Colleges maintain freedom

After a year of state-wide hearings, 37 formal testimonies, 40 public comments and a… After a year of state-wide hearings, 37 formal testimonies, 40 public comments and a unanimous vote by the Pennsylvania House Select Committee, Pennsylvania public schools have been found to adequately uphold standards of academic freedom for students and faculty alike.

The House Select Committee assembled to investigate “state colleges and universities to ensure that there’s an environment conducive to the pursuit of knowledge and truth and the expression of independent thought,'” Free Exchange on Campus, a group advocating academic freedom, said on its Web site.

The ruling means the state’s schools will not have to adhere to a uniform policy for safeguarding rights that would be outlined by the state legislature.

Although it elected not to pass any formal legislation, the committee put forth a list of recommendations about how schools’ individual policies for protecting academic freedom should be amended.

In response to the recommendations, Pitt’s Dean of Arts and Sciences, N. John Cooper, said, “We do have what are very appropriate policies and guidelines in place.”

“The first step is that we will review the recommendations and see if we already meet their standards within our current policies,” Cooper said.

Under the current academic freedom policies at Pitt, students are encouraged to first discuss their complaint with the faculty member involved.

“The idea is that we try to get people to talk to each other to resolve conflicts rapidly,” Cooper said.

If discussion does not yield a satisfactory resolution, the student may submit a written account of the violation, and, if need be, participate in a hearing.

“The procedure is pretty clear-cut; you’ve got to write a letter to a chair or a dean. It’s not complicated,” Cooper said.

English literature professor Philip Wion agrees.

“Pitt has guidelines in place. There’s a whole elaborate mechanism for dealing with [alleged violations],” Wion said.

Still, Wion feels that the hearings were not a waste of time.

“It would have been nice not to have to devote the time and energy, but some good can come out of this by raising awareness among students and faculty about what academic freedom means,” he said.

Much of the concern about academic freedom infringements centered on the predominantly liberal environments thought to characterize most college campuses, and whether or not such environments impeded conservatives from voicing their views.

Of the 10 people who testified in the committee hearings concerning problems with the state’s protection of academic freedom, only one was a student while the other nine were either members of conservative groups who advocate the issue nationally, or Pennsylvania faculty members, Free Exchange on Campus reported on its Web site.

Some conservative Pitt students agree with the committee’s ruling, finding the measures Pitt already employs to ensure academic freedom effective.

“I’ve never felt uncomfortable talking about politics in a class setting,” student Whitney Bradford said.

“I think I’d be more likely to have a discussion with a professor who had different views than with a group of students with different views. When talking to a professor, there’s a level of confidence that they can respect that I have different beliefs. With students, you never really have that guarantee,” she said.

Wion feels Bradford’s “level of confidence” is no accident. He and other professors consciously try to maintain a level of comfort in the classroom while also exploring different opinions.

“You want the classroom to be a place where people have the freedom to share their views,” Wion said.

“It’s tricky to maintain a comfortable classroom environment because some of the material you need to discuss is not comfortable. It would be wrong, a violation of our responsibility, to make everything so bland that nothing’s uncomfortable.”

Cooper shares Wion’s opinion.

“Faculty should be able to offer a professional opinion and that is different than making a political statement,” Cooper said.

“A professional opinion is an academic analysis based on evidence, not a statement of belief.”

Pitt professors maintain this professional opinion even in courses that rely on political discussion, such as political science.

“As a political science major, I can tell you that political science professors are sometimes the hardest to read,” Bradford said.

“Most of my professors, no matter what subject, tend to be great at playing devil’s advocate in class discussions. They can supply information from both ends of the spectrum to advance a discussion without inserting their own beliefs,” Bradford said.