Entire departments in the University of California (UC) system may be allowed to take political sides in what could be a massive policy change to neutral education institutions, but at least one UC professor is opposed to the idea.
Ethan Miller, a professor of computer engineering at UC–Santa Cruz, told NTD Television that the proposed change in policy could lead to decreased state and local funding, as well as unnecessary divisions among students.
“My reaction when I first saw the policy, and I first found out about it about two weeks ago, was shock,” Miller said.
“There are both educational and legal reasons why the University must remain politically neutral,“ the chancellors wrote at the time. ”Educationally, the pursuit of truth and knowledge is only possible in an atmosphere of freedom, and if the University were to surrender its neutrality, it would jeopardize its freedom. Legally, Article IX, section 9, of the State Constitution provides in part that ‘The University shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence and kept free therefrom in the appointment of its regents and in the administration of its affairs.’”
However, in an October 2021 letter, the University Committee on Academic Freedom proposed to the UC Assembly of the Academic Senate that university departments be allowed to issue and endorse political statements. The committee wrote in its proposal that department statements won’t be representing the universities.
“Our conclusion is that, while such statements are sometimes ill-advised and have the potential to chill or intimidate minority views, departments should not be precluded from issuing or endorsing statements, so long as a) such statements make clear that they are not intended to represent the views of the University as a whole and b) allowances are made for minority views to be expressed in some reasonable fashion,” the letter reads.
The letter also noted that others have argued that restricting the ability of departments to make or endorse statements “would itself violate the academic freedom and/or free speech of faculty members in these departments.”
Miller believes that each professor has a right to his or her own opinion on political issues. He cautioned that if an entire department issues or endorses a specific political position, it could lead to more serious consequences.
“If a department says something, you can’t say, ‘Oh, but it’s just those two people.’ No, it’s the whole department, and that’s the big difference. That’s what I want to make very clear—that it is not individuals that are an issue,” he said.
Students could potentially feel threatened if an entire department endorses a specific position on a political issue, according to Miller.
“If I as an individual say something about Ukraine, and a Russian student says, ‘Well, I don’t agree with that,’ they can either discuss it with me or just avoid me. But if a department takes a position on Ukraine, now a Russian student might feel threatened taking a class in that department,” he said.
Miller also noted that university staff and colleagues could feel similarly threatened.
“Or a colleague, perhaps a colleague from Russia, might feel threatened by the department’s stance, and that’s particularly important if it’s a colleague who happens to be a junior faculty member without tenure,” he said. “Or a visiting lecturer or non-tenure-track professor, this can be a problem for those people ... and it could mean that they have to shut up because the department said something.”
“I don’t want to see that happen at the University of California, where the legislature decides, ‘We don’t like your department’s politics; we’re going to defund you,’” Miller said. “But they did exactly that.”
Conversely, he said private schools, such as Stanford, are allowed to make political statements since they’re privately owned. It’s different for public schools, which are funded by taxpayers.
The University of California is the overarching system in charge of 10 schools: Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
The UC Board of Regents didn’t respond to NTD’s request for comment by press time.
