| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Bozo Krusty" |
| Date: |
13 Jan 2004 07:08:33 AM |
| Object: |
Academic Bill of Rights That Liberals Fail To Understand. |
Academic Bill of Rights That Liberals Fail To Understand.
http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org
I. The Mission of the University.
The central purposes of a University are the pursuit of truth, the
discovery of new knowledge through scholarship and research, the study
and reasoned criticism of intellectual and cultural traditions, the
teaching and general development of students to help them become
creative individuals and productive citizens of a pluralistic
democracy, and the transmission of knowledge and learning to a society
at large. Free inquiry and free speech within the academic community
are indispensable to the achievement of these goals. The freedom to
teach and to learn depend upon the creation of appropriate conditions
and opportunities on the campus as a whole as well as in the
classrooms and lecture halls. These purposes reflect the values --
pluralism, diversity, opportunity, critical intelligence, openness and
fairness -- that are the cornerstones of American society.
II. Academic Freedom
1. The Concept . Academic freedom and intellectual diversity are
values indispensable to the American university. From its first
formulation in the General Report of the Committee on Academic Freedom
and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors, the
concept of academic freedom has been premised on the idea that human
knowledge is a never-ending pursuit of the truth, that there is no
humanly accessible truth that is not in principle open to challenge,
and that no party or intellectual faction has a monopoly on wisdom.
Therefore, academic freedom is most likely to thrive in an environment
of intellectual diversity that protects and fosters independence of
thought and speech. In the words of the General Report, it is vital to
protect "as the first condition of progress, [a] complete and
unlimited freedom to pursue inquiry and publish its results."
Because free inquiry and its fruits are crucial to the democratic
enterprise itself, academic freedom is a national value as well. In a
historic 1967 decision ( Keyishian v. Board of Regents of the
University of the State of New York ) the Supreme Court of the United
States overturned a New York State loyalty provision for teachers with
these words: "Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic
freedom, [a] transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the
teachers concerned." In Sweezy v. New Hampshire, (1957) the Court
observed that the "essentiality of freedom in the community of
American universities [was] almost self-evident."
2. The Practice . Academic freedom consists in protecting the
intellectual independence of professors, researchers and students in
the pursuit of knowledge and the expression of ideas from interference
by legislators or authorities within the institution itself. This
means that no political, ideological or religious orthodoxy will be
imposed on professors and researchers through the hiring or tenure or
termination process, or through any other administrative means by the
academic institution. Nor shall legislatures impose any such orthodoxy
through their control of the university budget.
This protection includes students. From the first statement on
academic freedom, it has been recognized that intellectual
independence means the protection of students - as well as faculty -
from the imposition of any
orthodoxy of a political, religious or ideological nature. The 1915
General Report admonished faculty to avoid "taking unfair advantage of
the student's immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teacher's own
opinions before the student has had an opportunity fairly to examine
other opinions upon the matters in question, and before he has
sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment to be entitled to form
any definitive opinion of his own." In 1967, the AAUP's Joint
Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students reinforced and amplified
this injunction by affirming the inseparability of "the freedom to
teach and freedom to learn." In the words of the report, "Students
should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered
in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of
opinion."
Therefore, to secure the intellectual independence of faculty and
students and to protect the principle of intellectual diversity, the
following principles and procedures shall be observed.
These principles fully apply only to public universities and to
private universities that present themselves as bound by the canons of
academic freedom. Private institutions choosing to restrict academic
freedom on the
basis of creed have an obligation to be as explicit as is possible
about the scope and nature of these restrictions.
• All faculty shall be hired, fired, promoted and granted tenure on
the basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge in the field
of their expertise and, in the humanities, the social sciences, and
the arts, with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies
and perspectives. No faculty shall be hired or fired or denied
promotion or tenure on the basis of his or her political or religious
beliefs.
• No faculty member will be excluded from tenure, search and hiring
committees on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.
• Students will be graded solely on the basis of their reasoned
answers and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they
study, not on the basis of their political or religious beliefs.
• Curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences
should reflect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human
knowledge in these areas by providing students with dissenting sources
and viewpoints where appropriate. While teachers are and should be
free to pursue their own findings and perspectives in presenting their
views, they should consider and make their students aware of other
viewpoints. Academic disciplines should welcome a diversity of
approaches to unsettled questions.
• Exposing students to the spectrum of significant scholarly
viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major
responsibility of faculty. Faculty will not use their courses for the
purpose of political,
ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination.
• Selection of speakers, allocation of funds for speakers programs
and other student activities will observe the principles of academic
freedom and promote intellectual pluralism.
• An environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas being an
essential component of a free university, the obstruction of invited
campus speakers, destruction of campus literature or other effort to
obstruct this
exchange will not be tolerated.
• Knowledge advances when individual scholars are left free to reach
their own conclusions about which methods, facts, and theories have
been validated by research. Academic institutions and professional
societies formed to advance knowledge within an area of research,
maintain the integrity of the research process, and organize the
professional lives of related researchers serve as indispensable
venues within which scholars circulate research findings and debate
their interpretation. To perform these functions adequately, academic
institutions and professional societies should maintain a posture of
organizational neutrality with respect to the substantive
disagreements that divide researchers on questions within, or outside,
their fields of inquiry.
--
Left-wing Liberals are EVERYTHING they accuse the right of being. They
are mean, vicious, hateful, cold-hearted, intolerant, bigoted and
racist.
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| User: "JTEM" |
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| Title: Re: Academic Bill of Rights That Liberals Fail To Understand. |
13 Jan 2004 01:05:07 PM |
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"Bozo Krusty" <bozo_and_krusty2@yahoo.com> wrote
[---snip---]
<Quote>
Our course of action is as follows:
First, to identify which enduser was responsible for the "spam".
Second, disable the account immediately.
If the user has a wholesale account, we contact the ISP directly.
The ISP has 24 hours to respond to us that the user has been
removed and to return to us signed correspondence stating that
they have taken appropriate action against the offending user.
Please report the offense to the following addresses:
Abuse@popsite.net
Postmaster@popsite.net
</Quote>
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| User: "Moose, Anon E." |
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| Title: Re: Academic Bill of Rights That Liberals Fail To Understand. |
13 Jan 2004 03:04:39 PM |
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Bozo Krusty wrote:
Left-wing Liberals are EVERYTHING they accuse the right of being. They
are mean, vicious, hateful, cold-hearted, intolerant, bigoted and
racist.
Sounds to me like the extreme left and the right are correct about each
other. Now, can you tell us WTF this has to do with atheism?
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