Students For Academic Freedom

Washington State House Bill 3185: Creating an Academic Bill of Rights · 07 April 2004

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State of Washington 58th Legislature 2004 Regular Session

By Representatives Boldt and McMahan

Read first time 02/05/2004. Referred to Committee on Higher Education.

AN ACT Relating to creating an academic bill of rights; adding a new
section to chapter 28B.10 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

{+ NEW SECTION. +} Sec. 1. The legislature finds that:

(1) The central purposes of a university are the pursuit of truth, the
discovery of new knowledge through scholarship and research, the study and
reasoned criticism of intellectual and cultural traditions, the teaching and
general development of students to help them become creative individuals and
productive citizens of a pluralistic democracy, and the transmission of
knowledge and learning to a society at large. Free inquiry and free speech
within the academic community are indispensable to the achievement of these
goals. The freedom to teach and to learn depend upon the creation of
appropriate conditions and opportunities on the campus as a whole as well as in
classrooms and lecture halls. These purposes reflect the values, pluralism,
diversity, opportunity, critical intelligence, openness, and fairness, that are
the cornerstones of American society.

(2) Academic freedom and intellectual diversity are values indispensable
to American universities. From its first formulation in the "General Report of
the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of
University Professors," the concept of academic freedom has been premised on the
idea that human knowledge is a never-ending pursuit of the truth, that there is
no humanly accessible truth that is not in principle open to challenge, and that
no party or intellectual faction has a monopoly on wisdom. Therefore, academic
freedom is most likely to thrive in an environment of intellectual diversity
that protects and fosters independence of thought and speech. In the words of
the general report, it is vital to protect "as the first condition of progress,
[a] complete and unlimited freedom to pursue inquiry and publish its results."

(3) Because free inquiry and its fruits are crucial to the democratic
enterprise itself, academic freedom is a national value as well. In a historic
1967 decision, Keyishian v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of
New York, the supreme court of the United States overturned a New York state
loyalty provision for teachers with these words: "Our Nation is deeply
committed to safeguarding academic freedom, [a] transcendent value to all of us
and not merely to the teachers concerned." In Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 1957,
the court observed that the "essentiality of freedom in the community of
American universities [was] almost self-evident."

(4) Academic freedom consists in protecting the intellectual independence
of professors, researchers, and students in the pursuit of knowledge and the
expression of ideas from interference by legislators or authorities within the
institution itself. This means that no political, ideological, or religious
orthodoxy will be imposed on professors and researchers through the hiring,
tenure, or termination process, or through any other administrative means by the
academic institution. Nor shall legislatures impose any such orthodoxy through
their control of the university budget.

(5) This protection includes students. From the first statement on
academic freedom, it has been recognized that intellectual independence means
the protection of students, as well as faculty, from the imposition of any
orthodoxy of a political, religious, or ideological nature. The 1915 general
report admonished faculty to avoid "taking unfair advantage of the student's
immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teacher's own opinions before the
student has had an opportunity fairly to examine other opinions upon the matters
in question, and before he has sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment to
be entitled to form any definitive opinion of his own." In 1967, the American
association of university professors' "Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms
of Students" reinforced and amplified this injunction by affirming the
inseparability of "the freedom to teach and freedom to learn." In the words of
the report, "Students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or
views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of
opinion."

{+ NEW SECTION. +} Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 28B.10 RCW
to read as follows:

To secure the intellectual independence of faculty and students and to
protect the principle of intellectual diversity, the following principles and
procedures shall be observed. These principles apply only to public
universities and to private universities that present themselves as bound by the
canons of academic freedom. Private institutions choosing to restrict academic
freedom on the basis of creed must explicitly disclose the scope and nature of
these restrictions.

(1) All faculty shall be hired, fired, promoted, and granted tenure on the
basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge in the field of their
expertise and, in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, with a view
toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives. No faculty may
be hired, fired, or denied promotion or tenure on the basis of his or her
political or religious beliefs.

(2) No faculty member may be excluded from tenure, search, and hiring
committees on the basis of the member's political or religious beliefs.

(3) Students will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned answers
and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they study, not on the
basis of their political or religious beliefs.

(4) Curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences
should reflect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge
in these areas by providing students with dissenting sources and viewpoints
where appropriate. While teachers are and should be free to pursue their own
findings and perspectives in presenting their views, they should consider and
make their students aware of other viewpoints. Academic disciplines should
welcome a diversity of approaches to unsettled questions.

(5) Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly viewpoints
on the subjects examined in their courses is a major responsibility of faculty.
Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological,
religious, or antireligious indoctrination.

(6) Selection of speakers, allocation of funds for speakers' programs, and
other student activities will observe the principles of academic freedom and
promote intellectual pluralism.

(7) An environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas is an essential
component of a free university; the obstruction of invited campus speakers,
destruction of campus literature, or other effort to obstruct this exchange is
prohibited.

(8) Knowledge advances when individual scholars are left free to reach
their own conclusions about which methods, facts, and theories have been
validated by research. Academic institutions and professional societies formed
to advance knowledge within an area of research, maintain the integrity of the
research process, and organize the professional lives of related researchers
serve as indispensable venues within which scholars circulate research findings
and debate their interpretation. To perform these functions adequately,
academic institutions and professional societies should maintain a posture of
organizational neutrality with respect to the substantive disagreements that
divide researchers on questions within, or outside, their fields of inquiry.

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