...by the New York Civil Liberties Union. (We have touched on the Massad case previously.) An excerpt:
[I]n asserting their right to criticize, students must also understand the limitations of such rights. The classroom is a bounded educational environment. It is not, except at the invitation of the professor, an open forum for students to express any views that they wish at any time. It is not, except at the invitation of a professor, an opportunity for those not enrolled in a course to attend and participate in classroom discussions. Additionally, students cannot expect, through the use of a grievance procedure or otherwise that the university administrators will call professors to account for the content of their lectures or their ideological assertions within the classroom.
Moreover, the right of students to an appropriate learning environment does not immunize them from ideas that they find provocative or disturbing or even offensive. Students can expect to be treated with respect. They cannot expect that their views and opinions will be unchallenged. And they cannot expect that their professors will trim the cut of their convictions so as not to offend the sensibilities of their students. The notion of a system of free expression embraces the commitment to speech that is wide-open, unfettered and robust. Such robust expression requires that teachers and students alike must remain persons "of fortitude able to thrive in a hardy climate." Craig v. Harney, 331 U.S. 367, 376 (1947).
[T]he claims of incivility of professors in their treatment of students seem, in this case, to be inextricably bound to the ideological disputes between certain professors and the students advancing these claims. We reach this conclusion for several reasons. First, the episodes identified by the students do not appear to involve situations where the allegations of uncongeniality were unrelated to substantive or ideological conversations taking place within the classroom. Second, we suspect that this controversy would not have acquired the attention that is has received had it been simply about the rudeness of professors or their intolerance of other points of view. This film would not have provoked the sort of controversy that has now developed had it not arisen in the context of the deeply divisive political controversy involving Israel and Palestinians.
So understood, the attack upon Professor Massad and others in the MEALAC Department is fundamentally about their scholarship and political expression. Thus, the criticism of these academics must be seen for what it is: an assault upon principles of academic freedom and upon political speech....
Provost Brinkley recommended the appointment of an ad hoc committee to entertain and investigate student complaints including the current complaints directed at the MEALAC Department. In a December 8 memorandum to the Columbia community you endorsed and implemented the third recommendation.
Where, as here, the accusations from students about the conduct of certain professors remain deeply contested, a serious investigation of those claims may well be useful to determine the truthfulness of the competing claims. Nevertheless, we have grave reservations about an ad hoc committee engaging such an investigation. First, where, as here, the accusations with respect to professorial conduct are so inextricably bound with ideological disagreements, we fear that holding professors to account for their statements runs a severe risk of intrusion by administrators into academic content and political ideology. Accordingly, in a controversy as politically charged as is this one, we are concerned that the investigation, if not undertaken with appropriate sensitivity toward academic freedom, will descend into an inquisition into the ideological or political views of the professors who have been accused. Finally, we are troubled that in discussing the need for more effective procedures for the consideration of student grievances, Provost Brinkley seemed to ignore the substantive limitations, discussed above, respecting the right of students to an appropriate learning environment. We are concerned that unless students understand those limitations the grievance procedures will become, at best, a source of misunderstanding and, worse still, a license for censorship.
We also note from conversations that we have had with undergraduate students at Columbia that some have suggested, by way of a resolution of this controversy, that Columbia should insist on more ideological balance within the MEALAC Department. This is a seductive but ultimately flawed recommendation.
It is flawed because it is fundamentally at odds with the marketplace theory of free expression. Under that theory, balance is loosely but imperfectly achieved through the self-corrective mechanism of "more speech" as a response to bad ideas. And if we abandon that theory because it is not really working in practice we are left with the question as to whom we would trust to make the decision that the ideological composition of a particular department is balanced. Because judgments about "balance" are inevitably so subjective, efforts to achieve balance almost always fail. Thus, for example, for about 20 years we tried to achieve "balance" within the broadcast media by adopting a "fairness doctrine." But a few years ago the "fairness doctrine" was abandoned as a failure. The FCC concluded that fairness had the net effect of reducing the volume and quality and diversity of expression. Moreover, trying to impose balance from outside the Department might well violate academic freedom principles of self-governance. Would those who urge balance within the MEALAC Department go to the University of Chicago and tell the economics department that it needs to be more balanced? The point is that the marketplace model rather than the model insisting on balance seems more effective at provoking intellectual creativity and in achieving pluralism and diversity. Under that model, one must look beyond a particular department or even a particular university to acquire a full exposure to the diversity of expression....
[W]e call upon the University to respond appropriately to this assault on academic freedom. This response can and should involve several initiatives. First, we urge that you make clear to the public that academic judgments about members of the faculty must be left to the academy and that the attempted intrusion by donors or by politicians into this matter is entirely inappropriate. Second, you should use your office to educate the Columbia community about the importance and value of academic freedom and of freedom of speech on campus. Third, you should use your office to educate the Columbia student body about the nature of the learning environment to which they are entitled and about the limitations of that entitlement including the fact that they are not immune from hearing provocative or disagreeable or even offensive ideas from instructors or fellow students. You might inform students that they have a right to criticize their professors for what they regard as errors in scholarship or politics or even pedagogical style. But students have no right to initiate administrative investigations designed to call professors to account for their substantive views....
The President of Columbia, Lee Bollinger, is a First Amendment scholar. This is a grand opportunity for theory to meet practice; let us hope he is up to the challenge.
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