Academics For Academic Freedom

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Academics for Academic Freedom and LM network associate.

Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF) is a group of academics led by Dennis Hayes who support the creation of laws to ensure that academics were free to 'question and test received wisdom, and to put forward unpopular opinions'. They argue that this freedom should be protected by law 'both inside and outside the classroom', whether or not it was part of their area of academic expertise and 'whether or not these (issues) were deemed offensive'.. The group is associated with the libertarian anti-environmental LM network. AFAF was launched in late 2006 and have received steady media coverage since mid 2007. Two of its UK speakers, Stuart Derbyshire and Dennis Hayes have written for other LM network entities. Early signatories to its statement included a high proportion of associates of the LM network. For example, at least five of the first ten and nineteen of the first sixty five signatories were associates

Statement of Principles

The AFAF statement on academic freedom is as follows:

We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of academic freedom:

(1) that academics, both inside and outside the classroom, have unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whether or not these are deemed offensive.

(2) that academic institutions have no right to curb the exercise of this freedom by members of their staff, or to use it as grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal.

In a letter to the THES, Andrew Morgan described the campaign as 'embarrassingly silly and profoundly un-academic'. He argued that:

'The guiding assumption of the statement is that a degree in one subject, together with a job teaching or conducting research in that subject, should confer a special licence to respect and protection in the espousal of views and opinions on anything whatsoever'.

Morgan concluded by arguing 'To add a test of academic employment as the basis for free speech is to threaten open society and offers only the opportunity to march back boldly to a pre-renaissance age'.

Legal Debate

The main thrust of the AFAF argument is that academics should have an 'unrestricted liberty' to put forward offensive ideas, and that legal cover should be granted to academics in this respect. However the Education Reform Act of 1988 covers the right to academic freedom of expression. In section 202, Paragraph 2(a), the act states that University Commissioners must regard the need:

'to ensure that academic staff have freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom, and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing themselves in jeopardy of losing their jobs or privileges they may have at their institutions'.

History

The roots of AFAF lay in the controversy surrounding Frank Ellis at Leeds University. In the summer of 2006, Ellis who taught Russian suggested that there was a link between ethnicity and intelligence. Ellis supported the work of Richard Hernnstein and Charles Murray and argued that there was a 'persistent gap' in IQ levels between black people and white people. Ellis was suspended from the university but argued that calling him a racist was 'an attempt to close down any discussion' and an attack on his freedom of speech.

The Ellis case was to be described as 'the classic case study of the tensions between the law and university regulations on one hand, and unfettered freedom of expression and the rights of vulnerable minorities on the other'. Many people argued at the time taht a university should be above censorship and capable of rebutting false doctrines and it was following this debate that AFAF emerged.

When the AFAF group first began to receive media attention in December 2006, some reports described them as a body created to counter the culture of 'political correctness gone mad', the group were quoted as supporting the right for academics to be given 'unrestricted liberty to be offensive without fear of sanction'.

In March 2007 students at Oxford University campaigned against Oxford professor David Coleman because he had helped to found MigrationWatch. Dennis Hayes condemned the students on behalf of AFAF arguing that 'Students who once fought for challenging the state on things like war are now fighting against free speech'.

Case Studies

Frank Ellis and Leeds University

Dr. Frank Ellis was working as a tutor of Russian at Leeds University in 2006 when he was involved in a controversy over his views on ethnicity and intelligence. Ellis argued that black people have a lower average IQ than white people. Students protested against his views and created a petition which received over 500 signatures all agreeing that Ellis should be sacked. Ellis had cited Richard Hernnstein and Charles Murray's Bell Curve theory which concludes that ethnicity can play a part in IQ levels.

Ellis argued that he became interested in the issue of censoring sensitive debates through his studies of the media under Soviet and post-Soviet regimes, he attacked critics who had branded his views racist by describing tham as 'an attempt to close down any discussion' and an attack on his freedom of speech. He argued that:

'These days a racist is anything you don't like - it's a hate word. I have no strong feelings towards black people either way.'

Ellis took early retirement after he was suspended from Leeds University for his comments. According to The Guardian, he had also argued that 'women did not have the same intellectual capacity as men'. In 2010 Ellis criticised the expansion of higher education and its effect on academic freedom at Leeds University:

Higher education is now expected to be inclusive which means that it must host a miscellany of pseudo-intellectual misfits – gender studies and black studies are two obvious examples - which are hostile to notions of intellectual rigour, objective truth, evidence and, above all, as this author can personally attest, to free speech and academic freedom. Gender studies and black studies have no place in a university: they are little more than grievance factories; they should be targeted for immediate closure. Vice-chancellors, university secretaries, the heads of departments and schools, who do not defend the essentials of a university for reasons of ideological and financial expediency, or who fail out of plain cowardice to confront the charlatans, cease to preside over a university.

It was following the Ellis case at Leeds University that AFAF was set up.

David Coleman and Oxford University

Although AFAF were set up following the Ellis case at Leeds University, they were up and running in 2007 when a controversy arose surrounding professor David Coleman's founding of MigrationWatch. Coleman is a professor of demography at Oxford University and helped set up MigrationWatch in 2001. Oxford Student Action for Refugees contacted the vice-chancellor of Oxford University urging that he should 'consider the suitability of Coleman's continued tenure as a professor of the university'. The motion was supported by a petition signed by students.

Coleman reacted to the complaint by arguing that:

'it is a shameful attempt of the most intolerant and totalitarian kind to suppress the freedom of analysis and informed comment that it is the function of universities to cherish. I am ashamed that Oxford students should behave this way. It is the signatories who will bring the university into disrepute and it they who should reconsider their membership of this university'.

Anti-racism campaigner Teresa Hayter has refused to share a platform with Coleman in the past and she lent her support to the petition arguing that she did not believe Coleman should be a professor at Oxford. The students were also complaining about Coleman's affiliation with the Galton Institute (formerly the Eugenics Society), however Coleman dismissed this criticism arguing that:

'There are aspects of eugenics that are regularly practised by the medical profession today, for example abortion of foetuses that show signs of severe disability. Other aspects are deplorable.'

Teresa Hayter said that she refused to share a platform with Coleman in the past because of his links to the Galton Institute. She said:

'I objected to Prof. Coleman because of his connection with eugenics. He is against immigration to this country and for eugenics. The implication is that he is a racist. I have not talked to him about this because he is not willing to talk about his connection to eugenics.'

Coleman's case drew the support of AFAF. Dennis Hayes argued that 'Students who once fought for challenging the state on things like war are now fighting against free speech. It comes to something when students would rather see an academic sacked than stand up and debate these issues with him'.

Canterbury Christ Church University and Religion

In 2007 Canterbury Christ Church University faced criticism for putting restrictions on academic freedom. Canterbury Christ Church University is exempt from Section 202 of the Education Reform Act 1988 because it does not apply to post-1992 Universities. Academic freedom was qualified at the institution by the caveat that academic freedom does 'not undermine the institution's ethos as a Church of England college or its code of conduct'. Criticising the University's position, AFAF founder Dennis Hayes argued that:

'Any institution that restricts academic freedom may be many things, but it is not a university. The university is defined by freedom to debate and freedom to research, and the failure to support academic freedom turns the university into nothing more than a corporate body pursuing its business, however ethical or worthy its aims,'.

Hayes argued that 'there is no formal restriction on particular subjects - such as gay studies - but you never know what will be deemed inappropriate'.

Hayes and AFAF were responding to media coverage in February 2007 over the controversial decision that Canterbury Christ Church University had made to 'ban civil partnership ceremonies on campus'. The university reversed its policy and decided to allow civil partnership ceremonies in March 2007, just one month after the original controversy was publicised.

Manchester University's Equality and Diversity Guidance

In March 2007 Manchester University issued equality and diversity guidance Stating:

'There is also a need to balance academic freedom with the recognition that some issues are extremely contentious, even if they are not unlawful. 'Academic staff should be mindful of issues that may be controversial, and should approach debate around these areas with care and consideration. For one thing, students who are busy reacting emotionally to a contentious issue may be less likely to engage in the effective learning you intend.'

Dennis Hayes argued on behalf of AFAF that 'this is how academic freedom gets quietly shut down.'

University of East Anglia and the 'No Platform' Policy

In October 2007 an offshoot of AFAF, called Student Academics for Academic Freedom created a motion to overturn the NUS policy of 'no platform for fascists'. The motion was carried and Richard Reynolds, the student who set the group up argued that 'I am delighted that the motion was passed. We should be taking racists on in debate rather than trying to hush them up', he described the view that ethnic minority and gay students needed to be protected from those with racist and homophobic views as 'patronising'.

Dennis Hayes welcomed the motion arguing that 'It represents a sea change in the attitudes of students unions'. NUS president Gemma Tumelty said of the decision that 'Our primary concern is the safety of our members, many of whom are foreign nationals or from black and ethnic minority communities. The NUS believes the right to freedom of expression must not be separated from, or take precedence over, the right to freedom from oppression'.

Battle of Ideas Festival

The 2007 Battle of Ideas festival was organised by the Institute of Ideas. One of the topics at the 2007 festival was the threat to academic free speech. Richard Reynolds of Student Academics for Academic Freedom was at the festival where he argued that 'Castrated academics are boring' and criticised a student who had one of the few dissenting voices during the debate. The student had argued that he found the content of a novel he was studying offensive, Reynolds argued that the student had 'no right not to be offended,' and that taking offence to the concept of a novel was 'a deeply regressive concept.'

John Fitzpatrick, a senior lecturer at Kent Law School, argued that 'to speak out against the environmental agenda is seen as a badge of courage.' Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University, criticised the censorship of academic arguing that 'We're not in Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany.' Steve Fuller, professor of sociology at Warwick University, argued that one of academia's roles is to teach students how debate can lead to enlightenment. Expertise in a subject is irrelevant; what matters is the ability to frame an argument.

The Moral Cowardice of the Science Museum

In November 2007 Richard Reynolds of Student Academics for Academic Freedom argued that the Science Museum had displayed 'total moral cowardice' for cancelling a lecture by James Watson on the grounds that he had made comments that had 'gone beyond the point of acceptable debate'. Reynolds argued that:

Society relies on all of us, academics and students, on both an academic and a political level, to challenge orthodoxy to make progress. I have no doubt that racism, whether coming from Nazi ideology or perverted genetics, is wrong, but I for one would have enjoyed the opportunity to discuss this with a proponent, no matter how abhorrent his views.

Extremism in the University

In November 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown argued that the Government would 'invite universities to lead a debate on how we can maintain academic freedom while ensuring that extremists can never stifle debate or impose their views (on others).'

Anthony Glees, the director of the Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies at Brunel University, argued that 'I expect that the new government guidance will stress the values shared by all the parties, such as democracy. The rumour is that it won't include the word Muslim.' adding 'The Government should deal with the problem properly and encourage universities to understand that it is in their own interests that it is addressed,'.

Dennis Hayes said on behalf of Academics for Academic Freedom, that: 'The existence of so-called extremists has been used to stifle debate, by people who feel that certain comments are so hard to accept that they shouldn't be heard.' Adding 'What Mr Brown is announcing is the beginning of a clampdown disguised as debate.'

Nicholas Kollerstrom and University College London

In April 2008 astronomer Nicholas Kollerstrom was dismissed by University College London for his controversial views on the Holocaust. In an online article Kollerstrom had denied the extend of the holocaust and argued the the 2005 London 2005 tube bombings were perpetrated by 'western security agents' working for 'Zionist masters'.

UCL Dismissed Kollerstom arguing that 'The views expressed by Dr Kollerstrom are diametrically opposed to the aims, objectives and ethos of UCL, such that we wish to have absolutely no association with them,'.

Dennis Hayes, of Academics for Academic Freedom, argued that Dr Kollerstrom should not have been fired. He said 'No matter how absurd people's views are they should be allowed to express them. They should not be turned into martyrs,'.

Tom Hickey criticised Hayes for his position arguing that 'Holocaust denial is a justification of what happened,' he added 'None of the Holocaust deniers genuinely believe it didn't happen.'

BNP Teaching Controversy

In November 2008 the membership list of the BNP was leaked to the press and on the list were details of the occupation of some of the members. The details of higher education were included on the list and this led to calls for a ban on BNP members in teaching positions. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), said that 'primacy of freedom of speech is fundamental', however adding that 'It is hard to see how institutions can reconcile their duty to promote good race relations with staff being members of the BNP. Institutions may therefore consider that it is inappropriate for BNP members to have teaching and/or pastoral care responsibilities, or other direct contact with students,'.

Dennis Hayes of Academics for Academic Freedom disputed this view arguing that it would constitute 'an improper restriction of a democratic right ... and a new stage in the attack on academic freedom'. He added 'These people have not said or done anything - they are being punished for existing'.

AFAF on the academic boycott of Israel

In 2008 Dennis Hayes of Academics for Academic Freedom criticised a series of motions put forward by the UCU union in regards to the boycotting of Israeli academic institutions. Hayes argues that:

Getting individuals to refuse to give a lecture or attend a conference, to mark a dissertation, to reject a paper for a journal, are pointless feelgood activities and a pathetic shadow of what could be real solidarity or support. The boycotters, and often some of the less impressive opponents of the boycott, have not only harmed the development of any real solidarity movement - they have also seriously damaged the defence of academic freedom in Britain, in three ways.

First, the call for a boycott has allowed university vice-chancellors and government ministers to appear to be more concerned with the defence of academic freedom than a union that represents 117,000 lecturers; second, it has added to the political climate of banning and proscribing any ideas you find offensive or just consider to be false; third, and worst of all, it has taken away the unique status of academic freedom as the defining feature of the academy that must be defended, and made it just one more value in a trade-off of values.

He went on to argue that:

The position of UCU should be that all its members, their colleagues and students and their equivalents throughout the world are capable of reason, and people should not be censured, proscribed, banned or boycotted for their ideas but allowed to submit them to their peers and students for open, critical discussion.

The tragedy of the academic boycott campaign is that it is ultimately a boycott of the academy, of academic freedom, and the right of every individual to decide issues through rational debate.

Statement Signatories

A partial list of LM associates who have signed the statement is set out below.

• 1. Professor Dennis Hayes Professor of Education, University of Derby
• 2. Professor Gavin Poynter University of East London
• 5. Professor James Woudhuysen De Montfort University
• 6. Dr Helen Reece Reader in Law, Birkbeck College, University of London
• 9. Dr Stuart Derbyshire ‘Rigorous discussion is the only road to truth’. Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Birmingham
• 13. Dr Shirley Lawes Institute of Education, University of Kent
• 14. Professor Frank Furedi University of Kent
• 17. Dr Chris Gilligan, University of Ulster
• 21. David Bowden University of Exeter
• 25. Colin Searls Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) Faculty of Art. University of Plymouth
• 30. Wendy Earle PhD student, Institute of Education, University of London
• 32. Philip Cunliffe King's College London
• 36 Maria Grasso DPhil Sociology, University Of Oxford
• 39. Dr Philip Hammond Reader in Arts, Media & English London South Bank University
• 40. James Panton Lecturer in Politics St John's College, Oxford Co-founder and Campaigns Director, The Manifesto Club (www.manifestoclub.com)
• 41. Dr Ellie Lee University of Kent ”One of the most important things students can learn at University is how to argue and debate. Campus life seems to now almost entirely lack a culture of debate and argument however. As university teachers, we need to play a part in re-invigorating campuses, and get away from the dull and boring definition of what we do as ‘transferring skills’.”
• 43. Alan Hudson Director, Leadership Programmes for China University Lecturer University of Oxford
• 59. Kathryn Ecclestone Professor of Post-Compulsory Education, Oxford Brookes University
• 65. Dr William Durodie Cranfield University
• 108. Alex Standish Senior Research Fellow St Chad's College, Durham University
• 212. Dr Jim Butcher Canterbury Christ Church University
• 221. Kevin Yuill Senior Lecturer in American Studies, University of Sunderland
• 222. Graham Barnfield University of East London
• 230. Munira Mirza PHD student, University of Kent
• 231. Dr Ken McLaughlin Manchester Metropolitan University
• 234. (and 336.)Dr Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen Reader, Department of Geography, Hull University
• 256. Dr Alex Standish Western Connecticut State University
• 311. Professor John Fitzpatrick Director Kent Law Clinic University of Kent, Canterbury
• 313. Sara Hinchliffe, University of Sussex
• 314. Dr Tiffany Jenkins post grad University of Kent at Canterbury
• 315. Sean Bell MA in Journalism and Society at the University of East London
• 320. James Heartfield University of Westminster
• 321. Dominic Standish University of Kansas/CIMBA Adjunct Professor CIMBA campus in Asolo Italy
• 328. Dr Helene Guldberg Open University
• 349. Claire Fox Director Institute of Ideas
• 354. Patrick Hayes Henley Management Centre
• 373. Alex Hochuli London School of Economics
• 405. Dr Cheryl Hudson Rothermere Institute, University of Oxford & Vanderbilt University
• 411. Michele Ledda Leeds University Aluumnus
• 429. Kenan Malik Author and Senior Visiting Fellow, University of Surrey
• 522 Paul Thomas Sheffield Hallam University Alumnus

AFAF campaigns for the "Right to Offend" and opposes the No Platform for Racists and Fascists policy.

Its campaigns are promoted in other LM entities such as the Battle of Ideas and Spiked.

An offshoot is Student Academics For Academic Freedom.

Affiliations

The Free Society

Contact

Website: AFAF

Facebook: AFAF

Resources

• Dennis Hayes interview with Chris Green, 'I'd invite the BNP to a debate', The Independent, 19-June-2008
• Dennis Hayes, Let extremists have their say in class, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 26-September-2008
• Constantine Sandis, Free Speech Within Reason, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 21-January-2010