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Consti 2 - Academic Freedom
Consti 2 - Academic Freedom
Academic Freedom
ARTICLE XIV EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ARTS, CULTURE AND SPORTS EDUCATION Sec 1. The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all. Sec 5(2) Academic freedom shall be enjoyed in all institutions of higher learning.
A. Academic Speech Students and junior professors (considered neophytes in the field) suffer real punishment for speech deemed inadequate by the masters. Compared to general civil society where the 1st Amendment opposes prior and subsequent restraint based on determination if the speech is valuable or not. The First Amendment value of academic speech rests on its commitment to truth (however partially understood by the discipline), its honesty and carefulness, its richness of meaning, its doctrinal freedom, and its invitation to criticism. society ought to strive towards speech that is truthful. Academic freedom resembles other free expression values insofar as it protects the individual scholar's point of view; it is distinct insofar as it protects those structures that permit the individual scholar to engage with others in collective scholarship B. Student Speech and Extracurricular Political Activity
BYRNE article: ACADEMIC FREEDOM: A SPECIAL CONCERN OF THE 1ST AMMENDMENT J. Peter Byrne I. INTRODUCTION
The First Amendment protects academic freedom but there has been no adequate analysis of what academic freedom the Constitution protects or why it protects it. Lacking definition or guiding principle, the doctrine floats in the law. Authors definition of academic freedom: non-legal term referring to the liberties claimed by professors through professional channels against administrative or political interference with research, teaching and governance. Of constitutional academic freedom: essence is the insulation of scholarship and liberal education from extramural political interference insulate the university in core academic affairs from state interference II. FIRST AMENDMENT ON CAMPUS
The term "academic freedom" should be reserved for those rights necessary for the preservation of the unique functions of the university, particularly the goals of disinterested scholarship and teaching. First Amendment rights w/c should not properly be a part of constitutional academic freedom: 1) no recognized student rights of free speech are properly part of constitutional academic freedom, because none of them has anything to do with scholarship or systematic learning (e.g. wearing of armbands, demonstrations, etc.) while the Constitution affords students at public institutions extensive civil rights, it affords them no rights of academic freedom at all. 2) the right of a professor to participate in political activity off campus and on her own time without institutional reprisal should not be viewed as a matter of constitutional academic freedom academic freedom should be understood to include only rights unique or necessary to the functions of higher education; exist as a necessary incident to university's commitment to the pursuit of truth and the controvertibility of dogma.
Concern is only with the substantive protection of academic freedom by the 1 st Amendment isolating which has been difficult because 1) courts have used legal doctrines not based on academic freedom to protect liberties of professors and students; 2) courts have declined to recognize a constitutional shield for many forms of classroom speech that seem at first blush to implicate general principles of free expression. Central paradox: The institutional right seems to give a university the authority to hire and fire without government interference those very individuals apparently granted a personal right to write and teach without institutional hindrance. Nonetheless, this paradox should be seen as neither collateral nor embarrassing; academic discourse benefits from the tension between the independence of a scholar's judgment and the university's evaluation of her professional competence.
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Tenure
Tenure is not equal to academic freedom but it promotes academic freedom since it requires public airing of explicit and categorically neutral reasons for dismissal. does not protect academic freedom of
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The structural elements that would give shape to academic freedom were established early: legal control by non-academic trustees; effective governance by administrators set apart from the faculty by political allegiance and professional orientation; dependent and insecure faculty.
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Professional Standard
Competence
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Higher education began to be seen as scientific training for practical jobs rather than moral training of gentlemen for elite professions. The change is usefully, if simple-mindedly, expressed as a movement from a paradigm of fixed values vouchsafed by religious faith to one of relative truths continuously revised by scientific endeavor. Changes in the structure enlarged the status of the faculty now highly-trained professionals. Yet low salary and uncertain tenure remained They were no longer dependent on the will of clergymen but answerable to businessmen. Academic freedom became rallying cry for professors seeking more control over their professional lives. C. Development of the Concept of Academic Freedom
The integrity of academic freedom depends on the good faith of the professorate and on its collective ability to distinguish between scholars who disagree with accepted findings and those who do not understand them. what defines competence? When this question arises trouble develops. Without agreement about basic paradigms, competence loses much of the neutrality that might ordinarily be assumed, as there may be no shared criterion for evaluation.
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Concurring opinion of Justice Frankfurter in Sweezy: university freedom for teaching and scholarship without interference from government is a positive right and that the state here had failed to provide a compelling justification for questioning an academic about the content of a lecture 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 Three significant oddities about the plurality and concurring opinions in Sweezy: 1) never before had the Court suggested that academic freedom was protected by the 1 st Amendment. 2) Frankfurters decision looks solely to non-legal sources to describe the contents of acad. freedom 3) Although the content of acad. freedom was drawn from non-legal sources, they praised acad freedom by stressing the social utility of free universities. Sweezy endowed the new constitutional right of academic freedom with a legacy of triumphant rhetoric but also with an ambiguous description of the relationship between academic custom and positive legal right. The Court's decision not to ground its ruling on a positive right of academic freedom, moreover, presaged the Court's refusal to give this right the
Problem was the interference by the lay board of trustees or regents. Professors demanded that no ideological test be applied and evaluation done by professional peers. The American concept of academic freedom emerged from this ideological and practical conflict between academic social scientists and their lay employers. American Assoc. of University Professors (AAUP) insisted on a clear distinction between speech that was academic and that which was merely political or sectarian. AAUPs vision of academic freedom: 1) noble vision of the academic calling; 2) eliminates gravest evils of lay control over universities; 3) concept of peer review according to professional standards.
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Also in other cases, Barenblatt and Keyishian, the Court's use of rhetoric to define the content of academic freedom increases the ambiguity already created by basing the case's holding upon vagueness. However, despite their analytical shortcomings, Sweezy and Keyishian contributed substantially to the virtual extinction of overt efforts by non-academic government officials to prescribe political orthodoxy in university teaching and research.
Academic freedom is described by Frankfurter not as a limitation on the grounds or procedures by which academics may be sanctioned but as "the exclusion of governmental intervention in the intellectual life of a university." Justice Stevens' concurring opinion in Widmar v. Vincent represents both a refreshing acknowledgment that universities must and should distinguish among speakers on the basis of the content of their speech and a pioneering inquiry into which university administrative decisions the First Amendment should protect. Thus, core academic administrative decisions-determining who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who may be admitted to study-cannot be interfered with by civil authorities without impairing the unique virtues of academic speech. When judges are asked to review the substance of a genuinely academic decision, such as this one, they should show great respect for the faculty's professional judgment. Plainly, they may not override it unless it is such a substantial departure from accepted academic norms as to demonstrate that the person or committee responsible did not actually exercise professional judgment. Academic Abstention It describes the traditional refusal of courts to extend common law rules of liability to colleges where doing so would interfere with the college administration's good faith performance of its core functions. The recognition of authority over internal affairs and the exclusion of judicial governance go hand in hand; they amount to a substantial degree of common law autonomy. Institutional academic freedom can be viewed as academic abstention raised to constitutional status, so that judges can consider whether statutes or regulations fail to give sufficient consideration to the special needs or prerogatives of the academic community. State Constitutional Law The tradition of constitutional autonomy for state universities seems to have contributed to the development of the federal right of institutional academic freedom. At a minimum, it confirms the persistence of the view, inherent in academic abstention, that civil authorities ought to respect the special needs and values of universities, even when erected and supported by the state.
Freedom
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the
Faculty and students at state universities enjoy extensive substantive and procedural constitutional rights against their institutions while faculty and students at private institutions enjoy none. Thus, the state action doctrine mandates judicial enforcement of constitutional liberties against institutional infringements for half the nation's academics and denies it to the other half for reasons which, if desirable at all, are very far removed from the realities of academic life The Proper Scope of Judicial Intervention Courts seem entirely ill-equipped to resolve these disputes. Asked to protect the academic freedom of a candidate denied tenure by faculty vote, a court would need to determine what, in fact, are the requirements for tenure, whether the candidate met the requirements, and whether the faculty rejected the candidate for some non-academic reason. Such an inquiry, backed by the coercive power of the state, would put the department or school into intellectual receivership, with the court determining the appropriate paradigms of thought. Courts then should only ascertain if the administrators can establish that they in good faith rejected the candidate on academic grounds. The Court has come to limit the judiciary's role to excluding non-academics from imposing ideological criteria on academic decision-making, while refusing to impose substantive limits on academic administrators who in good faith penalize faculty for academic speech V. CONSTITUTIONAL ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE PROTECTION OF INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY
While the right to institutional academic freedom has arisen at the time in our history when universities have been most subject to federal regulation, no federal regulation has been invalidated under the right. As in Sweezy and Keyishian, the new turn in academic freedom has flowered in dicta and rhetoric more than in holdings and rules
FACTS: Defendant, Paul Sweezy, was convicted of contempt for failure to answer questions asked by the Attorney General of New Hampshire In 1951 a statute was passed by the New Hampshire legislature to regulate subversive acts. In 1953, legislature adopted a joint resolution authorizing the attorney general to make full and complete investigations with respect to violations of the subversive activities act of 1951 which includes among others authorizing him to act upon his own motion and upon such information as in his judgment may be reasonable or reliable. o Statute defines a person to be subversive if he, by any means, aids in the commission of any act intended to assist in the alteration of the constitutional form of govt by force or violence.
Sweezy was summoned to appear on two separate occasions in 1954 under suspicion of subversion in connection with the membership of his wife in the Progressive Party, an article he wrote wherein he affirmed that he styled himself as a classical Marxist and a socialist, and a lecture he delivered on March 22, 1954 for a humanities course at the university. Petitioner answered most of the questions but declined to answer certain questions about his knowledge regarding the Progressive Party in his 1st appearance and about the lecture he delivered and his opinions or beliefs in his 2 nd appearance stating only that he hat never been a member of the Communist Party. Because of his continuous decline to answer he was cited in contempt.
ISSUE: W/N the investigation deprived Sweezy of due process of law under the 14th Amendment HELD: Yes. It is recognized that the right to lecture or associate are civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution but they are not absolute rights. o In this case, it is believed that there was an unquestionable invasion of the petitioners liberties in the areas of academic freedom and political expression areas in which the government should be extremely reticent to tread. To impose any strait jacket upon the intellectual leaders in our colleges and universities
Concurring opinion of Justice Frankfurter: Whether the Attorney General of New Hampshire acted within the scope of the authority given him by the state legislature is not for the US SC to determine but is a matter for the decision of the courts of that State. Petitioner as mentioned answered most of the questions asked of him, making it known that he had never been a Communist, never taught the violent overthrow of the Government, never knowingly associated with Communists in the State, but was a socialist believer in peaceful change He refused to answer questions regarding: 1) a lecture given by him at the University of New Hampshire, 2) activities of himself and others in the Progressive political organizations, and 3) opinions and beliefs, invoking the constitutional guarantees of free speech SC stated that: For societys good if understanding be essential need of society inquiries and speculations into the natural sciences, into anthropology, economics, law, etc. must be left as unfettered as possible except for reasons that are exigent and obviously compelling. exclusion of governmental intrusion into the intellectual life of a university. Cites a quote from the Open Universities in South Africa: In a university knowledge is its own end, not merely a means to an end A university is characterized by the spirit of free inquiry, it ideal being the ideal of Socrates to follow the argument where it leads. This implies the right to examine, question, modify or reject traditional ideas and beliefs Freedom to reason and freedom for disputation on the basis of observation and experiment are the necessary conditions for the advancement of scientific knowledge It is the business of a
- technical aspect of admissions: the Chairman of the Faculty Admission Committee of the Loyola School of Theology, which is a religious seminary situated in Loyola Heights, Quezon Cityis in in collaboration with the Ateneo de Manila University, the Loyola School of Theology allows some lay students to attend its classes and/or take courses in said Loyola School of Theology but the degree, if any, to be obtained from such courses is granted by the Ateneo de Manila University and not by the Loyola School of Theology; For the reason above given, lay students admitted to the Loyola School of Theology to take up courses for credit therein have to be officially admitted by the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of the Ateneo de Manila University in order for them to be considered as admitted to a degree program Petitioner in the summer of 1975 was admitted by respondent to take some courses for credit but said admission was not an admission to a
REYES vs. COURT of APPEALS. Medialdea, 1991 FACTS: Respondent-students as then applicants to the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM) obtained scores higher than 70 percentile in the NMAT which was the cutoff score prescribed for academic year 1986-1987 by the UPCM Faculty in its meeting of January 17, 1986 as approved by the University Council (UC) on April 8, 1986. However, their scores were lower than the 90 percentile cut-off score prescribed by the UPCM Faculty in its meeting of October 8, 1986 effective for academic year 1987-88. Upon appeal of some concerned Pre-Med students, the BOR in its 996 th resolution reverted to the NMAT cut-off score of 70 percentile.
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DECS vs. SAN DIEGO. Cruz. The basic issue of the case is whether or not a person who failed the National Medical Admission Test (NMAT) thrice, in violation of the three-flunk rule, is entitled to take it again. FACTS: Roberto Rey C. San Diego is a graduate of the University of the East with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Zoology. He took the NMAT THREE times and flunked all of them [Court found that he actually failed FOUR times a misplaced persistence like a hopeless love]. When he applied for the FIFTH time, the DECS and the Director of Center for Educational Measurement rejected his application on the basis of the three-flunk rule: MECS [Minister of Education, Culture and Sports] Order No. 12, Series of 1972: A student shall be allowed only three (3) chances to take the NMAT. After three (3) consecutive failures, a student shall not be allowed to take the NMAT for the fourth time. San Diego went to the RTC to compel his admission to the test. Through a petition for mandamus, he invoked his rights to academic freedom and quality education. He also raised the issues of due process and equal protection. By agreement of the parties, he was allowed to take the NMAT. RTC declared the Order invalid because it deprived San Diegos of his right to pursue a medical education through an arbitrary exercise of police power. Angles of the Case : 1. MECS Order No. 12 creating the three-flunk rule is a valid exercise of police power. - In Tablarin v. Gutierrez, which upheld the constitutionality of the NMAR in limiting the admission to medical schools to those that initially proved their
2. Right to quality education is not absolute - While every person is entitled to aspire to be a doctor, he does not have a constitutional right to be a doctor A person cannot insist on being a physician if he will be a menace to his patients. If one who want to be a lawyer may prove better a plumber, he should be so advised and advised. - San Diego must yield to the rule and the fact that there are other people who are more prepared than him, considering the crowded medical schools that we have today.
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The petition was denied by the RTC and the NMAT was conducted and administered. It was noted that the petitioners were not able to present a case of unconstitutionality strong enough to overcome the presumption of constitutionality. Angles of the case: 1. Section 5 (a) and (f) of Republic Act No. 2382 , as amended [Medical Act of 1959], and MECS Order No. 52, s. of 1985 do not violate the provisions of the 1987 Constitution presented by the petitioners.
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ALCUAZ vs. PSBA Justice Paras: FACTS: Students and some teachers of PSBA rallied and barricaded the school because they wanted to admin to hear their grievances with regards to not being able to participate in the policy-making of the school, despite the regulations set by the admin with regards to protest actions During the regular enrollment period, petitioners and other students similarly situated were allegedly blacklisted and denied admission for the second semester of school year 1986-1987. court ordered the school authorities to create a special investigating committee to conduct an investigation, who made recommendations which the school adopted a lot of procedural crap, petitioners respondents filing and answering complaints and the
petitioners claim that they have been deprived of due process when they were barred from reenrollment and for intervenors teachers whose services have been terminated as faculty members, on account of their participation in the demonstration or protest charged by respondents as "anarchic" rallies, and a violation of their constitutional rights of expression and assembly. Petitioners allege that they have been deprived of procedural due process which requires that there be due notice and hear hearing and of substantive due process which requires that the person or body to conduct the investigation be competent to act and decide free from bias or prejudice.
ISSUE: A. Whether or not there has been deprivation of due process ? B. WON there was contempt of Court by the respondents HELD: A. NO. there was no deprivation of due process.
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5. The right of the school to refuse re-enrollment of students for academic delinquency and violation of disciplinary regulations has always been recognized by this Court Thus, the Court has ruled that the school's refusal is sanctioned by law. Sec. 107 of the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools considers academic delinquency and violation of disciplinary regulations vs as valid grounds for refusing reenrollment of students. The opposite view would do violence to the academic freedom enjoyed by the school and enshrined under the Constitution. Court ordinarily accords respect if not finality to factual findings of administrative tribunals, unless : 1. the factual findings are not supported by evidence; 2. where the findings are vitiated by fraud, imposition or collusion; 3. where the procedure which led to the factual findings is irregular; 4. when palpable errors are committed; or 5. when a grave abuse of discretion, arbitrariness, or capriciousness is manifest. investigation conducted exhaustive and adequate. was fair, open,
.B. No. The urgent motion of petitioners and intervenors to cite respondents in contempt of court is likewise untenable. 1. no defiance of authority by mere filing of MOR coz respondent school explained that the intervenors were actually reinstated as such faculty members after the issuance of the temporary mandatory injunction. 2. respondent school has fully complied with its duties under the temporary mandatory injunction The school manifested that while the investigation was going on, the intervenors-faculty members were teaching and it was only after the investigation, that the recommendations of the Committee were adopted by the school and the latter moved for the dismissal of the case for having become moot and academic
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