Today's edition of Inside Higher Ed has an article about academic freedom at religiously affiliated universities. Their example school is Azusa Pacific University. One of the graduate schools of Azusa Pacific is the Haggard School of Theology, which is one of In Trust's member institutions.
Read the article here.
As far as I know, academic freedom is not a hot-button issue at most theological schools. But I think Azusa Pacific's board has acted with wisdom and foresight by looking at academic freedom in light of the institution's mission. This moves the focus from “threats to academic freedom” to “what are we as a school trying to accomplish?”
Incidentally, I'm not impressed with the quotations from the director of the AAUP's Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance. Perhaps in editing his comments, Inside Higher Ed has misrepresented him. But he sounds petulant to me, rather than appreciative of the concern that Azusa Pacific has shown for balancing what might be seen as competing goals — academic freedom vs. the mission of a self-consciously Christian institution of higher learning.
