| This dissertation explores the development of academic freedom and tenure in American higher education from the initial meetings which led to the formation of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) through its endorsement of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Rather than focus exclusively on the AAUP, however, this dissertation examines the approaches and activities of a group of educational and related organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers, the Association of American Colleges, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Progressive Education Association. Each association attempted to define and protect faculty rights in the highly contentious period and, significantly, each acted in relation to other interested organizations amidst concerns over unionization, professionalization, and civil liberties. The interactions of these groups, their efforts to work together, and their competition with each other influenced understandings of academic freedom, the defense of faculty rights, and the codification of modern policies designed to protect educational liberty. This dissertation argues that the modern codes which delineate academic freedom and tenure were the product of these interactions and demonstrate a gradual conditional agreement on the part of mainstream faculty and administrators.; After examining the national scene, this dissertation explores the local experience of academic freedom through a case study of the University of Michigan and supporting evidence from other institutions in the state. The campus incidents and events point to the personal nature of many of the threats to academic freedom and professorial security. Certainly, national political and economic concerns were implicated in faculty experiences but so too were state and local politics, personal animosities, and individual jealousies. Large national issues, including anti-German zealotry during World War I and communist paranoia in ensuing years were important, yet not determinant. The case studies demonstrate the complex interactions and conflicting roles that influenced the existence and experience of academic freedom for individual instructors and professors. The historical development of academic freedom represents both national norms and potentially problematic institutional behaviors. |
