September 2010
Canada — a country with a tradition of academic freedom and strong faculty
unions — is having a major debate over what academic freedom is and who should
define it.
Christian Higher Education Canada
has announced that it is
organizing meetings to bring together faculty members and
administrators from a range of institutions to discuss and, maybe, define
academic freedom. The group’s announcement comes as the Canadian Association of
University Teachers, the largest faculty association in the country and a union
as well, has moved to investigate colleges that require statements of faith —
pledges of shared belief, frequently accompanied by a code of conduct — as a
condition of employment.
The
Association has announced that it will create a list of institutions that
require the statements, and that the association doesn’t consider them worthy of
the name "university." And, prompted in part by the debate, the association that
represents all of Canada’s colleges — the Association of Universities and
Colleges in Canada — is now revising its statement of academic freedom.
To
faculty leaders, the move by CAUT (the national faculty association) is simply a
matter of standing by principles. "We don’t believe that a person’s ideology or
faith should be a condition of hiring or of continuing appointment — whether it
is Marxism or fundamentalist Protestantism," said James Turk, executive director
of the association. "Nothing that calls itself a university should have a faith
test. That’s just not acceptable."
Turk added, however, that he’s surprised that Christian colleges are offended,
given that those with statements of faith don’t hide them. "We are advertising
only what they proudly proclaim," he said.
Al
Hiebert, executive director of Christian Higher Education Canada (which
represents 33 colleges and universities of various Protestant denominations, all
with statements of faith), said that the faculty group’s actions made his
members realize that there was a problem in the way academic freedom is being
defined. "Our concern is that it is irresponsible for any one organization to
define academic freedom for all of Canada," he said. "And it is irresponsible
for any one organization to define the meaning of a university for all of
Canada."
Statements of faith are common at Christian colleges and universities, although
the actual statements vary widely in their specificity. In the United States,
the American Association of University Professors has policies that would
normally bar colleges from judging job applicants or employees based on their
beliefs, but the association exempts religious colleges in some respects and
does not consider a statement of faith as grounds for censure, nor does it
investigate colleges simply because they have such a statement. The association
does expect the statements to be publicly available so that a job candidate or
faculty member would not apply or be hired — only to subsequently find out
about belief expectations.
Turk, of the Canadian faculty group, said that his association believes that the
same nondiscriminatory standard should apply to all beliefs. Of statements of
faith, he said that "these are requirements we would never tolerate in any other
way." He also argues that it is possible for colleges to maintain religious
identity without statements of faith, offering as examples Canada’s Roman
Catholic colleges and universities. Like their American counterparts, they do
not require statements of faith and regularly hire (and educate) people who do
not share their beliefs. (Turk said he is not bothered by Catholic or other
religious colleges hiring only clergy or only members of their faith as
president, but sees faculty jobs as being in a different category.)
To
date, CAUT has placed one institution — Trinity Western University — on its
list of institutions with inappropriate statements of faith. The association has
finished investigations (but not yet published the results) on two others —
Canadian Mennonite University and Crandall University. And CAUT is about to
start an inquiry into Redeemer University. Because these institutions all have
statements of faith the CAUT is expected eventually to have all, the Christian
colleges on its list of unacceptable institutions. Trinity Western responded to
the association’s report on its policies with its own report criticizing the
faculty group.
Hiebert, of the Christian colleges, said that the idea that one after
another of the institutions would be investigated and criticized was part of the
motivation for calling for new definitions of academic freedom. He said that his
association and its members back the definition of academic freedom that has
been the policy of the Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada (which
includes Christian colleges among its members). He noted that the association’s
policy talks of both academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
"It
is essential that universities have the freedom to set their research and
educational priorities," says the association’s statement. "How the members of
universities will teach and impart skills, conduct research and the pursuit of
knowledge, and engage in fundamental criticism, is best determined within the
universities themselves. It is here that academic freedom, in its collective
form of institutional autonomy, can ensure freedom of inquiry for individual
faculty members and students. Historically there has been a struggle for
university autonomy, arising from the conviction that a university can best
serve the needs of society when it is free to do so according to the dictates of
the intellectual enterprise itself."
Hiebert said that the reference to universities defining academic freedom
themselves affirmed the Christian colleges’ views that they could require belief
in a set of theological views while still upholding values of academic freedom.
Christine Tausig Ford, secretary of the Association of Universities and Colleges
in Canada, said that group is now revising its statement — but that the basic
concepts would not change. She said that the CAUT’s criticism of statements of
faith has been much discussed among her member presidents.
She
said her association hasn’t yet taken a stand on the call by the Christian
colleges for new national meetings to define academic freedom. The Christian
association plans to invite the faculty group, and Turk said his association
would most likely accept the invitation.
Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2010.
Help us maintain freedom in teaching, research and scholarship by joining SAFS or making a donation.
