Faculty Report Declining Academic Freedom

More than 1 in 3 faculty say they have less academic freedom today when it comes to teaching content without any interference, speaking freely as citizens, and speaking freely when participating in institutional governance. Those findings and more are part of a new national survey released today by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) examining faculty perceptions and experiences related to academic freedom and civil discourse in higher education.

The survey was conducted by the AAUP, the AAC&U, and NORC at the University of Chicago. Supported by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the survey included faculty of all ranks at public and private two-year and four-year institutions across the United States.

The survey asked faculty to compare their recent experiences with those from six or seven years earlier—or, for newer faculty, with their experiences when they began working at their current institutions. Recent state-level efforts to restrict the teaching of so-called divisive concepts related to race, gender, and sexuality are among the factors that have chilled the campus climate for academic freedom: nearly half of faculty members said that their local communities had become more concerned about the teaching of “divisive concepts” in recent years. Faculty respondents reported not only that their colleagues were more likely to avoid controversial topics than in the past (50 percent) but also that they themselves were less willing to express what they believe to correct statements about the world (53 percent) and more worried that their work as faculty members would make them targets of online harassment (53 percent).

Amid this perceived decline in academic freedom, faculty members expressed support for civil discourse in the classroom. Faculty see educational value in discussions of controversial topics and in diverse student perspectives, and they oppose censorship of course materials, the survey found.

The survey was administered online between December 2023 and February 2024. A full report on its findings is available on AAC&U’s website at www.aacu.org/academicfreedom.