The University will host a panel discussion on academic freedom and faculty political affiliation March 1, weeks after a Duke Conservative Union advertisement ran in The Chronicle alleging a lack of intellectual diversity among Duke faculty.
Since the advertisement ran, campus has been abuzz with debate about the role of politics in the classroom and the extent to which students may feel restricted in their course work by their professors' ideologies.
"The DCU raised a really interesting question with their advertisement, and the provost thought to put together faculty from a broad range of the political spectrum and political affiliations to discuss the issue," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations.
Monday's panel discussion--"The Politics of Academic Freedom: Does Political Affiliation Matter?"--will be held at 8 p.m. in room 130 of the Sociology/Psychology Building. Provost Peter Lange, who selected the panelists, will moderate the discussion.
Panelists will include law professor William Van Alstyne, a constitutional scholar on free speech and academic freedom; University Counsel David Adcock, an expert on tenure rules and processes; Political Science Department Chair Michael Munger; Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Affairs Cathy Davidson; and Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences William Schlesinger, who is also a longtime member of the University's Appointments, Promotions and Tenure Committee.
"The provost picked a good group of people for this discussion," Burness said, noting that the panelists come from different schools within the University and that a number of them have been involved in faculty selection processes outside their own departments by serving on the APT committee. "They are all very, very thoughtful, and none of them are bashful."
Senior Madison Kitchens, executive director of DCU, said the panel discussion was a step in the right direction because it would help generate further dialogue on the issue. "Being mute on the subject certainly is not preferable to actually having people debate the matter," he said.
Kitchens noted, however, that Lange's choice of panelists may be "merely another manifestation of precisely the problem we're talking about."
"If you actually look at the scheduled panelists--I think there's a lone Republican, three Democrats and one independent--you can see it's already skewed in one direction," he said. "You might come away from the panel with a different view from what the actual dynamic on campus is."
Burness said he believed the panel would give a full sense of the various forces in play in the debate and that students concerned about potential bias in the panel may be in for a "very surprising discussion."
William Chafe, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Avery Reaves, Duke Student Government vice president for academic affairs, are organizing a second panel discussion, to be held during one of the first two weeks back from spring break. Reaves said the panel would probably discuss freedom of expression in the classroom.
"The faculty panel is a good idea because academic [freedom] is something we all need to explore," Reaves said. "Having a panel strictly for students is the logical flipside to that. Students need their own event where they feel free to speak their minds--where they can say what they have to say about how they feel about the classroom experience."
He added that while the panelists have not yet been selected, they would probably include a representative from DCU, a panelist from the opposite end of the political spectrum and two panelists with more moderate views.
Chafe said he expected high attendance at both panel discussions.
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