SAF: Weaking the Freedom of Information Law · 24 June 2003
Albany Times Union Editorial
Wrong, Mr. Canestrari
And now the post-Sept. 11 world stands clearly upside down. For here we are, parting company with the normally levelheaded Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari, D-Cohoes. Opposing him, that is, and siding instead with our frequent adversary in the New York academic community, Candace de Russy. The reason for such a political sea change is as simple as it is disconcerting. Mr. Canestrari wants to put what is taught in the classrooms of public colleges outside the reach of the state's Freedom of Information Law. He's concerned, apparently, about excessive and meddlesome scrutiny of college instruction and the unhealthy atmosphere that could create.
Public access to reading lists, films shown in various college courses and other teaching materials and resources might indeed have professors thinking twice before exposing students to certain ideas and subject matters. The country does show signs, in the period after the 2001 terrorist attacks, of reduced tolerance for thinking that falls outside the safety of the political mainstream.
The legislation that Mr. Canestrari, chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, is pushing doesn't fix any of that, though. A law declaring that the Freedom of Information Law no longer applies in college classrooms would be farcical, frankly, the equivalent of destroying the spirit of academic freedom in order to save the letter of it.
Ms. de Russy, a State University trustee, sees this for what it truly is. She says, and eloquently so, "The public clearly has a right to know what their tax dollars are used for in the area of education. Academic freedom is not a license to operate in secret."
Mr. Canestrari says he's open to making revisions to his proposal. That's encouraging. He might start, then, by scrapping it altogether. Here's hoping the Legislature rejects Mr. Canestrari's bill if he doesn't, just as the Assembly wisely fought off Governor Pataki's efforts to substantially water down the Freedom of Information Law last year. Even if Mr. Canestrari's bill did pass, though, the state Court of Appeals wouldn't be likely to look upon it favorably. The court ruled 10 years ago that Nassau County Community College on Long Island couldn't stop nonstudents from seeing the film "Sexual Intercourse," which was being shown in a human sexuality course.
The same vigilance, exercised in the interest of an informed public, is just as essential now, as a misguided piece of legislation begins to make its way through the state Legislature.
Right, Ms. de Russy?
First published: Thursday, May 29, 2003
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