Occidental’s Faculty Council passed a resolution safeguarding academic freedom and faculty autonomy Dec. 7, 2023, following national and campus pressures on academic freedom in higher education and experiences of Occidental faculty who signed a statement of concern standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
Biology professor and Faculty Council President John McCormack wrote and introduced the resolution and said via email that he drew on faculty’s concerns about academic freedom.
“Some faculty had been receiving negative emails from outside parties after exercising their right to protected speech. There was concern the college might be influenced by this outside criticism,” McCormack said via email. “It seemed a good moment to reaffirm the principles of academic freedom and free expression outlined in our faculty handbook.”
The resolution states that the faculty handbook’s definition of academic freedom covers “autonomy over curriculum and free intellectual expression.”
According to the resolution, Occidental’s faculty calls upon the college’s administration to “immediately and publicly articulate their specific and enthusiastic commitment to fully protecting the academic freedom of the faculty of Occidental College” and “take proactive measures to ensure that academic freedom remains a bedrock principle, free from external influences that may compromise the free exchange of ideas within our academic community.”
The resolution also calls for Occidental’s administration to “provide vocal support for faculty members experiencing external pressures that chill academic freedom” and “refrain from convening meetings with faculty to discuss external critiques of protected speech, recognizing the potential chilling effect on academic freedom.”
According to the Faculty Council’s further resolution, which followed the aforementioned resolution, “the faculty encourages ongoing communication with the administration to address emerging challenges to academic freedom and autonomy, and to work collaboratively with faculty in the best interest of the college’s academic mission.”
McCormack said that the resolution, which was passed by a vote of 64-4-4 (yea-nay-abstain), was voted on anonymously.
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Wendy Sternberg said a faculty member sent the resolution to the faculty list and a staff member sent it to the staff list. A faculty member attempted to send it to the student listserv Jan. 19, but it was not approved by the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement (SLICE) moderator, according to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of SLICE Marcus Rodriguez.
According to Occidental’s email list policy, college faculty and staff can email without moderation to their respective lists, but all messages sent via the student list require approval regardless of the sender. The policy states that the student list “is not to be used for personal communications or discussions or to address controversial issues.”
Rodriguez said via email that the student list serves as a sharing platform for information like department events and new course offerings.
“Due to the nature of the professor’s intended post, they [the professor] were redirected to the Vice President for Marketing and Communications [Rod Leveque] to explore better options for professors intending to address a larger student population outside of their classroom,” Rodriguez said via email.
“The faculty enjoy autonomy over their classes and freedom to express their individual ideas and viewpoints,” Sternberg said via email. “We have and will continue to defend those ideals.”
Although one of the resolution’s clauses refers to concerns being raised about “the administration’s recent statements on certain speech and events on campus,” Sternberg said via email that no faculty member or faculty leadership body had raised concerns with her about the administration’s protection of faculty freedoms prior to the resolution being circulated.
“After the resolution was passed, I used my faculty meeting time slot to firmly assert that over the last several months (and indeed, my entire Oxy career) I have defended the faculty’s rights to their viewpoints and their expressions of those viewpoints whenever they have been challenged by internal or external forces,” Sternberg said via email. “I have never attempted to silence faculty, to prevent them from expressing their views, nor removed them from particular teaching assignments, even (and especially) when others have raised objections about their views.”
Assistant Professor of Black Studies Michael W. Murphy said via email that he supports the resolution.
“It is a first step towards protecting faculty from external political forces that might seek to limit what we can discuss with students in the classroom and how we go about having the difficult though necessary conversations that we must have as educators,” Murphy said via email.
Contact James Miller at jmiller4@oxy.edu and Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
