David H. Turpin is president emeritus of the University of Alberta and University of Victoria and the former vice-principal academic at Queen’s University. Anne Bailey is the principal of Anne Bailey Communications and Strategy and a former director of executive communications at the University of Alberta.. We fear that the hyperpolarization of American politics has arrived on Canadian campuses. These issues, and many more, have played out in very public ways in recent months and years.
We contend that the friction points between these three values can explain many of the contentious issues that have emerged at universities today. Yet, to explain almost everything, you need to consider one other factor: money. Ultimately, however, to fulfill its core mission, the university must strive to protect its independence and autonomy. Otherwise, freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression are constrained.The first circle in the Venn diagram contains freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression, two separate but related concepts. Freedom of inquiry is at the core of academic freedom and is a right that an institution grants to faculty.
Complicating this picture is the second circle of the diagram: intellectual integrity. This is about academic responsibility, the flip side of academic freedom. In theory, this value is an easy one to fulfill. As a student or faculty member, you should not cheat. You should not fabricate results. You should not plagiarize, and you must be transparent in all your dealings.
Challenges arise when safe spaces for people are conflated with safe spaces for ideas; a person’s ideas should not be protected from vigorous debate.