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OP-ED: Academic freedom is at risk
by David Litvak
Op-Ed | 10/2/07
Posted online at 9:50 PM EST on 10/1/07
/ Last updated at 8:03 PM EST on 10/1/07
Academics like Erwin Chemerinsky deserve better.
The internationally renowned professor of law at Duke University was hired as the inaugural dean of the University of California, Irvine's new Donald Bren School of Law Sept. 4, only to be fired from the position a week later. Irvine chancellor Michael Drake justified his decision on the grounds that the appointment was "too politically controversial."
Chemerinsky is a liberal, and while Drake insists that Chemerinsky's firing was a "management decision," additional evidence suggests that prominent conservatives lobbied heavily for his dismissal. Particularly noteworthy were e-mails sent by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich to about two dozen Republicans urging them to work to prevent the appointment and brazenly declaring that appointing Chemerinsky as dean "would be like appointing al-Qaeda in charge of homeland security."
After firing Chemerinsky, Drake, in the face of significant disapproval from voices across the political spectrum, ultimately reoffered Chemerinsky the position, and Chemerinsky is now on board. But Drake's blunder is an unfortunate symptom of a wider, more dangerous problem facing American educational institutions-an assault on the foundations of academic freedom and open discourse.
There is no singular culprit here. Both liberals and conservatives are fighting for the ideological souls of America's college students. But when an attempt is made to silence someone on the basis of "political controversy," it reveals that the intellectual warfare going on behind the scenes is a gross violation of the principles of academic freedom that we should value in our institutions of higher learning.
Academic freedom requires that academics be permitted to express themselves regardless of their political beliefs. Politics should not influence the hiring of a dean or other official any more than that official should use his position to impose his beliefs upon others. So long as the individual can work in or-in Chemerinsky's case-create an environment open to differing opinions, then his political or ideological histories should be effectively unimportant. As Chemerinsky himself asserted, "Everyone benefits from the free exchange of ideas."
The internationally renowned professor of law at Duke University was hired as the inaugural dean of the University of California, Irvine's new Donald Bren School of Law Sept. 4, only to be fired from the position a week later. Irvine chancellor Michael Drake justified his decision on the grounds that the appointment was "too politically controversial."
Chemerinsky is a liberal, and while Drake insists that Chemerinsky's firing was a "management decision," additional evidence suggests that prominent conservatives lobbied heavily for his dismissal. Particularly noteworthy were e-mails sent by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich to about two dozen Republicans urging them to work to prevent the appointment and brazenly declaring that appointing Chemerinsky as dean "would be like appointing al-Qaeda in charge of homeland security."
After firing Chemerinsky, Drake, in the face of significant disapproval from voices across the political spectrum, ultimately reoffered Chemerinsky the position, and Chemerinsky is now on board. But Drake's blunder is an unfortunate symptom of a wider, more dangerous problem facing American educational institutions-an assault on the foundations of academic freedom and open discourse.
There is no singular culprit here. Both liberals and conservatives are fighting for the ideological souls of America's college students. But when an attempt is made to silence someone on the basis of "political controversy," it reveals that the intellectual warfare going on behind the scenes is a gross violation of the principles of academic freedom that we should value in our institutions of higher learning.
Academic freedom requires that academics be permitted to express themselves regardless of their political beliefs. Politics should not influence the hiring of a dean or other official any more than that official should use his position to impose his beliefs upon others. So long as the individual can work in or-in Chemerinsky's case-create an environment open to differing opinions, then his political or ideological histories should be effectively unimportant. As Chemerinsky himself asserted, "Everyone benefits from the free exchange of ideas."
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