On Academic Freedom

Last semester, I was set aback by the letters that kept on coming in the student council office. They were individual letters from the different RLE groups in the third year containing concerns addressed to the president of the student council. Later on, I’ve learned that these letters had been set as a “requirement” in one particular subject. Some arguments mentioned in the letters seemed sound and feasible yet some are just too ridiculous to be implemented. I wish not to comment further on the suggestions. Yet, one question that made people raise their eyebrows is the fact that those letters were even made as a “requirement.” It would only serve either purpose: to help the student government better themselves or to ignite a black propaganda by encouraging fault finding in the incumbent government. I wish to believe it was the former.

This made me think on whether this activity can be considered valid, as justified by the academic freedom of professors, or not.

"Academic Freedom", as defined by Britannica Online Encyclopedia is the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure. It includes the freedom of teachers to inquire into any subject that evokes their intellectual concern, to disseminate and teach the information and the conclusions gathered by the scholar without control or censorship. This freedom is also upheld by the Philippine Constitution as it was stated on Article XIV Section (2) that “Academic freedom shall be enjoyed in all institutions of higher learning.” Therefore, all universities are covered and academic freedom is made available to every student and professor.

According to Russel Kirk, an American political theorist, Academic Freedom includes the promise to “guide and awaken the students but not indoctrinate them”. This presupposes that students should be the ones to reach their own conclusions and determine their own opinions based on their own independent thinking. We go back to the “requirement.” It must be a good exercise in the part of the students to apply the lessons in class to their student government. I find this exercise very refreshing to stimulate some mental workout although requiring it to be passed to the student council (who wasn’t even informed of such activity) can be in a way considered as indoctrinating them. Students must be given a choice whether they would like to pass the letters or not. I was talking with some student leaders from the third year and some verbalized that they were quite hesitant to pass their works. One even shared that their RLE group recognize that some of their suggestions are inappropriate as their proposals must be in line with the thinking of a certain philosopher assigned to them.

Former UP President Vicente Sinco (1984) once emphasized that academic freedom, aside from being an individual right, is also an institutional right. As such, the university’s jurisdiction still covers on the four essential freedoms, which are to determine: (1) who may teach; (2) what may be taught; (3) how it shall be taught; and (4) who may be admitted to study.

Therefore academic freedom, like all other freedoms, is not absolute. It is still grounded on the policies of the university as an institution. Like other freedoms, it goes hand-in-hand with responsibility. It can be said that, although professors have the right to explore subjects on what they deem is important in their subject matter; they are still bound to work towards fostering the students' education, aligning their teachings towards the legitimate pedagogical goals of the course that they're teaching them.

As a self-governing body, a student government exists to provide additional learning that cannot be gained from didactics alone. It is through this mean where leadership skills of the students are developed as the virtues of responsibility, accountability, and decisiveness outflow. With this, I remembered my high school's philosophy, “Seipsum Facit Persona” (Man Makes Himself). It recognizes that through the right interrelationship between the child, the adult and the prepared environment, the students will become self-developing and productive members of the society One factor that is believed to be needed in this system is independence, through which the learner is expected to learn from their own experiences while being guided by the teacher. Metaphorically speaking, this system of learning is like having an MS Word without the autocorrect feature. It does not correct the learner as he types, allowing the one to discern his mistakes by himself so as to serve a long term benefit.  In relation to this, mentors to the student leaders must take a less active role by guiding but not dictating; influencing but not controlling, channeling all the experiences to the development of the student government.  

The relationship of the students with their mentors are never abused for one’s vested interest. Since the mentor may be a professor or an academic official, he or she should not take advantage of his or her position by introducing topics that are clearly outside the scope. As Dr. Esther Garcia, President and Chief Academic Officer of the University of the East (UE), would say in the January 2007 issue of UE Today, the professor, as the students’ intellectual guide should be an “epitome of utmost integrity, impeccable scholarship and high standard of professionalism”. Now, if the requirement still has that tiniest possibility to pass as “within the scope,” the professor must evaluate if the requirement is really necessary based on the possible outcomes.

Or, just like in the case of the professor involved in the news that I've heard, he or she should ask himself or herself a question: Would the requirement lead to a better student government or just a futile move as a flamebait?

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The author would like to express gratitude to Mr. Jan Robert Go, a Teaching Associate from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, for allowing me to borrow the sources from his thesis on Academic Freedom and for sharing his valuable insights regarding the topic.