Academic freedom is fundamental to higher education. Without it, everyone loses the value created by university educators, researchers and scholars.
“If we aren't free to pursue research and teaching based on wherever the knowledge leads us, we are not truly working in the service of the public,” said Rana Jaleel, an associate professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies and Asian American studies in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis.
In her work as the appointed chair of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, Jaleel plays a key role in defining it and sharing the value it creates for society.
How academic freedom changes and saves lives
Academic freedom protects the rights of university faculty to pursue and discuss all relevant topics and ideas in classrooms, lecture halls and labs. It is at the foundation of one of the most powerful and fundamental ideas about universities: they produce knowledge that is beneficial to society without the need for immediate profitability.
“It's not about predetermining the outcome,” said Jaleel. “It's about allowing as much debate as possible to produce the best knowledge possible.”
Jaleel cited the discovery of lead in the water in Flint, Michigan, which saved people’s lives. When pediatrician and University of Michigan professor Mona Hanna heard about water quality issues in the city, she conducted an analysis that found elevated levels of lead in children’s blood samples after the city’s water source was changed. This discovery saved lives.
University research also helped to drive our achievements in space travel. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory dates to the 1930s, when California Institute of Technology professor Theodore von Kármán oversaw the nation’s first experiments with rocket propulsion. This research drove the space race of the 1960s and laid the foundation for space programs today.
The Association of American Universities (AAU) recently released a report about the real-world impacts of university research taking place right now. UC Davis is among the five universities that are documenting current research that will have a major impact on the world, from fighting cancer to meeting natural disaster risk to treatments for Alzheimer’s.
“With disciplines like ethnic studies or science that's tied to racial equity or environmental impacts, even if you think some of this research isn't something that you would like funded, attacks on those disciplines themselves open the door to further politicized intrusion into higher education,” said Jaleel.
What is academic freedom in higher education?
Academic freedom protects the ability for faculty and students to explore all avenues of scholarship and for faculty to speak and write about all matters of public concern as well as on matters related to professional duties and the functioning of the university.
Jaleel, who received her J.D. from Yale Law School in addition to her Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University, said that while academic freedom is not always protected by law, there are some first amendment protections in public colleges and universities. In both public and private universities, the academic freedom clauses in faculty handbooks constitute contractual guarantees.
Beyond law, academic freedom is an institutional norm that universities strive to uphold and advance. It is expressly tied to advancing knowledge through disciplinary expertise for the public benefit.
She also said that academic freedom is the condition that makes a university possible. It is the bedrock of a system of research and scholarship in which people with the highest levels of training debate facts and are judged by their peers. Combined with the ability to experiment, collect evidence and information, this rigorous process is what generates the best understanding of our world.
Academic freedom to serve all in American society
Jaleel’s work for AAUP involves creating policy documents and reports that guide how academic freedom applies across a number of situations. As a researcher, Jaleel how social and legal understandings of sexual violence are shaped by racial, imperial and colonial histories. For her work, she was selected a 2022-2025 UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow and 2021-2024 College of Letters & Sciences Dean's Faculty Fellow.
In practice, the need for wide range of perspectives among university faculty is to produce better knowledge and to fill gaps in what is studied. A lack of perspectives among physicians and medical researchers has limited treatments and care for people from some backgrounds as well as for women.
Jaleel said that the question of academic freedom is also providing an education that’s accessible to and that serves everyone in society. Restrictions on what faculty study or what they can speak about never leads to more innovation and discovery, or a more democratic society.
“Universities advance knowledge that serves the public and educates students, preparing them to live in a democracy,” said Jaleel. “To succeed in those missions takes a lot of different kinds of people.”
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