Vote on AHA Free Speech Resolution is Nine Days Away

The members of the American Historical Association will soon have a chance to send a powerful message that they oppose the use of speech codes to restrict academic freedom.

In an article for HNN, Ralph E. Luker, one of the sponsors, sends a reminder to those historians who opposed a previous resolution linking speech codes and the Academic Bill of Rights as twin threats to academic freedom but volunteered to support a targeted resolution on speech codes.

All AHA members can vote at the business meeting which Saturday, January 6, 2007 in the Hilton Atlanta's Fulton/Cobb Rooms beginning at 4:45 p.m. Here is the resolution:

RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE USE OF SPEECH CODES TO RESTRICT ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Whereas, The American Historical Association has already gone on record against the threat to academic freedom posed by the Academic Bill of Rights;

Whereas, Free and open discourse is essential to the success of research and learning on campus;

Whereas, Administrators and others have used campus speech codes and associated non-academic criteria to improperly restrict faculty choices on curriculum, course content, and personnel decisions; and

Whereas, Administrators and others have also used speech codes to restrict free and open discourse for students and faculty alike through such methods as"free speech zones" and censorship of campus publications; therefore be it

Resolved, That the American Historical Association opposes the use of speech codes to restrict academic freedom.