Curriculum Wars and Cold War Politics: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Higher Education

7 Curriculum Wars and Cold War Politics: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Higher Education Karen Lea Riley Auburn University at Montgomery and Barbara Slater Stern James Madison University During the early 1960s, in the formative years of Florida's newest university, the University of South Florida located in Tampa, the Florida Investigative Committee in true McCarthy-era style, set up its "Star Chamber" interviews with students and "others" at local motels near the University. The purpose of these "interviews" was to ferret out information about university administrators and instructors which would point to either their innocence or their guilt in terms of communist party membership, homosexuality, or the teaching of atheism. After an exhaustive process which left the intellectual community on Florida's West Coast shaken and dismayed at what it collectively believed was a misguided mission and waste of taxpayer dollars, academic communities in other university towns throughout Florida responded with outrage over the intrusion of politicians and perceived anti-intellectuals into the "business" of higher education. Some had already run the investigative committee's gauntlet , others likely feared they would follow. In what could have resulted in the sudden demise of the infant university, its leaders and faculty emerged from the experience, not as victors, but rather as survivors of a bitter battle over academic freedom. This study serves to fill the growing body of research on the McCarthy era and its influence on education. It will cover as a case study the entire struggle of the university over the issue of academic freedom and the attempts of "well-meaning" citizens to control what is taught and in what way it is taught at the most sacred of investigative places—the university. Methodology This paper is based on both the Egerton papers, housed in the Special Collections Department at the University of South Florida, and corroborating evidence from the State of Florida Archives in Tallahassee, Florida. The evidence includes more than 1000 papers from these two collections. The methodology employs document analysis, review of secondary sources, and newspaper accounts. In addition to the central issue of academic freedom during the McCarthy era, the story of this university's struggle is also set against the backdrop of academic freedom as a principle of university teaching and learning. Thus, the contest over academic freedom on the USF campus is juxtaposed against experiences on other campuses at other times of political strife and unrest. It also covers the battle lines drawn between those who believed in curriculum control versus those who believed in academic freedom without constraints. The secondary literature consulted for this paper reveals the tone and tenor of such battles, many of which were fought in professional journals. Background to the Issue of Academic Freedom According to Carman (1957), the accepted role of higher education evolved from simple conservation and transmission of knowledge to that of questioning accepted doctrines. Hence, the birth of the university from its medieval origins and its acceptance of Aristotelian philosophy, combined with Church doctrine, gave way to the Renaissance idea that the learner's role was more than that of passive receiver. This newer role was to search for truth and to challenge accepted doctrines, a tradition which can be traced to Abelard's quest to introduce his students to contradictions in church doctrine, which to him, "...should lead to zealous inquiry into truth" (Gutek, 1995, 108). At its most basic, then, academic freedom is the right of educators and students to pursue "truth" regardless of direction. This would include, for educators, the freedom to teach, to think, and to learn without fear of censure or loss of employment. In fact, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), an agency that often speaks for the collective body of the professorate, defines academic freedom as "the freedom to teach and to think," explaining that this freedom benefits the public based on the belief that "the common good and future of society depend on the quest for and advancement of truth" (in Schier, 1982, 331). Education and Culture Summer 2000 Vol. XVI No. 2 8 K. L. RILEY & B. SLATER STERN As simple and obvious as this definition appears, when we review the controversy surrounding the...