Universities on AAUP censure list

Parents Forum
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<p>American Association of University Professors’ List of Censured Administrations
Last updated on June 13, 2005</p>

<p>Following are the 47 institutions that have been censured by the American Association of University Professors for violating principles of academic freedom and tenure as outlined in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Censure applies to the administration and governing board of the institution, not the institution itself or its faculty. The censured administrations are listed alphabetically with the year in which they were censured. </p>

<p>Alaska Pacific University, 1995
Albertus Magnus College (Conn.), 2000
American International College (Mass.), 1983
Baltimore City Community College, 1992
Benedict College (S.C.), 1994
Bennington College (Vt.), 1995
Brigham Young University (Utah), 1998
Catholic University of America (D.C.), 1990
Charleston Southern University (S.C.), 2001
Clarkson College (Neb.), 1993
Community College of Baltimore County-Essex Campus (Md.), 1995
Concordia Seminary (Mo.), 1975
Dean College (Mass.), 1992
Des Moines University-Osteopathic Medical Center (Iowa), 1977
Frank Phillips College (Tex.), 1969
Grove City College (Pa.), 1963
Hillsdale College (Mich.), 1988
Husson College (Me.), 1987
Johnson & Wales University (R.I.), 1999
Lawrence Technological University (Mich.), 1998
Loma Linda University (Cal.), 1992
Maryland Institute College of Art, 1988
Meharry Medical College (Tenn.), 2005
Metropolitan Community Colleges (Mo.), 1984
Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1997
Murray State University (Ky.), 1976
National Park Community College (Ark.), 1996
Nichols College (Mass.), 1980
North Greenville College (S.C.), 1993
Nyack College (N.Y.), 1995
Philander Smith College (Ark.), 2004
Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (Ark.), 1978
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, 1987
St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.), 1996
Saint Meinrad School of Theology (Ind.), 1997
Savannah College of Art and Design (Ga.), 1993
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (N.C.), 1989
State University of New York, 1978
Talladega College (Ala.), 1986
Tiffin University (Ohio), 2002
University of Bridgeport (Conn.), 1994
University of Dubuque (Iowa), 2002
University of the Cumberlands (Ky.), 2005
University of the District of Columbia, 1998
Virginia State University, 2005
Westminster College (Utah), 1985
Yeshiva University (N.Y.), 1982</p>

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<p>I was scanning this list for any PA colleges and saw Grove City. What?! This is a very well regarded Christian School in Western PA. How could it be on the list…oh, 1963?? C’mon that was 42 years ago. That administrator must be retired or dead by now…</p>

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<p>Not a useful list unless they tell WHY. For example, I assume the 1990 censure against Catholic U is because of Charles Curran, who was told by the Church that though he could hold any personal opinion he wanted, he could not TEACH that Catholic theology was the same as his personal opinion. This is precisely the same as saying to a medical professor that he could personally hold that apricot pits cure cancer, or whatever, but that he could not TEACH it as part current medical school accepted practice. He could teach it in some “History of Alternative Medicine” course. You also cannot force a historically black college to hire David Duke to teach an alternative perspective as if it were held by, say, the NAACP.</p>

<p>This was a “Catholic Theology” course, NOT a general “religious studies” course. You also cannot teach at a Jewish yeshiva that Jesus is the Messiah as part of Jewish doctrine, though you COULD teach it in a world religions course as part of Christian doctrine.</p>

<p>I know I’ll get flack for this, but I have read all the letters back and forth from the Vatican etc - I did a study as part of my Ivy divinity school studies - and the Church’s position is completely reasonable. I find the AAUP way too ideological on issues like these, and way too lacking in understanding.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I’m not sure how much weight to put on the AAUP’s opinion on these matters.</p>

<p>If it helps clarify any, Grove City has been invited to speak to the AAUP about the dismissal that occurred in 1963, to review the circumstances and possibly be removed from the list, but they’ve declined to do that. Hence, Grove City stays on the list. That is, apparently, AAUP policy.</p>

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<p>Religious institutions censured for violating principles of academic freedom??? As Captain Renault (Claude Rains) says: “I’m shocked, SHOCKED to find that…”</p>

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<p>Grove City doesn’t even offer tenure. Not too surprising that someone discharged from the faculty would play a “card” of some kind or other. Given its abysmal record for actually defending academic freedom, I would take anything coming from the aaup with a large grain of salt. Anyone truly concerned about this issue would be better advised to peruse this case list:
<a href=“http://thefire.org/index.php/case/[/url]”>http://thefire.org/index.php/case/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Aargh, digmedia - after so many, many gazillions of posts agreeing with you, I have to disagree here. I find that people who say this usually have not done the background reading. The universities of the middle ages - when they were invented by the Catholic Church - taught and discussed the most amazing variety of positions. There was such intellectual diversity that it makes <strong>some</strong> of today’s secular schools look like the thought police incarnate. In many departments over the years, there have been “acceptable” theories, whether deconstruction or whatever, that you were “persona non grata” if you did not hold. Just look at what has happened to anthropolgy now that Margaret Mead has been discredited. Years ago, there was only ONE possible story to tell about encounters with other cultures, and now it has turned around to much more sophisticated views.</p>

<p>I believe that at least among Catholic institutions of higher learning, this openness has continued. I cannot speak for other universities. </p>

<p>Once again, it is NOT “censorship” if one cannot teach non-Catholic theology AS Catholic theology. To make an analogy, I am completely opposed to teaching so-called “creation science” as science, which it is not. So is it “censorship” if our AP Biology class cannot teach creation science as science? Of course not! And neither is it “censorship” to say that one can teach that Catholic theology is anything you want it to be. As they say, you can run out on a football field with a lacrosse stick, but you are then NOT playing football. If you teach that it is against Catholic theology to have a Pope, what you are teaching is Protestantism. You can argue it personally all you want - you just can’t teach that it is <strong>the teaching of Catholicism.</strong> Again, I think the medical metaphor is apt. A medical school would have the right to deny a chair on infectious diseases to someone who said that the medical establishment does or should teach that disease is caused by (say) not obeying your parents. No one would put that school on a list of schools that deny academic freedom.</p>

<p>Again, if Curran had taught his ideas as his personal opinion, there would not have been a problem.</p>

<p>BTW I found MUCH more academic freedom at my Ivy divinity school than at my secular grad school. It was literally AMAZING how many things you weren’t even allowed to say, discuss, or even bring up at the latter. You were just blackballed if you dared THINK certain thoughts. You could be kept out of grad school entirely for holding certain positions that currently weren’t “in.” And note - this is NOT a “liberal” versus “conservative” thing - I am not talking about political positions, just ideas and theories. In some places you are all but blackballed if you are not a logical positivist concerning epistemology, for example.</p>

<p>(PS to forestall anyone bringing up that old chestnut, the story of Galileo, do not forget that the Catholic canon lawyer, Copernicus, had no trouble at all, except with the Protestants, teaching the sun-centered universe. The Galileo issue was an entirely different matter, and it had to do with refusing to accept that until proven, the thesis had to be regarded as a “working hypothesis.” Once it was proven in the 17th century by star parallaxes, it was accepted. It was never - not once, not ever - a matter of DOCTRINE that Galileo was “wrong.” There was also an exegetical issue that is beyond the scope of what I am saying).</p>

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<p>

Yes, since this list was just updated today, I was wondering why Harvard wasn’t on it, given the Larry Summers incident. ;)</p>

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<p>Voronwe, good post. A good example of the closed institutions is the public HS that are not allowed to utter the G word because of separation of church and state. This forestalls open inquiry that would include and references in that direction.</p>

<p>Though the Catholic church has had, and continues to have, many issues, the openness of it colleges is not really one of them. In fact it may be one of the things that save the church.</p>

<p>Alternatively, you can attribute the AAUP list to anti-catholic or anti-religious bashing considering the type of schools on the list.</p>

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<p>Winking aside, I don’t see what the Summers incident would have to do with academic freedom and university administration?</p>

<p>I fear my comments opened the door further for doubting (or making fun of) what are sometimes legitimate complaints. I’m sorry that happened. I do regard the AAUP with some skepticism, but they’re not useless. Even well-respected instutions make gross missteps at times. The AAUP censure of Michigan in 1957 was completely justified!</p>

<p>The dismissal of the Grove City case as a faculty member “playing a card” seems a little too simplistic to me. It wasn’t clear to me that he was playing a ‘pacifist card’ (which must be what you’re referring to). If he was, it appears to have little bearing on the case. The AAUP didn’t alleged that he was fired for poor cause or for being a conscientious objector. It mainly objected to the lack of process (although to be sure, I am sure they are generally crabby about a lack of tenure there)!</p>

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<p>You’re correct. The Summers incident was a faculty issue, and as such specifically excluded under the guidelines cited in the OP. My mistake.</p>

<p>I don’t doubt that there are legitimate complaints (see the link I posted), and I don’t mean to make light of them…I just don’t trust the AAUP to be a fair arbiter of them. Just my opinion.</p>

<p>By “playing a card” I simply meant the counter-strategy that all too often ensues after a firing these days (although in 1963 things were sure a lot different in that regard)–race card, sex card, age card, academic freedom card. I don’t know anything about the specifics of the Grove City firing—was it related to pacifism? What was the Michigan case about?</p>

<p>I have a peculiar fascination with Grove City College. I don’t know why. I’m politically conservative (by today’s definition) but not particularly religious. It would be way too restrictive for my daughter, and would have been so for me as well. Still, I admire what I read about them. They know what they are about, the faculty and students join them with eyes wide open as to what they are about (including the “no tenure” policy), and they produce excellent results without being cowed into following academic trends–or bowing to the AAUP. I know several grads who have become wildly successful in their subsequent careers who absolutely love the place.</p>

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<p>"Anyone truly concerned about this issue would be better advised to peruse this case list:
<a href="http://thefire.org/index.php/case/“&gt;http://thefire.org/index.php/case/&lt;/a&gt;”&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Sample headline from this site:<br>
Liberating America’s Intellectual Gulags</p>

<p>I guess it’s okay for conservatives to use that term any way they want.</p>

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<p>The Michigan case was during the McCarthy era–three professors were disciplined (one even fired, I think) for refusing to testify at a congressional hearing.</p>

<p>It was a pretty depressing and shameful episode in Michigan’s history. Every year they have a sponsored lecture about academic freedom, named in honor of the three faculty.</p>

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<p>I think much of this is a matter of interpretation - any list that has both Bennington College and Catholic University on it is interesting. It indicates to me that there may be more to this list than just “conservative vs. liberal” view points.</p>