V
In the United States there are a number of associa-
tions concerned with defining and defending the pro-
fessor's claim to academic freedom, such
as the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union,
various teachers' unions, the
American Association for Higher Education (an
affiliate
of the National Educational Association), and many
other
groups. Since its establishment in 1915, however,
the chief spokesman for
the academic freedom rights
of teachers in the world of higher education
has been
the American Association of University Professors.
Over the
years the Association has spelled out the
content of academic freedom, both
substantive and
procedural, in numerous statements of principles and
has dealt with specific complaints submitted to it by
aggrieved professors.
Complaints alleging improper
dismissals are referred to the Association's
oldest and
most influential committee, Committee A, on Aca-
demic Freedom and Tenure. During the past half cen-
tury the Committee, with the assistance of
professional
staff in the central office in Washington, has dealt with
hundreds of cases, and has developed a large and so-
phisticated body of interpretations and common law
principles which relate to various aspects of academic
freedom.
Once the General Secretary of the Association has
concluded that there is a
prima facie case for believing
that a
serious violation of an important principle of
academic freedom and tenure
has occurred, he ap-
points an investigating
committee of disinterested
scholars. Following its investigation, the ad
hoc com-
mittee reports to Committee A, which
then decides
whether to accept the report, and whether it should
be
published in the quarterly journal of the Association.
Once a year, at the annual delegate meeting of the
Association,
Committee A decides whether to recom-
mend for
or against censure of the administration con-
cerned. The ultimate weapon of the Association is a
public censure,
which is no more, and no less, than
an expression of moral disapproval.
Through the in-
strumentality of censure
the Association pronounces
its special form of anathema upon the
administration
of an institution, declaring that in its informed and
solemn judgment, proper conditions of academic free-
dom do not exist there. This is communicated to the
academic
world through the Association's publications,
through the mass media, and
through the efforts of
other learned societies.
There is every reason to believe that this weapon
of the Association is very
effective, even though it does
not go beyond the expression of moral
disapproval.
Administrations on censure are removed from the list
by
vote of the annual delegate meeting of the Associa-
tion on the recommendation of Committee A. This
occurs when it
has been decided that the dereliction
which led to the censure action has
been corrected.
Generally this takes the form of changes in the institu-
tion's rules and procedures, and
the award to the in-
jured party of some sort of
redress.
There are active associations of university teachers
in the other
English-speaking countries, notably Great
Britain, Canada, Australia, in
the Scandinavian coun-
tries, and rather less
effective associations in most of
the other countries of Western Europe. In
addition
there is an International Association of University Pro-
fessors and Lecturers, with a part-time
Secretary-
General, but this is
essentially an association of auton-
omous
national bodies, and is limited in activity to the
holding of periodical
conferences and seminars.
