An aerial view of the Purdue University campus. Scholars from Purdue and Indiana Universities have challenged the new Indiana law in court. Photo Credit: Purdue University
In a development concerning the near future of academic freedom and the state of higher education in the United States, the state of Indiana is attempting to curb faculty speech in its public universities.
A law was passed in Indiana in February 2024 that aimed to weaken tenure protections by allowing university boards to consider whether professors have contributed to “intellectual diversity” in promotion and tenure decisions. The same criterion will also be included in post-tenure reviews, which will happen every five years. The law leaves the definition of “intellectual diversity” to university boards themselves, which further weakens the already tenuous links of accountability between boards, faculty and students.[1] Introducing a criterion that cannot be easily measured will give board members, who are mostly appointed by the governor of the state, the potential ability to shape the composition of departments in their universities according to their political preferences.
Some faculty members have challenged the new legislation in court, arguing that the new law infringes upon the first amendment rights of faculty members. In response, Indiana’s attorney general argued that public university professors do not have first amendment rights when speech in classrooms is concerned, because it constitutes “state speech”.[2] The case in Indiana follows a similar process in Florida. Earlier, in June 2024, a lawyer representing the state of Florida also argued, in defense of the STOP Woke Act, that states can prevent public university professors from “endorsing viewpoints that are contrary to the state’s”. The lawyer further argued that this could be extended to preventing a professor from criticizing the governor of Florida.[3] The state of Florida had already started placing restrictions on classroom content when it removed sociology as a core class option from its public universities.[4] As protests, especially around the Israel/Palestine conflict, are expected to continue into the Fall 2024 semester, these developments have the potential to turn into a bigger trend that could threaten academic freedom in the United States on a national level.
In expectation of protests, many schools have been revising their protest policies in order to curb campus activism. Some schools have now banned encampments or setting up similar makeshift structures.[5] Others have introduced time and location restrictions for protests.[6] In a recent decision, it was announced that University of California institutions will even ban students from wearing masks to conceal their identities.[7] While these measures will reduce the “disruptiveness” of protests, they are also a blow to academic freedom since protests are useful only to the extent that they can peacefully disrupt the ordinary flow of daily life.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released a statement on August 14, drawing attention to the threat posed to academic freedom by these new measures. The AAUP emphasized the fact that putting restrictions on campus protests endangers free speech that is essential to university life and threatens the academic freedom of student groups. They also noted that universities are have infringed upon the rights of faculty members because many of the policy revisions have happened with little faculty input.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) is deeply concerned about the increasing restrictions placed upon faculty and student speech in United States higher education institutions. We call upon state governments and university administrations to reverse their recent decisions regulating campus life and replace them with other measures that will foster an environment of free debate and inquiry.
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