DrWebUniversity of North Carolina moves to define academic freedom – Asheville Citizen-Times
EDUCATION
UNC System moves to define academic freedom, battles profs union
By Clayton Henkel, NC Newline, Asheville Citizen Times, Jan. 30, 2026, 6:04 a.m. ET
The UNC Systems’ Committee on University Governance gave an initial nod Wednesday to a formal definition for academic freedom.
“Academic freedom as a concept is included in our code and has been for some time,” explained Andrew Tripp, UNC System’s senior vice president and general counsel. “What has been lacking is a definition of academic freedom for both faculty and students.”
Tripp said university leadership identified that gap over a year ago and tasked the chair of UNC’s Faculty Assembly and others to work out a consensus definition that could govern how university campuses operate.
“It does a couple of things — that definition defines [academic freedom] in words that our faculty assembly have provided, but it also talks about what academic freedom is with concrete examples and where it applies most pointedly to protect the classroom and course development, research, and scholarly inquiry,” Tripp said.
The proposed policy also defines what academic freedom isn’t, which is important to acknowledge, Tripp told members of the Board of Governors.
“I think it’s a good balance of what the responsibilities we have are and what the opportunities we have are, because academic freedom is critical to us using our expertise to do the teaching and research the faculty are supposed to do,” Maki said.
The policy defines academic freedom as “the foundational principle that protects the rights of all faculty to engage in teaching, research/creative activities, service, and scholarly inquiry without undue influence. It ensures that faculty can freely pursue knowledge; express, discuss and debate ideas; and contribute to knowledge and understanding related to their areas of expertise.”
The policy further states that faculty have the rights and responsibility to determine “pedagogical strategies, instructional materials, evaluation methods, and classroom discourse that supports student learning” provided those methods align with professional standards.
But the policy also cautions that academic freedom is not absolute.
Under the policy, faculty are expected to exercise academic freedom that falls “within the parameters established by academic disciplines, professions, and in compliance with institutional policies and rules.”
Other guardrails spell out that academic freedom does not permit instructors to teach content “clearly unrelated” to the course description or to use university resources for political or ideological advocacy.
The North Carolina State Conference of the American Association of University Professors says that proposed revisions to the policy differ considerably from language adopted in the UNC Faculty Assembly’s Resolution on Academic Freedom back in October 2025. What started as six lines defining the limitations of academic freedom last fall mushroomed to 35 lines when presented this week.
“That’s a really big increase, and that increase was not done in a way that was presented with shared governance, but that increase was done with very little faculty input over the holiday break when very little faculty were even available to weigh in,” said Annelise Mennicke, a AAUP member and associate professor in the School of Social Work at UNC-Charlotte.
Attorneys for NCAAUP say the list of parameters effectively weakens the historical scope of academic freedom.
“Much of the language in the Resolution and proposed additional language is also vague and, therefore, risks creating an academic environment that is inconsistent with principles of academic freedom and free speech articulated by the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit,” NCAAUP attorneys write in a January 26 letter to the UNC System.
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