Letters from the National Campus Director

Academic Freedom Victory in Ohio · 20 September 2005

The resolution, which will be adopted at the IUC's next meeting in October, will make official these institutions' commitment to intellectual diversity and non-partisan education.

Among the crucial principles that the resolution will affirm are:

• Intellectual pluralism and academic freedom are central principles of American higher education.

• Students should not be discriminated against politically.

• Universities should create grievance procedures for students facing discrimination for their political views.

The IUC also promised to create and present a report on campus-specific procedures for ensuring that intellectual diversity is respected as these procedures are adopted. It plans to notify students about these changes in a variety of ways, including though orientation programs, mailings, student handbooks, course catalogs, and university websites and email communications.

David Horowitz, the author of the Academic Bill of Rights and chairman of Students for Academic Freedom, praised the agreement as "an important advance in the battle for academic freedom which will benefit all students in Ohio's system of higher education."

The primary sponsor of Senate Bill 24, Sen. Larry Mumper, hailed the agreement as a victory for Ohio's students . "This action is a bold decision on the part of the IUC and I believe it will positively impact students who attend Ohio's colleges and universities," Mumper said.

The lone sour note in this victory was the inaccurate and biased coverage from the Ohio media.

As David Horowitz reveals in an article on the Ohio agreement, "In reporting this impressive victory for the academic freedom campaign, the Ohio press predictably distorted its significance and misrepresented the facts. The Cincinnati Enquirer typically (and preposterously) headlined its story "Colleges Deflect 'Bill of Rights.'" Thus instead of informing readers that after a year of efforts on the part of the academic freedom campaign and resistance on the part of Ohio educators, Ohio colleges and universities had now agreed to embrace core principles of the Academic Bill or Rights, the Enquirer headline insinuated that the agreement was a measure to neutralize a threat posed by the Bill…. The headline in the Akron Beacon Journal - 'Free Speech Resolution In Works For Ohio Colleges' was less objectionable if totally inaccurate (free speech is already guaranteed by the First Amendment)."

You can read the full version Horowitz's article entitled "Victory in Ohio: The Universities Concede" here .

While the agreement is a positive outcome for all parties concerned about academic freedom in Ohio, no one resolution is a magic cure for the violations of academic freedom that are occurring. It is important that students in this state continue to be watchful for any abuses of this policy. Once the resolution is adopted in October, students in both Ohio's public and private universities will have an official basis for filing grievances with university administrators if their rights are violated. It will be important to put this new policy to the test to ensure that the Ohio education establishment's commitment to academic freedom is sound.

Yours in Freedom,

Sara Dogan
National Campus Director
Students for Academic Freedom

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