In an era when political correctness concerns reign supreme, a university must be careful to protect faculty members' rights to academic freedom, as well as the interests of the institution at large.
This winter, the University of Colorado faced a compromising predicament when Department of Ethnic Studies Prof. Ward Churchill made a comment that referred to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center as "little Eichmanns" in reference to Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi elite who was instrumental in implementing Hitler's plans to exterminate the Jews.
While tenure and contracts protect professors here at the University in speaking widely about controversial material within their area of research, it does not protect inflammatory statements made by professors on any subject, University Provost Gene Block said.
The national uproar that followed Churchill's statement led the University of Colorado to attempt to dismiss Churchill from his position, bringing to the national stage a vehement debate about free speech protections and faculty tenure policies.
There is no simple answer for what to do in such a situation, Block said.
"There is certainly freedom of expression about one's own academic field," he said. "At the other extreme, there is language that is designed to excite -- so-called 'hate speech' -- and there are federal laws about that, and one must always ask what's in the best interest of the institution."
The right of faculty members at the University and other institutions to speak their mind on their personal discipline is protected under contract.
When faculty members succeed in showing accomplishment within their department and obtain a recommendation from the provost, they receive tenure -- a contract without terms.
"It is not a guaranteed job for life," Block said. "You can lose your tenure over a failure to perform or reprehensible behavior."
Robert O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, elaborated on the idea of academic freedom.
"Basically, the standard is that any speech at least outside of the classroom is permissible except that which clearly demonstrates a sense of unfitness as a member of the academic profession," he said.
The American Association of University Professors offers guidelines for defining fundamental professional behaviors for professors.
"In the classroom, there are two kinds of misusing the professorial platform," O'Neil said. "One is using the authority of the podium for either exploitation or coercion of students, and the second is persistent intrusion of unrelated material in a course or classroom."
When a professor is accused of stepping beyond professional boundaries within or outside of the classroom, O'Neil said an investigation of the faculty member can be appropriate.
"Contrary to invading academic freedom, investigation may be helpful," he said. "It depends on how the results are used and if there is to be any sanction or adverse consequence, even reassignment of classes or removed course funds. There has to be a formal process. The institution bears the burden of truth."
While comments made outside of the classroom and outside of one's area of study should not necessarily affect a professor's career, when it negatively affects a university, the speech is then brought into question.
"Comments that have nothing to do with one's scholarship that hurt the institution are very problematic," Block said.
Based on the situation, such a comment might be analyzed by a faculty committee on a case-by-case basis.
"While faculty need to be given wide latitude in their public and classroom comments, it is also true that U.Va. is a state university, supported with tens of millions of dollars each year from the taxpayers," Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said.
The University itself has not had a big problem with professors making inflammatory statements, Block and others said.
Block said over the years he has been impressed that faculty members were mindful of the differing values of members of their classes. The rights of these professors to explore and challenge conventions within their area of study remain secure.
"Most faculty members have very good judgment in these matters," Sabato said. "A few do not. The many should not have to suffer for the few."
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