[Vision2020] Idaho's Faculty Deserve Free Speech Rights in All Areas

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 24, 2010) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with special 
thanks to Nick Gier.

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Idaho's Faculty Deserve Free Speech Rights in All Areas
By Nick Gier

In 1889 the founders of our great state gave the "immediate government of 
the University of Idaho to the faculty." This prerogative was not formally 
recognized until 1967, when the Faculty Senate was established for "shared 
governance" between the faculty and the administration.

Because meaningful faculty governance came so late in the life of the 
nation's campuses, the right to speak freely in all areas of the university 
has not been formally recognized. Recently, cases of administrators accusing 
their faculty of insubordination and unprofessional conduct and actually 
dismissing professors for these reasons have increased.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 in Garcetti v. Ceballos that 
public employers can limit their employee's constitutional right to free 
speech in the performance of their official duties.

Lower court judges have cited Garcetti in higher education cases, but they 
seem to have ignored Justice Anthony Kennedy's exception. Writing for the 
majority, he stated that the decision would not "apply in the same manner to 
a case involving speech related" to university professors.

When he proposed that faculty may be exempt from Garcetti, Justice Kennedy 
mentioned only teaching and research, not faculty governance. As far as I 
know, the principle of shared governance is practiced only on college and 
universities campuses, and this makes them significantly different from any 
other workplace.

In a recent column, Gary Olson, provost at Idaho State University, also 
limits academic freedom to teaching and research: "A university has no 
comparable incentive to protect extra-disciplinary speech because such 
discourse is peripheral to the normal workings of the campus."

I'm truly amazed that Olson has somehow forgotten about faculty governance, 
especially since his faculty has been so aggressive in claiming its 
prerogatives in this area.

When professors raise issues in faculty senates and other faculty meetings, 
they are rarely speaking from their disciplines; rather, they are talking 
generally about the institution's mission, curriculum or budget allocations.

Faculty committees vote on tenure and promotion across the disciplines, and 
faculty have a major say in these essential decisions. Faculty appeal boards 
also consider faculty grievances and sometimes rule against their 
administrations.

Last October ISU President Arthur Vailas dismissed tenured engineering 
professor Habib Sadid for a long history of criticizing (sometimes harshly) 
ISU administrators.

Sadid appealed his dismissal and an appeal board voted 4-1 in his favor. The 
majority concluded that ISU administrators had denied Sadid due process and 
noted that the lack of documentation for the charges was "disturbing."

The ISU Faculty Senate asked Vailas to reverse his decision by a vote of 
19-5, but Vailas declined to do so.

In 2007 Sadid filed a suit charging that ISU had retaliated against him 
because he had spoken out against administrative decisions. Last December 
District Judge David Nye ruled against Sadid. Citing Garcetti, Nye argued 
that "Sadid should understand that he has limitations of his speech that he 
accepted when becoming a state employee," and that he "does not have a valid 
First Amendment claim."

Justice Kennedy, however, says that Sadid may indeed have such a claim. 
Sadid's attorneys have appealed Nye's decision and they are preparing a suit 
challenging his dismissal.

My faculty union has given Sadid $8,300 in legal aid (more is pending) for 
the obvious reason that if his termination stands, then the free speech 
rights of all of America's professors are threatened. More details of the 
Sadid case can be found at www.idaho-aft.org/Sadid.htm.

Last June the University of Minnesota Board of Regents issued a revised 
statement on academic freedom, that includes "to speak or write without 
institutional discipline or restraint on matters ... related to professional 
duties and the functioning of the university."

Within the month I will be requesting that Idaho faculty senates adopt 
similar language to make sure that academic freedom includes faculty 
governance as well as teaching and research. Idaho's faculty deserve nothing 
less than full free speech rights in all areas.

Nick Gier is professor emeritus at the University of Idaho, and he can be 
heard as the "Palouse Pundit" Wednesday mornings on KRFP (92.5 FM). He also 
writes a weekly column for the Idaho State Journal and two other newspapers. 
Listen to or read all his columns at www.NickGier.com.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a 
license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by its very 
existence chills free speech."

- Harry A. Blackmun