Re: academic freedom

Molly Freeman (mollyfreeman who-is-at telis.org)
Thu, 05 Aug 1999 11:15:59 -0700

I think Jay's remarks are useful context for understanding the Daly case In my
view the Daly case underscores the limitations of what we have come to think of
as "academic freedom" and genuine open inquiry. In contemporary US academe the
former is by no means synonymous with the latter. In Jay's "historic" meanings
the two males who wanted to take Daly's class would have had no grounds for
complaint that they could not.

Molly Freeman

Quote from Jay Lemke (this list, August 3)
We sometimes forget the historical context of our notion of
academic freedom. There were two traditional academic freedoms in the
German universities from which our notions of these matters ultimately
derive: Lernfreiheit and Lehrfreiheit. The first was the right of students
to take the courses they pleased, to avoid professors they disliked or did
not respect. The second was the right of the teaching faculty to teach
anything they chose and do so in any manner they chose, no matter how
bizarre. The two freedoms were in balance. Some lecturers had virtually no
students; some students attended virtually no lectures. Degrees were granted
on the basis of examinations and dissertations, usually by a committee of
the faculty. No one cared where or how a student learned the subject.
Faculty were mostly paid on the basis of the number of students who
attended their lectures, and a few had more substantial stipends as research
fellows, one per subject a full-time paying professorship.

We have largely destroyed the student side of academic freedom in
order to more effectively control their education in our interests, rather
than theirs. As a result we find that when a teacher acts in an
unpopular way, students may still be forced to endure the consequences, and so a

conflict arises between students' rights and 'academic freedom'.

"Vincent W. Hevern" wrote:

> I think Mike's point is well taken about care in our postings about
> this issue and how we discuss it. My right of center submission ;-)
> deliberately avoided any ad feminam and presented, I hoped, more
> generic, if pointed, comments about policies and practices of
> teaching. And, I've really enjoyed the vividness of this exchange; it
> is helping me think about lots of issues.
>
> >This is a peculair eclipsing, that Mary Daly and Dorothy Smith ( another
> >CRONE of an unwanted scholar ) must recognize, that many of us recognize.
> >How is it that the lifetime work of a radical modernist, essenetialised
> >feminist theology and theorizing is now rendered illegal, un-tenureable,
> >un-wanted. The facts are multiple, shifting and can be reconstructed to
> >fit any reality. The multiple readings of this event under-score the
> >"conceptual relations of ruling" that underscore our textually mediated
> >society, the social text is breathing fire.
>