For the past 64 years, Fairfield University has educated many students through its Jesuit-based curriculum. Its Catholic nature has fostered a spiritual atmosphere on campus, though it has assumed independence from Fairfield’s liberal arts curriculum.
Until recently, the terms “Jesuit” and “university” had stood together in unquestioned unison. Last year, however, after the cancellation of the same sex marriage forum, several issues were raised about the university’s academic freedom guidelines. Immediately following the controversy, the Student Handbook was revised to include specific statements about the inability of the university to hinder any academic freedom.
This year’s handbook includes clearer policies on the university’s stance on freedom in terms of speakers and co-Sponsorship in clubs and organizations.
The Speaker Policy of the Student Handbook, for example, states that “the university does not require that student organizations or events provide alternate viewpoints to those that are expressed in a single event or program… The recommendation is consistent with the goals of an academic institution dedicated to developing critical thinkers, who are trained to weigh all views before committing to a particular set of beliefs, mores, or opinions.”
The Academic Freedom Committee has devised a document listing a number of additional recommendations to Universiry President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx about how the university may reform some policies, in the interest of student affairs.
The recommendations for faculty suggest that education is to be provided without any limitations as long as it remains respectful to the “Catholic commitment of the institution.” All ideas and traditions are to be welcomed with justice, truth and freedom as “academic freedom and responsibility are here defined as the liberty and obligation to study, to investigate, to present and interpret, and to discuss facts and ideas concerning all branches and fields of learning.”
In regard to students, the recommendations address the freedom that students should have in terms of inquiry and expression.
They should be allowed to express their views freely without any limitations as well, as the institution is of an academic nature. They are to be allowed the “freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and right of petition that other citizens enjoy and, as members of the academic community, they are subject to the obligations which accrue to them by virtue of this membership.”
The document goes on to state that it is the duty of faculty to ensure students that the university will not inhibit any “intellectual and personal development of students.” The faculty should be able to communicate their expectations regarding the conduct of students as long as it does not interfere with academic curiosity.
Students should be allowed to organize and join any associations to acknowledge any interests or questions, without bound. In sum, they should be “free to support causes by orderly means which do not disrupt the regular and essential operations of the institution.”
If approved, the soonest these recommendations will be implemented will be in time for the 2006-07 Student Handbook, though this is still tentative. Until then, the question of the university and its stance on academic freedom is a “growing pain,” according to Paul Lakeland, Chair of the Academic Freedom Committee. It has become the university’s attempt to balance both education and religion with appeal to a diverse student body.
The question of what it means to be a “Catholic university” has sparked as a result of this controversial issue.
“If it were a catholic university,” says Derek Morin ’09, “I would expect it to be more open, but being one of about 27 Jesuit Universities, some values must be sustained. It’s a precedent that other things can be built upon.”
“I want to see that type of education on campus if it is part of the Jesuit ideal to be a complete citizen, to see both sides of the situation,” says Jessica Fields ’09.
Furthermore, the goal of the committee is to establish academic freedom not only in terms of freedom of speech or expression, but also in terms of freedom of exposure to varying viewpoints and to the entire scope of education without constraints.
“At times, academic freedom is misunderstood as freedom of speech or freedom of expression,” said Mark Reed, Dean of Student Affairs and a member of AFC. “Those latter terms refer to constitutional rights in the public sector. Academic freedom means something very unique to the academy.”
Although the recommendations of the committee may appeal to the student body on a whole, it is necessary to consider the foundation of this institution.
“The exchange of ideas and the encouragement of the pursuit of truth” is crucial to a university, and nothing in the word ‘catholic’ can contradict this fact,” said Lakeland. “Through these recommendations, the committee attempts to achieve a complete liberal arts education, taking into account the set of values that its Catholic affiliation entails.
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