Academic Unfreedom, Unacademic Freedom: Part One of Two

Part One of an essay. Following the uproar over free speech at Middlebury College, legal scholar Adam Sitze parses the difference between the first amendment protections for free speech, and the university’s responsibility for academic speech. Drawing heavily on historical documents, legal precedent, and Constitutional law, Sitze makes the case for a standard of academic rigor that preempts utterly “free” speech in an institutional space. He addresses the question, “Is the college responsible for promoting free speech or academically sound speech?”