The climate of academic freedom has worsened severely since Sept. 11 because of a mix of new government policies and decisions by university administrators, the American Studies Association (ASA) said in a statement last week.
“Free and frank intellectual inquiry is under assault by overt legislative acts and by a chilling effect of secrecy and intimidation in the government, media and on college campuses,” said John Stephens executive director of the ASA.
Stephens cited restrictions on scholarly research and intimidation of students who protest a potential war in Iraq as evidence of an environmental restricting free speech on American college campuses.
In the statement, “Intellectual Freedom in a Time of War,” the ASA warns that legislation such as the USA Patriot Act, which gives law-enforcement officials more tools and authority to track suspected terrorists, and Immigration and Naturalization Service rules which require colleges to track all of their international students, endanger the intellectual freedom inherent in a democracy.
“We released the statement in the hope that academics and students will work to keep intelligent debate open and alive,” said Amy Kaplan, president-elect of the ASA.
Christine Pierce, sociology major at The University of Memphis, agrees that the atmosphere (on campus) has changed considerably since Sept. 11.
“Sometimes I don’t feel free to say exactly what I’m thinking because I’m worried about how people will take it,” Pierce said. “Things that I would have said pre-9/11 I don’t feel safe saying today. I can’t express my true feelings about the war on terror without feeling un-American.”
Democracy is predicated on the right to question our government and leaders openly and to express dissent without fear, Stephens said.
“We are told, in fact, that our nation is ready to go to war to protect this precious freedom. The threat of war should not restrict public debate, as it often has in our nation’s past.”
In their statement, the ASA points to recent legislative developments to underscore their point that open public debate on college campuses is under attack.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and INS are asking universities and colleges to monitor and provide information about students from countries outside the U.S. This, according to Kaplan, creates a climate of intimidation and suspicion inimical to free participation and exchange of ideas.
“The USA Patriot Act severely limits our most important tasks as scholars and teachers,” Kaplan said. “Books and CD-ROMs are being removed from Federal depository libraries, and Web sites are being closed for presumed terrorist ties.”
Stephens also noted the U.S. Justice Department’s new limits on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the law providing citizens access to government information.
“This law has been profoundly important in providing documents from all branches of government,” Stephens said. “The FOIA was intended to reverse what now seems an alarming trend toward unprecedented government secrecy.”
University administrations are under pressure to silence their faculty political positions, said Stephens. The ASA, in their statement, urges colleges and universities to resist external pressure to curtail academic freedom and to stop federal agencies in the surveillance of teachers and scholars with scholarly or familial ties to other countries.
Nabil Bayakley of the Muslim Student Association of The U of M said many of the freedoms promised under the First Amendment are being impeded by congress.
“Congress has passed a secret evidence act where a person of Muslim decent can be detained for up to 18 months in the interest of national security without being told of the evidence they are being held on,” Bayakley said. “All of these things change the spirit of the Constitution. It happened to the Japanese during WWII in the ’40s and now it is happening to Muslims in 2003. There has been a definite change in the campus climate for these reasons.”
