The Loyolan reports today on deeply troubling news that our administration is following a national trend—condemned by the AAUP—of attacking student and faculty rights of expression and academic freedom under the guise of “time, place, and manner” restrictions.
AAUP National has been clear on what these policies are: “[T]hese policies severely undermine the academic freedom and freedom of speech and expression that are fundamental to higher education. Free inquiry and free expression are indispensable for the transmission of knowledge, the development of students, and the well-being of democracy. Our colleges and universities should encourage, not suppress, open and vigorous dialogue and debate even on the most deeply held beliefs.”
Please contact your faculty senate representatives and your department chair immediately to express concern about these attacks. And more importantly, we need to show the administration that they are clearly out of line in demanding such a policy and pressing for it. (All this, while administrators continue to reward themselves without accountability from the faculty.)
The AAUP is again clear on the danger we face: “Administrators who claim that ‘expressive activity’ policies protect academic freedom and student learning, even as they severely restrict its exercise, risk destroying the very freedoms of speech and expression they claim to protect.”
The LMU administration is attempting to put a “faculty” face on these policies, and thankfully, our faculty senate has so far refused to play along. But more organized faculty resistance is needed!