limits on freedom of extramural expression?

5. Guiding Principles • Conscience – people should be true to their conscience, able to express their mind notwithstanding what other are thinking. • The Millian Truth Principle – search for truth; Galileo Galilei • Responsibility • Transparency and honesty – be aware and alert others of compromising factors and interests • Independence – thus student papers should raise their own funding.

6. Professionalism • Professionalism – we expect certain standards to be met because of the academic setting. • The function of academic freedom is not to liberate individual professors from all forms of institutional regulation, but instead to ensure that faculty within the university are free to engage in professionally competent forms of inquiry and teaching, which are necessary for the realization of the social purposes of the university.

7. Professionalism • Academics are professional experts in the production of knowledge. • Thus they cannot teach the flat earth theory and other falsehoods in an academic setting. • Academic freedom is not an individual right. • Context – Protocols of the Elders of Zion, not in a course on Jewish civilization; yes in a course on hate and bigotry • Organized institutions of peer-review and faculty self-regulation on the basis of a professed skepticism of professional norms.

8. Professionalism • The conception of academic freedom as an individual right seems superficially attractive because it appears to promise greater security for academic dissent. • But in reality it would risk undercutting the professional norms necessary for the external defense of academic freedom. • Without this defense there are forms of political power that might be ready to seize control of the academic community.

9. Professionalism

10. Professionalism

11. Professionalism • You did not expect me to show you an empty slide.

12. Mission • The mission of a university is multi-dimensional. • The importance of academic freedom is most clearly perceived in the light of the purpose for which universities exist. • These are three in number: • To promote inquiry and advance the sum of human knowledge. • To provide general instruction to the students. • To develop experts for various branches of the public service.

13. Mission • In other words, academic freedom is about teaching, research and extra-mural utterance and action. • Just like teaching and research, the service mission can entail a wide variety of activities. • University should be the hotbed for new ideas. • Academia is the only profession that is able to reflect, scrutinize, and develop long-term processes (to be distinguished from journalism, for instance).

14. Mission • Scholars must be absolutely free not only to pursue their investigations but to declare the results of their researches, no matter where they may lead them or to what extent they may come into conflict with accepted opinion. • To be of use to the legislator or the administrator, they must enjoy their complete confidence in the disinterestedness of their conclusions.

15. What might undermine academic freedom? • Business, money • Pressure – • your supervisor, • Superiors (Chairperson, Dean, senior admin), • peers, • Business (university donors), • politics, • social conformity

16. What might undermine academic freedom? • Jack Kevorkian - UCLA • Textbooks.

17. Compromising effects - Patronage • In some countries, most notably Germany, Austria and Italy, it is almost impossible to receive a position on the basis of merit alone. • Camps – you support my candidate I support yours. • People are not free to express their minds.

18. Compromising effects - Biography writing • Authorized v. Unauthorized biographies of living politicians, judges and other decision-makers. • Compromising effects.

19. Compromising effects – real politics • Conscience v. real politic • Scholars who research contemporary China • Professor Yitzhak Shichor • Professor Ross Terrill • http://almagor.blogspot.com

20. Compromising effects – Business • The story of Edward A. Ross who advocated in 1900 against the importation of cheap Asian labor. • He had so profoundly distressed the Founder and proprietor of Stanford University, Mrs. Leland Stanford, who wrote president David Starr Jordan: • “I must confess I am weary of Professor Ross, and I think he ought not to be retained at Stanford University. . . . I trust that before the close of this semester Professor Ross will have received notice that he will not be re-engaged for the new year.” • Jordan obeyed his instructions. Ross was fired.

21. Commercialization • Some universities feel that they have a responsibility towards the socio-economic region they are located in. • A responsibility which may involve helping to enhance the region’s economic development, not only by education but also in other ways. • Many universities accept funding from industry and engage in commercial activities.

22. Commercialization • Results of academic research which, not so long ago, would have been made available in the public domain for other researchers to build on, are increasingly becoming the subjects of various kinds of intellectual property rights, particularly (but not only) in biomedical, chemical and engineering fields. • The increase in industry funding of academic research lead to the hampering of research, the skewing of research priorities, and the risk of conflicts of interest threatening the integrity of research.

23. Commercialization • Universities are becoming too business-like. • Admittedly, it could be argued that additional income for the universities makes them less dependent on governments, but an unhealthy dependence on industry may be more problematic in terms of potential threats to academic freedom. • Universities like businesses compete with each other, make money and use their patents against other universities.

24. Commercialization and Ethics • Tel Aviv University Buchman School of Law • Could be worse, I imagine: Tel Aviv School of Morality.

25. Plagiarism • Twenty years ago, plagiarism was seen as an isolated misdemeanour, restricted to a small group of mostly students. • Today it is widely recognized as a ubiquitous, systemic issue, compounded by the accessibility of content in the virtual environment. • Companies make money by selling academic papers to those who wish to pay their way. • Papers are tailor-made to one’s needs and abilities.

26. Plagiarism • This might create a two-tier education system: One for those who work and acquire education; • another for those who pay to advance to the next stage in life.

27. Freedom of Extramural Expression • Freedom of extramural expression refers to a professor’s freedom to speak in public in her role as a citizen in ways that are unrelated to professional expertise. • An example might be a professor of chemistry who elects to speak out against the war in Afghanistan. • The issue for analysis is whether and how professors should be immune from sanction for such speech, even if it causes damage to the university that employs them.

28. Freedom of Extramural Expression • It is neither possible nor desirable to deprive a college professor of the political rights vouchsafed to every citizen. • The American Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure of 1940 said:

29. American Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure • “College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an education institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make very effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution”.

30. Holocaust denial • Professor Arthur Butz, Northwestern University, uses university server to put on a blog denying the Holocaust. • In violation of the principles outlined above, shaking off the special obligations: not accurate, without appropriate restraint, confusing between him and his institution. • That’s on purpose: To confer legitimacy on his ideas. • Universities can insulate themselves from such a threat by categorically disclaim any responsibility for the extramural expression of their faculty.

31. Political Boycott • Academics should not discriminate against colleagues on grounds of race, sex, religion, national or ethnic group, or other personal characteristics. • The story of Dr. Miriam Shlesinger.

32. Thank you