The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has accomplished much in 2011 despite a turbulent first six months. (See UW Oshkosh Today for an archive of stories chronicling faculty, staff and student achievement). It is hard to imagine a more challenging year for our state, our UW System and our campus.
However, when challenges have arisen, we have always faced them head on and used the occasions as teachable moments. UW Oshkosh has made a practice of shining a light on, not shying away from, controversies.
In 2000, a threat to defund and, ultimately, censor the student newspaper prompted an enlightening and conciliatory campus forum on the necessity of a free press. In 2006, UW Oshkosh debated and debunked 9-11 conspiracy theories. Students scrutinized a controversial, guest speaker’s allegation that the U.S. government plotted the nation’s worst terrorist atrocity. Students, faculty and staff screened a related film and led a community forum discussing what compels some people to believe preposterous things. In the last decade, our university has also examined instances of racist graffiti, homophobic bullying and hate speech on campus with equal openness and vigor. We have done all this while enhancing academic excellence, experiencing historic program and enrollment growth and furthering our reputation as a regionally and nationally regarded institution. (See our 2009-2010 Strategic Plan Update & Annual Report).
In keeping with our commitment to seize upon teachable moments, we are fully prepared to address issues raised in this tumultuous year that have led to a state and national atmosphere of uncertainty, divisiveness, distrust and vengeance.
In 2011, historic protests over budget proposals mandating deep sacrifice from our state institutions and public employees, including our UW Oshkosh faculty and staff, engulfed the state Capitol. What we saw and heard in the media appeared largely civil. However, a recent newspaper report detailed shadowy threats of violence targeting our Governor and some legislators. That incivility must not be ignored or tolerated, nor should vilification and vindictiveness targeting public workers, including those at our UW campuses.
Substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations of public sector employees (including UW System employees) engaged in inappropriate personal political activities in the last few months have brought this divisiveness to our campuses. While we might disagree on the severity of the penalties meted out for instances of public workers’ inappropriate behavior, we can all agree on this: Wisconsin is, collectively, stuck in an era of recall, recount and rancor, and it doesn’t feel good.
So, how do we escape this unhealthy environment? What can our campus do to examine these new controversies and help all of us move beyond this climate of incivility?
The goals
Today, after consulting our institution’s shared governance and administrative leaders, I am volunteering UW Oshkosh to do its part to help improve the atmosphere. We will work with UW System staff to design a workshop reexamining and rededicating our campus to three important goals:
- Making greater commitment to civility within the campus community.
UW Oshkosh and the UW System co-launched this component in February when the “Civility in Everyday Life” workshop conference was hosted here. The public discourse of the last year around the nation, in Wisconsin and at UW Oshkosh is further proof that the fundamental concepts of listening, and learning to appreciate diverse views through open, honest debate and communication, must be reinforced. It starts by modeling the way in the classroom. (UW Oshkosh’s civility efforts were spotlighted in USA Today on April 25: “Civility a teachable moment on campuses”). Our Civility workshop highlighted “difficult dialogue” tools such as “Start Talking,” a product of university leaders in Alaska, and Rutgers University’s campus-wide initiative, “Project Civility.” Each offers a structure to bring the civility conversation to our faculty, staff and students.
- Reaffirming our understanding of and commitment to the principle of academic freedom, exercised responsibly.
Given the budgetary proposals that have so personally affected our outstanding faculty and staff at UW Oshkosh, it is right that we readdress, understand and appreciate the lack of “black and white” guidelines governing academic freedom, exercised responsibly. There are far more shades of gray.
What must be made clear is that academic freedom is a two-part principle. It protects and empowers our professors’ freedom to teach, conduct research and collaboratively engage students on the issues of the day. It also honors students’ freedom to learn. When that definition is understood, the result is a free exchange of ideas and knowledge. The classroom becomes a model for society — an unbiased, open-minded, inclusive environment where everyone’s informed opinion is welcome.
With freedom, comes responsibility. The highly-regarded American Association of University Professors (AAUP) acknowledges this, advising professors they “should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject” and that “they should remember the public may judge their profession and institution by their utterances.” As I recently noted in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ “Public Purpose” magazine, AAUP is also careful to point out “academic freedom is a special form of free speech that requires reasoned inquiry, intellection honesty and scholarly competence.”
As an institution, we must openly discuss and clarify the gray areas, understand the boundaries and examine scenarios of when, for example, a professor crosses the line and allows his or her personal political ideology to inappropriately interfere with students’ academic freedom to learn. Likewise, it is important to understand that students have responsibilities in the classroom, from being prepared to respecting professors’ intellectual property rights. This is a conversation our workshop will also plan to extend to our broader community, opening a door for citizens and elected leaders to share their perspectives.
- Bringing the discussions of civility and academic freedom into the context of allowable vs. inappropriate political activity on campus.
There are important questions, especially in this toxic atmosphere, facing every UW System campus:
- How can academic freedom, exercised responsibly, harmonize with the ethics and rules governing faculty, staff and student political activity?
- How do these guidelines apply to all forms of electronic communication, such as email or social media?
- What are the appropriate consequences for inappropriate action?
These and other questions require our attention. The shared values in our democracy – free speech, privacy, academic freedom, exercised responsibly, and intellectual property rights – are threatened when technological advancement outpaces the development of standards governing its appropriate use. All this work will take on even greater weight this summer and fall, as 2012’s state, Congressional and presidential elections test the ethical and civil resolve of our campus community. We have no wish to silence appropriate, balanced classroom discussion of political issues and policies or discourage the many opportunities for candidate forums and responsible political events that will develop at UW Oshkosh in the months and year ahead.
As an outcome of this component of our campus workshop, I am proposing UW Oshkosh partner with UW System staff in a review and possible update of its “Guidance on Political Campaign Activities at University of Wisconsin System Institutions.” We need to make sure this policy is up-to-date for the Information Age, is clear to those it governs, and neither jeopardizes academic freedom nor inhibits inclusive and balanced discussion of political issues and policy in the classroom. The Wisconsin Idea implies that this is one of the most fundamental responsibilities our university has to the citizens of the state. We will build on the ongoing successes of our UW Oshkosh American Democracy Project, our innovative Civic Engagement minor and our other efforts ensuring all students receive a solid civic education so they can be engaged community participants and leaders.
Next steps
I am proposing that, in June, UW Oshkosh administrative, faculty, staff and student leaders would work with UW System staff to develop an agenda for this summer’s workshop. I have consulted with UW System President Kevin Reilly. He strongly supports this initiative and has agreed to provide necessary assistance.
After the workshop is fully designed, the campus deans, department and division heads, supervisors and shared governance leaders will participate in the first series of sessions. After that round of workshop meetings, I would task these leaders of our university community to work with employees, ensuring each of our 1,700 faculty and staff understand UW System policy on political activity, have a voice in the dialogue on academic freedom exercised responsibly, and play a role in further weaving our Civility workshop concepts throughout campus.
In this way, by fall, UW Oshkosh would be better prepared to face the challenges of 2012 head on.
Our campus community will rededicate and redouble our efforts to show Wisconsin citizens, exhausted by the toxic atmosphere of recall, recount and rancor, that they can count on us to work with others, help change the threatening state and national conditions that exist today and move us all forward.
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