Even outsiders like me know academic freedom has limits. So, what’s the worst thing an academic can do? What is the single act that will get him/her in the hottest water? I.e., fast-track a faculty member to Academic hell? Misplaced footnotes? Outright plagiarism? Doctored research? Well, all those are bad, but something is even worse. What really gets a big university over-the-top angry, drives it berserk, and provokes a cosmic-scale blowup is pointing out its athletes can’t read.
(Ed. note: The original CNN link used when this article was posted in 2014 is gone, so I’m sending you here instead.)
The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill scandal is a powerful example of why vaguely-worded assurances of academic freedom aren’t enough. Freedom can’t exist absent effective checks and balances on institutional power, and these checks and balances are needed most when the institution’s reputation and financial interests are threatened by evidence that it has engaged in some form of misconduct. At the same time, there is no higher manifestation of academic freedom than speaking out against institutional abuses of power. Given the prevalence of collegiate athletic scandals, it’s no surprise that academic values are most likely to collide with institutional priorities when athletics (and the money it generates) are involved. That’s when we’ll find out whether an institution’s promises of academic freedom are anything more than useless lip service. How many universities would pass this test? Would ours? Under the Faculty Code as presently written, or proposed revisions? In the end, it’s not wording that really matters, but the actual implemention of due process, so it’s procedural recourse that faculty should focus on when evaluating the terms and conditions of their employment.
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(Ed. note, 8/26/20: After this item was posted in 2014, Steve told me it got more page views than any other posting in the history of this blog. Someone obviously was reading it. [It went viral, as they say; I assume because it rubbed on some sensitivities in certain quarters. It’s probably fortunate those sensitivities were located on the other side of the continent; if anyone in Chapel Hill wanted to hunt me down, they’d have a 4½-hour cross-continent flight ahead of them.] Of course, that isn’t true anymore; in 2015, Steve posted a satire piece that appeared to claim that Michelle was born as “Michael Robinson,” and that one blew the roof off, collecting over 300,000 page views in 5 years. I’m sure he hoped nobody took it seriously, but I’m sure he realizes it’s a virtual certainty a great many people did, the informational sophistication level of this country being what it is, and were using his satire piece to prove their argument in countless blogs and chats. If you think Covid-19 is viral, what about the internet? Anyway, if you’re offended by this piece, all I can say is I didn’t create the negative publicity about U. of North Carolina — Chapel Hill; they did that themselves, and I only helped spread it. Thus, my offense is only procedural; I’m entirely innocent of anything of a substantive nature. In fact, I never create trouble with this blog; I only report and comment on the trouble other people create for themselves.)