Calif. Colleges' Response to Academic "Bill of Rights" (e-mail)

e-mail | 4/23/2004 | various

[Kyrie]

Freepers, you can call this "opposition research". This is how the California Higher Education establishment is responding to the legislation on the "Academic Bill of Rights" proposed recently.

(Email begins here)

Dear Area A representatives,

This morning you received the below email from Julie Adams. She referred to the urgent issue threatening academic freedom. I pasted below the two resolutions we passed on this topic. I encourage you to forward this message to your senates and faculty as you see fit, and urge everyone to contact their legislators asap.

At the bottom of this message I pasted an email I received from Marcus Harvey with the AAUP. He sent the attachment, which is the AAUP's statement on this topic. _____________________________

Dear Local Senate Presidents:

On occasion, the Academic Senate will email urgent legislative information that requires your immediate attention or action. Today, there are two key issues that we would like to bring to your attention. Please visit our website at: http://www.academicsenate.cc.ca.us/Legislative/alerts/legAlert04_28.htm for more information.

_______________________________

6.04 S04 Academic Freedom Barrie Logan, Pierce College

Whereas, The Academic Bill of Rights is not only redundant but, ironically, also infringes on academic freedom in the very act of purporting to protect it;

Whereas, A fundamental premise of academic freedom is that decisions concerning the quality and content of scholarship and teaching are to be made by reference to the standards of the academic profession, as interpreted and applied by the community of scholars qualified by expertise and training to establish such standards, and not by political standards;

Whereas, The result of the statutory enactment of the Academic Bill of Rights would be to transfer responsibility for the evaluation of student competence from faculty to administrators, the courts, or some other governmental entity; and

Whereas, such transfer will inevitably increase the cost to the state of maintaining public higher education in California;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges find the Academic Bill of Rights - SB 1335 (Morrow) as amended on April 12, 2004 - to be flawed precisely because it is unnecessary, unwarranted and costly to the state; and

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge legislators to oppose this proposed legislation.

MSU Disposition: Legislature, Board of Governors, Chancellor's Office, Local Senates Assigned to: President, Consultation Council Representatives, ICAS Representatives, Legislative Committee

6.05 S04 Academic Freedom Bob Grill, College of Alameda

Whereas, The California Legislature has directed the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to recognize the Academic Senate as the primary academic authority on most of the professional and academic matters addressed in SB 1335;

Whereas, The California Community College system is organized on the basis of local district control over the matters addressed in SB 1335; and

Whereas, Many of the matters addressed in SB 1335 are already codified through an interplay of state and local academic senate guidelines, district board policies, collective bargaining agreements, as well as Education Code and civil law, specifically

a) "Grading" (subsection (b)(1)); b) "Variety of viewpoints" and "indoctrination" (subsections (b)(2) & (b)(3)); c) "Visiting speakers" and "the protection of their free speech rights" (subsections (b)(4) & (b)(5)); d) "Hiring, firing, promotion, tenure" and "the composition of committees relative to these issues" (subsection (b)(6)); e) And finally "organization neutrality" (subsection (b)(8));

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges vigorously oppose SB 1335 (Morrow) as amended on April 12, 2004; and

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges oppose any legislation that erodes the ability of faculty to use their professional expertise in determining course content and materials.

MSU Disposition: Legislature, Board of Governors, Chancellor's Office, Local Senates Assigned to: President, Consultation Council Representatives, ICAS Representatives, Legislative Committee

______________________________________ Dear Colleagues in the ASCCC,

It was a pleasure seeing many of you this past weekend. As you know, a particularly ill-conceived piece of legislation will be going before the Senate's Education Committee tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. Senator Morrow's proposed "Academic Bill of Rights" (S.B. 1335) is very similar to legislation that faculty and university administrators were able to beat back in Colorado. My office will be faxing the attached CA-AAUP position statement, along with cover letters from the CA-AAUP's steering committee, out to each member of the Education Committee later today. I'm providing some additional information about this "Academic Bill of Rights" campaign FYI. Please do not hesitate to call me if you have any questions or concerns. We will be sending a similar notice to the California Faculty Association, and to the Council for UC Faculty Associations. We will post updates to the CA-AAUP website as soon as possible.

You can find the history of SB 1335 online at the California State Legislature's website. The search should direct you to the following URL:

http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery?bill_number=sb_1335&sess=CUR&house=B&author=morrow

The AAUP's positions on the so-called "Academic Bill of Rights" initiative and on controversy in the classroom are available at:

http://www.aaup.org/statements/SpchState/billofrights.htm http://www.aaup.org/statements/SpchState/comaclass.htm

You may also want to check out the two websites that are a big part of the campaign to organize students to report on professorial "bias" across the country:

http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org http://www.noindoctrination.org

David Horowitz' reports and responses are on the Students for Academic Freedom site. Also on that site you will find the materials that are being made available to students who are organizing on their campuses. I do hope that this information is of some use.

Best, Marcus

--- Marcus Harvey, Ph.D. Associate Secretary American Association of University Professors

Ken Snell Academic Senate of California Community Colleges, Area 'A' Representative Folsom Lake College 100 Clarksville Rd. Folsom, Ca. (916) 608-6575

[Kyrie]

Sorry it's so long. Apparently they're really stirred up about this.