An Abuse of Academic Freedom

last updated 8 January 2015

United States

Stanley Fish

Classrooms are no place for mindless propaganda, said law professor Stanley Fish in The New York Times. Yet every time a university professor brimming with kooky conspiracy theories gets caught proselytizing his students, his defenders cry “academic freedom.” The latest brouhaha involves Kevin Barrett, a lecturer on Islam at the University of Wisconsin. Barrett recently acknowledged that he’s been trying to convince students of his “strong conviction” that the Sept. 11 attacks were “perpetrated by the American government.” Outraged state legislators immediately called for Barrett’s dismissal; just as predictably, Barrett’s defenders insisted that teachers have an absolute right to teach as they see fit. But academic freedom is not just another name for freedom of speech. Rather, it is the freedom to teach or study any topic—free of outside interference—in order to subject that topic to rigorous analysis. If Barrett wanted to lead an intellectually honest classroom discussion about the theory that the U.S. government orchestrated 9/11, he is fully entitled to do so. But like journalists, Barrett has an obligation to present all sides of that argument, and let students come to their own conclusions. If he is more interested in promoting his own political views, he’s in the wrong line of work—“not because he’s teaching the ‘wrong’ things, but because he would have abandoned teaching for indoctrination.”