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

[lfalen]

Thanks to Nick for standing up for free speech
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:43:49 -0700
To: "Vision2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Idaho's Faculty Deserve Free Speech Rights in All Areas

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