General counsel is asking the University of Arkansas System to consider adding collegiality to the list of things for which to fire a tenured professor, a very, very bad idea, Lindsay Marchello writes.
The vagueness in U of A’s and ONU’s policies is the crux of the danger to academic freedom, leaving plenty of room for administrators to oust professors who don’t fall in line with their beliefs. These policies encourage homogeneous groupthink and disincentivizes professors from exploring different perspectives in academia. Daring to dissent should not be a reason to fire a professor.
Having a separate provision for collegiality only serves to stifle academic freedom. If universities are serious about fostering a healthy environment for learning then they should heed the advice of the AAUP and FIRE and ditch “collegiality” policies.
Punishment based on the subjective whims of administrators only further traps universities in a bubble of their own creation.
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