Public universities decide what and how to teach, not professors, federal court rules
A group of Indiana professors can’t challenge the state’s intellectual diversity law, which requires them to teach a range of political and ideological views to be considered for tenure and promotion, a federal appeals court ruled last week, affirming a lower court’s decision.
One of the professors who sued said that he feared that he would be required to teach pro-Israel views.
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Joshua Kolar, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, wrote in the ruling that many students want to get an education in which professors don’t stray from their areas of expertise and assigned courses.
“If plaintiffs are right, colleges that make such promises to students—and their paying parents—are powerless to deliver on them,” the judge ruled. “Faculty may choose to provide tendentious screeds instead, denying their institutions the ability to provide students with a particular kind of educational experience.”
The Seventh Circuit case of McDonald v. Trustees of Indiana University pitted four university professors against their employer. The professors argued that enforcing a provision of Indiana’s education code would chill their free expression.
Senate Enrolled Act 202 requires universities to initiate a policy denying faculty members promotions or tenure if they are found unlikely to teach a range of political or ideological frameworks within their discipline or if they teach political or ideological views outside their discipline.
“It is the business of a university to provide that atmosphere, which is most conducive to speculation, experiment and creation,” wrote Frank Easterbrook, another judge on the court, in a concurring opinion.
“It is an atmosphere in which there prevail the four essential freedoms of a university, to determine for itself on academic grounds who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught and who may be admitted to study,” Easterbrook wrote.
The court ruled that the professors lacked standing to bring their First Amendment claims because the challenged policy gives the university, rather than the professors, authority to determine educational guidelines.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed a lower court's decision, ruling against a group of Indiana professors who challenged the state's intellectual diversity law. This law mandates that professors teach a range of political and ideological views to be eligible for tenure and promotion. One professor expressed concern about potentially being required to teach pro-Israel views. The court determined that public universities, not individual professors, hold the authority to decide curriculum content and teaching methods. Judge Joshua Kolar stated, "If plaintiffs are right, colleges that make such promises to students—and their paying parents—are powerless to deliver on them." The court concluded that the professors lacked standing for their First Amendment claims, as the policy grants universities the power to set educational guidelines.
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