Regents vote this week on academic freedom policy

The University of Colorado Board of Regents is set to vote Friday on policies defining academic freedom and freedom of expression.

The regents are scheduled for a twoday board meeting Thursday and Friday at the Anschutz Medical Campus, which will include presentations from potential executive search firms for president Bruce Benson’s replacement Thursday and a vote on the policy changes Friday.

The new policies, if approved, will take effect Jan. 1 and will outline for the first time how CU defines and differentiates between academic freedom and freedom of expression.

“There has been a fair amount of dispute around the country about freedom of speech on college campuses and a misunderstanding about how it is that freedom of expression occurs on a college campus versus in a classroom,” said Pat rick O’Rourke, CU vice president of university counsel and secretary to the Board of Regents. “We recognized that there was enough going on nationally that it made sense for us to address this before we had a dispute.”

Academic freedom applies to teaching and research activities, “the stuff that takes place in the classroom,” O’Rourke said. The policies outline academic freedom as the principle of free inquiry and discourse. For faculty, it pertains to their ability to study, learn and conduct scholarship and creative work within their discipline. For students, it pertains to their course discussion and assignments and scholarly work.

Academic freedom does not allow protests in the classroom, because it is an environment dedicated to teaching, O’Rourke said. He gave the example of a student enrolled in a course about climate science. The student could not cite a dis belief in the science and refuse to write an essay on it, O’Rourke said.

The university had not previously defined academic freedom for students, and the policies would not only do that, but also enact policies and procedures to investigate student claims that their academic freedom had been violated, O’Rourke said.

Freedom of expression applies to speech outside the classroom by university community members on their own time, O’Rourke said.

The board also will consider changes related to the faculty tenure evaluation process, though one policy change related to tenure criteria was put on hold until the next regent meeting to allow for further discussion with faculty, O’Rourke said.

The regents are scheduled to recess into executive session all day Thursday. The public portion of their meeting is scheduled 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Friday.