Editorial: I Love Freedom

I Love FreedomThe term academic freedom refers to something that scholars supposedly hold sacred: the right to question and to profess a position that may not agree with prevalent thought, policy, practice, or tradition.For academic freedom to function, the institution employing the scholar must also respect the principle of academic freedom.The implications are that no matter how seemingly unorthodox the scholar's position, the institution must follow the idea penned by Voltaire, "I disapprove of what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it" (Bartlett, 1947(Bartlett, , p. 1053)).Of course, this does not mean that scholars can ignore laws of libel and slander (holding someone up to hatred, ridicule, and contempt), nor does it mean that scholars can behave in a reckless manner, the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded room when in fact there is no fire at all.Although some institutions challenged the definition of academic freedom in the 19th century through intimidation and censure, the principle has come under the heaviest attack during the 20th century (Horn, 1999).Two notable examples are the cases of Edward C. Tolman, a professor of psychology at the University of California, and Revilo P. Oliver, a professor of classics at the University of Illinois.Both were remarkably different scholars with widely different research interests.Apart from their academic differences, Tolman was an avowed pacifist who spoke against war and opposed the entry of the United States into World War II (Hergenhahn & Olson, 1997).Oliver espoused racist and extreme right-wing views, had been decorated by Mussolini, and was a founding member of the John Birch society (Rahn, 1999).Individuals in the universities that employed these two endeavored to cast them out of the community of scholars, not because they were poor teachers or because they did research of poor quality.They were ostracized because their views were contrary to what was considered "politically correct" at the time.Following America's entry into World War II, Tolman was dismissed for not signing a loyalty oath, because he contended that doing so would impinge on his academic freedom (Hergenhahn & Olson, 1997).He was reinstated eventually, after the initial hysteria surrounding the US's entry into the World War II subsided.In the mid-1960s, because of Oliver's increasing publicity of his political views and inflammatory racist ideas, there were calls in the University of Illinois for his dismissal.After considering Oliver's extreme views, his record as an excellent scholar and teacher, and the principle of academic freedom, the Board of Trustees voted 8-1 against proceeding with dismissal (Rahn, 1999).Rahn also notes that the Editor of the student newspaper at the University of Illinois, Roger Ebert (who later became a well-known film critic who appears on television), wrote that only a strong society could permit Oliver such freedom.It can be argued further that the political views of these two scholars had nothing to do with their competence as scholars and as educators, especially as there was no evidence that either advocated their

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