Academic freedom at Brigham Young University

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In a 1971 speech to a BYU faculty group, Martin B. Hickman, then the dean of BYU's College of Social Sciences, argued that the decision to join the BYU faculty reflected an acceptance of the values of the university and thus anyone who joined the faculty with this proper mindset would not have any academic freedom issues while there.Ernest L. Wilkinson, ed., Brigham Young University: The First 100 Years. Vol. 4, p. 63

In 1992, BYU drafted a new Statement on Academic Freedom.{{cite web |url=http://www.byu.edu/fc/pages/refmapages/acadfree.html |title= Statement on Academic Freedom at BYU|website=www.byu.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060826205013/http://www.byu.edu/fc/pages/refmapages/acadfree.html |archive-date=August 26, 2006}} After receiving comment from faculty and others, the document was implemented on September 14, 1992. This document specified that: "Because the gospel encompasses all truth and affirms the full range of human modes of knowing, the scope of integration for LDS scholars is, in principle, as wide as truth itself."{{cite book|title=1999-2000 Undergraduate Catalog|date=Fall 1999|publisher=BYU|pages=xvii-xx|url=https://archive.org/stream/undergraduatecat19981999brig#page/n17/mode/2up}} However, citing BYU's role as a religious institution, the document allowed limitations to be placed upon "expression with students or in public that:

1. contradicts or opposes, rather than analyzes or discusses, fundamental Church doctrine or policy;
2. deliberately attacks or derides the Church or its general leaders; or
3. violates the Honor Code because the expression is dishonest, illegal, unchaste, profane, or unduly disrespectful of others.

"...The ultimate responsibility to determine harm to the University mission or the church, however, remains vested in the University's governing bodies—including the University president and central administration and, finally, the board of Trustees."

Also in 1992, BYU began including a clause in its faculty contracts requiring Latter-day Saint faculty to "accept the spiritual and temporal expectations of wholehearted Church membership". In 1993, contracts further required Latter-day Saint faculty to "maintain standards of conduct consistent with qualifying for temple privileges"{{cite web|url=http://ce.byu.edu/ed/edweek/form1.pdf |title=BYU Division of Continuing Education |publisher=Ce.byu.edu |access-date=2010-05-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517074103/http://ce.byu.edu/ed/edweek/form1.pdf |archive-date=2011-05-17 }} (referring to entry into LDS Church temples, for which one must meet standards of activity and behavior in the LDS Church). In 1996, Latter-day Saint faculty were required, as a condition of employment, to obtain the yearly endorsement of their local ecclesiastical leaders certifying that the faculty were temple-worthy.

BYU does not allow off-campus groups to use the campus for protests or demonstrations. On-campus groups and students must apply for a permit.{{cite news|last=Walsh |first=Tad |title=Y. campus protests to be rather decorous |work=Deseret Morning News |date=2007-04-04 |access-date=2007-04-04 |url=http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660208720,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070406211426/http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0%2C1249%2C660208720%2C00.html |archive-date=6 April 2007 |url-status=dead }}

In 1996, the Northwest Association of Schools and of Colleges and Universities (Northwest Association) reviewed BYU's academic freedom statement and renewed its accreditation. The Northwest Association specifically approved BYU's academic freedom statement. Such accreditation standards permit "religious colleges and universities to place limitations on academic freedom so long as they publish those limitations candidly." THE ISSUE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM: AN INTERVIEW WITH JIM GORDON [http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=664] In addition, the Northwest Association investigated "almost all" of the allegations that the AAUP had asserted regarding other individuals, concluding that the university had not violated academic freedom.

BYU's academic freedom policies have been criticized by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). In 1997, they issued a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120921091553/http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/27EB0A08-8D25-4415-9E55-8081CC874AC5/0/Brigham.pdf report] documenting the cases of several professors, concluding "that infringements on academic freedom are distressingly common and that the climate for academic freedom is distressingly poor."{{cite web |url=http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/27EB0A08-8D25-4415-9E55-8081CC874AC5/0/Brigham.pdf |title=Academic Freedom and Tenure: Brigham Young University |access-date=2010-07-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921091553/http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/27EB0A08-8D25-4415-9E55-8081CC874AC5/0/Brigham.pdf |archive-date=2012-09-21 |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal|last1=Adams|first1=Jonathan|title=Repression at BYU|journal=Secular Humanist Bulletin|date=Spring 2007|volume=23|issue=1|url=https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/3435}}

The AAUP report also contained, as an appendix, a response authored by the BYU administration, which argued that BYU had the right to limit academic freedom in order to preserve the religious character of the school, a right implied by a 1940 AAUP statement and generally followed until 1970. In particular, BYU compared itself to Gonzaga University, a Jesuit institution which prohibited "open espousal of viewpoints which contradict explicit principles of Catholic faith and morals."

BYU also stated that the academic freedom judgement process lacked transparency and objectivity. The AAUP's decision remained, however. In 1965, the AAUP had stated that "satisfactory conditions of academic freedom and tenure now prevail at Gonzaga."{{cite journal | last = McConnell | first = Michael W. | author-link = Michael W. McConnell | title = Academic Freedom in Religious Colleges and Universities | journal = Law and Contemporary Problems | publisher = Duke University School of Law | volume = 53 | issue = 3: Summer 1990 | issn = 0023-9186 | date =October 1990 | pages = 303–324 | doi = 10.2307/1191799 | jstor = 1191799 }}

In 1970, the AAUP had adopted a statement of Interpretive Comments in which the AAUP had stated, "Most church-related institutions no longer need or desire the departure from the principle of academic freedom implied in the 1940 Statement, and we do not endorse such a departure".{{cite web|last=Hardy |first=Lee |url=http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2006/JF/Feat/hard.htm |title=The Value of Limitations |publisher=Aaup.org |access-date=2011-01-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517051447/http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2006/JF/Feat/hard.htm |archive-date=2011-05-17 }} In 1998, the AAUP voted to censure BYU, which remains on a list of censured institutions together with 46 other universities.{{cite web|url=http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/censuredadmins/default.htm |title=Censure List |publisher=AAUP |access-date=2011-01-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222211527/http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/censuredadmins/default.htm |archive-date=22 December 2010 |url-status=dead }}

The AAUP's refusal to accommodate religiously affiliated institutions of higher learning in connection with desires to protect religious traditions in line with its own 1940 statement - in contrast to that accommodation by the Northwest Association - has been criticized.

Soon after adopting their statement on academic freedom in 1992, BYU took actions which some have viewed as related to the implementation of the new academic freedom policy. For example, in late 1992, BYU's board of trustees vetoed without comment a BYU proposal to invite Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard University professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, an active feminist, to address the annual BYU Women's Conference.Wilson, Robin. (March 24, 2006). "A Well-Behaved Scholar Makes History." The Chronicle of Higher Education. v. 52 (29), page A12. [http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i29/29a01201.htm] Since that time Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has been invited and spoken at BYU including as recently as 2017.https://mi.byu.edu/ulrich-lecture-2017/

In some cases since 1992, BYU has dismissed, denied continuing status, or censured faculty members who have taken critical positions relating to official LDS Church policy or leadership, as well as those who for personal reasons did not pay a tithe to the LDS Church.

In 1993, BYU revoked the continuing status to Cecilia Konchar Farr, who had publicly advocated a pro-choice position on abortion. Farr was hired as an English instructor and some felt her positions of pro-choice were irrelevant to her assignment with the school. David Knowlton, who had discussed the church's missionary system at an independent Mormon forum, as well as making disparaging remarks about LDS architecture did not have his contract renewed. Officially, BYU spokespeople generally framed the actions in the cases of Farr, Knowlton, and Houston as relating to the quality of the professors' scholarship, and sometimes to unspecified misbehavior, rather than the controversial content of the affected professor's academic activities.{{cite news |url = http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=664 |title = The Issue of Academic Freedom: An Interview with Jim Gordon |work = BYU Magazine |date = Winter 1997}}

In 1996, BYU dismissed Gail T. Houston, an English professor, despite positive votes from her English Department and the College Committee. One of the reasons for this action was her advocacy of prayer to Heavenly Mother.[http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2008/09/byu-in-the-memory-of-the-aaup/ Times and Seasons peace on removal of Houston] Also in 1996, professor Brian Evenson resigned in protest after receiving a warning from BYU administration over some violent images in one of his short stories. Nevertheless, some critics viewed these dismissals as a kind of purge. Some of the professors dismissed for academic reasons claim that their publishing credentials were stronger than many of their colleagues.

In 2006, part-time faculty instructor Jeffrey Nielsen's contract was not renewed after he wrote an op-ed piece in the June 4 Salt Lake Tribune which criticized and opposed the LDS Church's stance on same-sex marriage.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061302010_pf.html |title=Washington Post |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2006-06-14 |access-date=2011-01-24}} Darron Smith, an African-American, taught a course called "The African American Experience" from 1996 to 2006, when his adjunct faculty contract was not renewed.{{cite news |last1=Mueller |first1=Max Perry |title=Is Mormonism Still Racist? |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/03/mormon-church-and-racism-a-new-controversy-about-old-teachings.html |work=Slate Magazine |date=2 March 2012 |language=en}} According to Smith, his termination was a direct response to his criticism of how the LDS Church has treated black people.{{cite web |title=022-024: Black and Mormon - The Darron Smith Story |url=https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/mormon-stories-022-023-and-024-black-and-mormon-the-darron-smith-story/ |website=Mormon Stories|date=30 March 2006 }}

In 2011, BYU placed physics professor Steven E. Jones on paid leave in connection with an internal investigation that a paper he authored on the causes finding that the World Trade Center towers fell on 9/11 because of pre-set explosives might not have met "scientific standards of peer review" and his failure of "appropriately distancing himself" from the university in his statements regarding his explosive theory.{{cite web|url=http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650200587,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061103100717/http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0%2C1249%2C650200587%2C00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 3, 2006 |title=BYU professor in dispute over 9/11 will retire |publisher=Deseretnews.com |date=2006-10-22 |access-date=2011-01-24}} Mr. Jones accepted early retirement while the investigation was in its early stages.

In February 2012, Randy L. Bott made controversial racial statements that appeared in The Washington Post where Bott pointed to a passage in Mormon scripture that suggested to him that Cain's descendants were marked with dark skin and were prohibited from holding the priesthood. These statements were censured or condemned by BYU Administrators and the LDS Church and the Professor retired from BYU shortly thereafter.{{citation |url= https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/race-church |title= Official Statement {{ndash}} Race and the Church: All Are Alike Unto God|work= Newsroom (mormonnewsroom.org) |date= 29 February 2012|publisher= LDS Church |access-date= 2013-08-22}}{{citation |url= http://universe.byu.edu/2012/02/29/professor-didnt-follow-university-media-policy-when-speaking-with-washington-post/ |title= Washington Post article on black priesthood ban spurs concern, outrage: Professor didn't follow university media policy when speaking with newspaper |first= Kate |last= Bennion |date= February 29, 2012 |newspaper= The Daily Universe |access-date= 2013-08-22}}{{citation |url= http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765555339/LDS-Church-condemns-past-racism-inside-and-outside-the-church.html?pg=all |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121022001906/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765555339/LDS-Church-condemns-past-racism-inside-and-outside-the-church.html?pg=all |url-status= dead |archive-date= October 22, 2012 |first= Joseph |last= Walker |date= February 29, 2012 |title= LDS Church condemns past racism 'inside and outside the church' |newspaper= Deseret News |access-date= 2013-08-22}}

In 2021, the Salt Lake Tribune noted the tension between faith and scholarship (such as openly teaching evolution), and how the LDS Church now calls for a retrenchment which BYU professors fear.{{cite web | first=Peggy | last=Fletcher Stack | title=Can BYU serve two masters: faith and scholarship? | website=The Salt Lake Tribune | date=7 September 2021 | url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/09/07/can-unique-byu-really-be/ | access-date=16 September 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917044128if_/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/09/07/can-unique-byu-really-be/| archive-date=17 September 2021| url-status=live}}

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• [https://policy.byu.edu/view/index.php?p=9 Current version] of BYU's statement on academic freedom

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Category:Brigham Young University

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