Academic Freedom

Mona C. Robinson & Renee A. Middleton

Academic freedom has been a long-standing and essential pillar of higher education in the United States since the inception of tenure. In 1940 the Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure was established as a norm to govern the academic due process in higher education in the United States as a part of the policy document of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges. In 2006 the AAUP defined academic freedom as “the freedom of faculty members to research, write, teach, and publish without fear of retribution based on the unpopularity of their ideas.” It described tenure as “the right of a faculty member to continuous employment, which cannot be terminated without adequate cause (generally including financial exigency) or without due process.” Although some colleges and universities have alternate means of nontenured employment, the majority of institutions of higher learning ascribe to the ...

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