September Update from the AFA
Wins on Institutional Neutrality
In February of this year, we began a partnership with FIRE and the Heterodox Academy to call for more universities to adopt policies of institutional neutrality on social and political issues. We renewed the push ahead of the current academic year and have been pleased with the number of institutions that have since updated their policies.
As of this month, at least twelve colleges and universities have pledged to refrain from making statements on political and social issues: Harvard, Syracuse, Stanford, Purdue, Johns Hopkins, Clark, Emerson, The University of Southern California, The University of Texas System, The University of Colorado Boulder, The University of Pennsylvania, and Washington State University.
Suspension of Amy Wax
We issued a statement last week regarding the University of Pennsylvania’s decision to suspend Professor Amy Wax over controversial statements inside and outside the classroom. The AFA has been active in advocating for Wax throughout her disciplinary proceedings, including sending letters to Penn in January 2022, July 2022, and May 2024.
As we wrote last week, “For Penn to punish Prof. Wax for inviting a controversial speaker to her ‘Conservative and Political Legal Thought’ class and for expressing her personal political views on matters of academic and public dispute is a manifest betrayal of its own commitment to its faculty that ‘when speaking or writing as an individual, the teacher should be free from institutional censorship or discipline.’ It is decidedly not ‘quieting Penn’s institutional voice’ so that ‘the expertise of our faculty will be amplified’ when it employs punitive sanctions on Prof. Wax. It chills professorial speech and diminishes the diversity of opinions essential to public discussion of social and political issues.
“We believe that Penn and all institutions of higher learning must refrain from selective protection of academic freedom. To punish faculty speech based on an unpopular viewpoint will continue to erode the public’s trust in institutions of higher education.”
Case Update
The AFA remains active in several ongoing cases, both public and private. This month, two of our confidential cases were resolved favorably. The AFA provided legal assistance to two professors who were under investigation for academic freedom related matters, one at a private school in the south, the other at a public university in the northeast. Both received letters of exoneration within the past week.
Continued Growth
We added 12 new members in September, bringing us to a total of 890. We continue to accept new members on a rolling basis. Please send any nominations to AFA Director of Operations Howard Muncy at hmuncy@academicfreedom.org.
As we continue to expand our membership and casework, we’re grateful to everyone who has donated to our organization and hope our members and friends will consider contributing here. We could not do our work without your generous support.