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Report: A Growing Number of Faculty Feel Censored

Istockphoto 1014159648 612x612A growing number of faculty say that they find it difficult to have an open and honest conversation on campus about at least one hot button political topic and fear being disciplined for their teaching, research, academic discussions, or off-campus speech.

That’s some of the findings from a newly released report titled, “Silence in the Classroom: The 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report,” by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

About 35% of the 6,269 tenured, tenure track, and non-tenure track faculty surveyed reported  toning down their written work to avoid controversy. FIRE researchers said that this is nearly four times the 9% of faculty who said this when the same question was asked of social scientists in the 1950s.

“The McCarthy era is considered a low point in the history of American academic freedom with witchhunts, loyalty tests, and blacklisting in universities across the country,” said FIRE’s Manager of Polling and Analytics Nathan Honeycutt. “That today’s scholars feel less free to speak their minds than in the 1950s is a blistering indictment of the current state of academic freedom and discourse.”

According to the report, faculty without tenure were more likely to report self-censoring across the board than their tenured peers. But the difference was not vast: Between tenured and non-tenured faculty, there was only a 9-point difference for hiding their political views, and a 5-point difference for likelihood of self-censoring in emails or during classroom discussions.

“Tenure is supposed to be an ironclad promise that a university will defend a professor against backlash from students and politicians alike,” said Komi Frey, director of faculty outreach at FIRE. “The alarming number of tenured faculty who self-censor or fear losing their jobs over their speech suggests many believe their administrations won’t actually have their backs when push comes to shove.”

Faculty reported the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the most challenging topic to have an open and honest discussion about, with 70% experiencing difficulty discussing it.  Racial inequality (51%), transgender rights (49%), and affirmative action (47%) were also at the top of the list. Only about 13% of faculty reported feeling comfortable discussing all 19 of the hot button issues asked about by FIRE.

 

 

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