Should Scholars be Fearless or Fearful? Public Perceptions of Academic Freedom

• In Event: Truth Under Siege: Science in an Era of Executive Power

Abstract

Academic freedom is a defining characteristic of universities, where faculty and students should be able to pursue, discover, and share new knowledge without external influence. Questions relating to the academic freedom of individual scholars and the autonomy of universities have become increasingly prominent in the discourse surrounding higher education in the United States. Presently, the University of North Carolina (UNC) System is implementing sweeping reforms aimed at curbing academic freedom, including claiming ownership of course syllabi and a formal systemwide stance that academic freedom is not absolute. Despite this new, heightened attention, public opinion on academic pursuits remains underexplored. This paper addresses that gap by analyzing a survey of North Carolinians (n = 1,000) which included a feeling thermometer to measure how the public evaluates academic freedom. Correlation coefficients indicate strength of republican identification and frequency of church attendance are both negatively correlated with feelings about academic freedom, while civic engagement, having a public water supply, education, and income have positive correlations. Race, gender, and age are not significantly correlated. Regression models indicate education and civic engagement over the past year have significant, positive slopes with the thermometer. Moving politically toward the republican party and church attendance frequencies are significant, negative predictors of academic freedom favoritism. Income, race, gender, and age do not have significant slopes. A multigroup regression that splits the sample into democrats and republicans shows that political party affiliation moderates several associations between the dependent variable and multiple independent variables. Overall, these findings suggest that public sentiment about academic freedom is structured less by demographic characteristics than by political orientation, religiosity, and engagement with civic life. Scholars have consistently reported that restrictions of academic freedom signal democratic backsliding; this project contributes a timely engagement of the public’s warmth toward academic freedom in a politically contested state.

Author

• Brock Ternes, University of North Carolina-Wilmington