What Is Academic Freedom: An Exchange of Memos

218 RMMLA Bulletin WHAT IS ACADEMIC FREEDOM: AN EXCHANGE OF MEMOS September 23, 1968 TO Members of the Faculty Council: FROM: Thurston E. Manning, Vice President for Academic Affairs At its meeting on Thursday, September 19, the Faculty Council requested that there be circulated to the Faculty the texts of the Rules of the Regents dealing with . . . academic freedom, as those texts have recendy been revised by the Board. In the text below, deletions from the previous wording have been indicated by italicizing the deleted words; additions to the previous wording have been indicated by placing THE ADDITIONS G? CAPITAL LETTERS. Article X, Section C: academic freedom. The University of Colorado was created and is maintained to afford to young men and women a liberal education in the several branches of literature, arts, sciences, and the professions . These aims can only be achieved in that atmosphere of free inquiry and discussion which has become a tradition of universities and is called academic freedom. Academic freedom requires that the faculty must have complete freedom to study, to learn, to do research, and to communicate the results of these pursuits to others, however such freedom carrtes its equivalent in responsibility to the university, the state, other members of the faculty, the students, and to currently accepted codes of behavior and morality. The students likewise must have freedom of study and discussion. The fullest exposure to conflicting opinions is the best insurance against error. September 25, 1968 TO: Dean Manning FROM: Henry Pettit The change to Art. X, Sec. C of the Rules of the Regents leaves me wondering who is to judge what constitutes "currendy accepted codes of behavior and morality." Would the Regents be willing, for instance, to say whedier or not a reference to artificial methods of birth control, which might very well arise in a class in literature, might be a violation of the intent of the article as it now stands? I can think of many other matters on which I would expect to have differences of opinion, but it would help to have this example settled. September 30, 1968 TO: Professor Pettit FROM: T. E. Manning In answer to your direct question (whether the Regents would be willing to say whether a reference to artificial methods of contraception might be a violation of the intent of the additions to the "academic freedom" section of the Rules of the Regents), my response is that I doubt very much that they would be willing to make any statement on the subject. My personal opinion is that such reference would not violate either letter or spirit of the section, since such methods are not only in regular use, but are within the statutes of the State of Colorado. A more interesting problem might arise in connection with discussions of homosexual practices (which might also arise in discussions of literature), since these are prohibited by the statutes (where they are delicately described only by the phrase, "the infamous crime against nature" [Sec. 40-2-31, Colorado Revised Statutes, Annotated, 1963]). The subject, of course, is a Wilde one. The additions are open to the charge of vagueness; but so are longstanding other parts of the article: "The students, also . . . have equivalent responsibility for study and learning.'' I assume that a student who does not accept this responsibility is unlikely to be charged with breaching academic freedom. ...