Responding to Academic Freedom |
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| Authors: | Bernice Schrank |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of English Memorial, University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, A1C 5S7 |
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| Abstract: | W. Richard Bond's “Zero Tolerance: A New Enemy of Academic Freedom?,” Michael Kubara's “Academic Freedom,” and Fred Wilson's “In Defence of Speech Codes” included in the Symposium published in Interchange, Volume 27, #2, 1996, deal with the role and importance of academic freedom in Canadian universities and the pressures both within and without the academy for its attenuation. Although the Bond paper begins with the recent controversy in Ontario universities over the attempted introduction of a policy of zero tolerance of harassment and discrimination, it quickly moves to a summary of the traditional position regarding academic freedom in which that right is balanced by a corresponding responsibility. As insistent as Bond on the importance of academic freedom, Kubara and Wilson both approach the topic in a more argumentative fashion. Kubara and Wilson differ, however, in the kinds of arguments they propound. Kubara defends the traditional liberal conception of the university and attacks what he regards as the trendy feminist attack on academic freedom. Wilson recognizes that along with the rights bestowed by the acceptance of the principle of academic freedom is an obligation to engage in rational debate. The mechanism in Wilson's view for ensuring such debate is a well-crafted speech code in which professionally unacceptable speech acts are unambiguously defined. The fundamental difference between these two positions is that, whereas Kubara advocates an academic discourse that is as unfettered as is permissible within the law, Wilson proposes stricter limitations. I will discuss the Bond, Kubara, and Wilson papers in turn, commenting briefly on their positions. I will then present my own position on academic freedom and speech codes. |
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| Keywords: | Academic freedom freedom of speech freedom of association freedom of thought democracy academic discourse academic speech codes political correctness censorship tolerance |
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