Standing Strong for Academic Freedom

In February, I published my 10th annual State of the University letter to the Princeton community. I included this year a section on academic freedom, and its distinction from free speech, which I excerpt here.  — C.L.E.

Princeton and other universities have over the past year faced a variety of threats to research funding, the immigration status of community members, free speech, academic freedom, diversity and inclusion programs, and our endowments.  

Addressing these issues has been a major priority for the University and for me personally. I stepped up my work with the Association of American Universities, met more often with Washington policymakers, and sought out opportunities to communicate publicly about the principles that define this University and other great research institutions. We are in a crisis, and universities have an obligation to speak up.

While all of the issues that I have mentioned are important, universities and their leaders have a special responsibility to defend and explain academic freedom, which is crucial to the excellence of research and teaching. The principle is sometimes conflated with free speech, but academic freedom is distinct from free speech and even more directly connected to the core mission of universities.

What is academic freedom? 

Academic freedom enables researchers and teachers to pursue truth and advance knowledge in their fields and disciplines. It protects scholarship and teaching from interference by government officials, university administrators, donors, and anyone else who might want to substitute their will, preferences, opinions, or judgments in the place of academic standards.

People sometimes misunderstand academic freedom as allowing professors to say or do whatever they like. That is a mistake. Academic freedom does not insulate scholars from evaluation or accountability. On the contrary, it depends upon and presupposes a rigorous system for evaluating the quality of research.

American universities have become world leaders in no small part because they have insisted on academic freedom and because our governments have, for the most part, respected it. 

Scholars’ work is and must be judged all the time: when they submit articles for publication, when they seek appointment or promotion, and when they apply for funding from the government or other sponsors.

The point of academic freedom is not that scholars should be free to say what they like; it is instead that scholarly work should be evaluated through the good-faith application of academic norms and standards, not on the basis of what somebody in power—at the university or outside it—would like to hear.

Academic freedom is not the same as free speech

The connection to academic standards, and to scholarly responsibility, explains why academic freedom is simultaneously distinct from free speech and more fundamental to what universities do.

Free speech rights permit everyone to express opinions, regardless of how those opinions were derived or how qualified the speaker is to pronounce them. They govern controversies like the ones about outside speakers and campus protests at colleges across the nation that have attracted so much attention in recent years.

Academic freedom, by contrast, recognizes the right and the responsibility of scholars to investigate questions and express judgments about matters within the scope of their learning and fields of research.

Free speech and academic freedom are complementary principles; both are essential to the life of a great university. It is academic freedom, however, that ultimately guarantees faculty members here and elsewhere the freedom to seek knowledge even when doing so may anger officials, disrupt industries, upset orthodoxies, or inflame controversies.

Research universities depend upon the capacity to pursue uncomfortable truths and publish controversial ideas. American universities have become world leaders in no small part because they have insisted on academic freedom and because our governments have, for the most part, respected it. If universities cede that right, they compromise not only their own missions but also the vital contributions they make to our country’s health, culture, prosperity, and security.

I have accordingly been heartened by the strong support that Princeton faculty, students, staff, and alumni have given to academic freedom and higher education as part of our Stand Up for Princeton and Higher Education initiative. 

Your voices make a difference.