Another major professional organization, the American Comparative Literature Association, weighs in with its open letter to Chancellor Phyllis Wise. We are especially troubled by the following implications of this incident: the penalization of free speech on controversial issues, which discourages dissent and the free exchange of ideas; the consideration of statements made on social media in decisions about academic employment; the invocation of incivility as a pretext to silence or punish those who express unpopular views; the atmosphere of fear and intimidation that this case has created on college campuses, particularly among the more vulnerable members of the profession who do not have the protection of tenure; the potential inauguration of a trend in upper administration to interfere in hiring decisions, and to do so without transparency or faculty consultation, something that violates the principles of shared governance; the widespread disruption of the academic hiring process that will result from this trend, leading job candidates to mistrust potential employers who may now feel empowered to exploit legal loopholes to invalidate contracts offered and signed in good faith; the influence that non-academic groups and donors are allowed to exert on the academic decision-making process, which compromises its intellectual integrity.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 21:06:43 +0000
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